Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Rick Santorum: Not the Anti-Romney

It's Wednesday after the 2012 Iowa caucuses and this morning I caught an hour of Rush Limbaugh insisting that Rick Santorum is not a "big government conservative". Rush was attempting to allay fears that former Senator Santorum is yet another politician positioning himself as a conservative while actually being just another ally of bloated government, proposing new government programs, regulations, etc. in areas where the federal government has little or no Constitutional mandate. That's the charge against Mitt Romney and those paying attention to the post-caucus punditry know that Santorum did quite well and is now poised to be this week's "anti-Romney".

And, we need an anti-Romney. Romney is the neon "I Don't Get It" sign whose annoying, buzzing message is that the GOP establishment learned nothing about how to win elections or its constituents from 2010 and the TEA Party. Romney is this year's McCain, who many of us real, small government conservatives hoped was the last gasp of Republican presidential candidates nominated under the assumption that big government was okay with conservative voters, as long as "our" guy sat in the big chair. But, the epic fail that is big government - unconstrained by the Constitution, common sense, or any sense of fiscal responsibility - is not okay. In 2006 and 2008, voters told the GOP, "You aren't giving us much reason to show up at the polls." Putting another big government Republican statist on the 2012 ticket will result in another painful lesson for the GOP, which doesn't seem to realize that many Republican voters have no enthusiasm for politicians who are clearly just paying lip service to reducing government. Romney is an electoral disaster in a nice suit. If the 2012 Presidential race comes down to voting for one candidate who defends Obamacare or another candidate who defends Romneycare, well... Let's just hope the GOP can hold the House.

But, Rick Santorum? Rick Santorum is not a small government guy. Rick Santorum has a record and it's the record of a big government statist. And, no, I am not talking about his social conservatism. It's true that he's a traditionalist on social issues, for what that's worth. (So much for any hope of peeling away younger voters disillusioned with Obama.) But, the problem with Santorum is that he's also a straight up fiscal "I Don't Get It" statist. As in: Affirmative votes for Medicare Part D, for the "Bridge to Nowhere", for Ted Kennedy's No Child Left Behind, actually co-sponsoring the government-subsidized mortgage downpayment legislation, and so on. So, yes, Rick Santorum is undeniably another big government guy.

Johnson is out. Bachmann is out. Cain is out. Perry is dithering. Gingrich, articulation aside, is an another variation on Romney. Is there no GOP candidate with a record of opposing the expansion of the federal government? Is there no one to whom serious fiscal conservatives and TEA Partiers can look and say, "I am sure my vote for him is a vote for the limited government authorized by the Constitution?" Whatever the answer to that question, it is not Rick Santorum.

1 comment:

Curmudgeon said...

Santorum is not the anti-Romney, but he is still significantly better than Romney.