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Unsolved Mysteries: Why Were Conservatives So Enamored of Rick Santorum?
Forbes ^ | 04/12/2012 | John Tamny

Posted on 04/13/2012 10:18:18 AM PDT by Josh Painter

Rick Santorum dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday. Almost to a column, editorial and news account, the analysis centered on Santorum’s somewhat successful capture of conservative voters.

And there lies the mystery. How could a man seemingly so opposite of conservative have entranced so many voters who label themselves just that?

The easy answer is that as someone who made his religion such a prominent part of his campaign strategy... religious types who tend toward conservatism perhaps felt they’d found their man.

[...]

Indeed, if we ignore for a moment how very anti-conservative it is for any candidate to coddle certain commercial sectors, the simple truth is that to the extent that manufacturing jobs were ever glorious (a big reach on its own considering the proud history of sons and daughters of factory workers moving away from manufacturing locales), the very investors whose capital creates those jobs feel it’s yesterday’s news. That investors no longer value factory work explains why they migrated to China, and why a rising China has begun to similarly shed those jobs. For Santorum to then say he’ll bring them back not only smacks of a controlling, central planning gene, but it also speaks to a candidate divorced from reality in the economic sense. If Santorum were to actually succeed in reducing the manufacturing tax rate to zero, this wouldn’t alter the all-important investor perception of work that is no longer valued from a labor-intensive point of view.

Happily Santorum’s candidacy is in the rear-view mirror. Not so happy, however, is what his candidacy said about the beliefs of conservatives. If Santorum was truly their guy, it seems a movement once animated by the sunny, economically advanced dynamism of Ronald Reagan has taken a giant, impoverishing leap backwards.

(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Philosophy; Politics/Elections; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: 2012election; 2016election; anticonservative; classwar; classwarfare; election2012; election2016; falseconservative; florida; fooledagain; georgezimmerman; gop; notmanager; notreagan; novision; pennsylvania; ricksantorum; rosewaterrickey; santorum; santorumtruthfile; slickrickie; socialconservatives
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts; All

“Because he’s not Mitt Romney.”

Because Rick Santorum was a CONSERVATIVE! Mark Levin said he was one of the most conservative senators in the past 50 years.

And he received an A+ rating from the NRA, and here’s one of the many reasons why:

‘“He [Rick Santorum] was the most effective advocate of bringing it [legislation to protect gun companies from frivolous lawsuits] to the floor and getting a vote scheduled. He used his influence to get it to the floor. Without that, we would have lost every American gun company.”

– Wayne LaPierre, CEO – National Rifle Association, October 25, 2006’

excerpt http://www.ricksantorum.com/defending-2nd-amendment-rights


81 posted on 04/13/2012 10:48:28 PM PDT by Sun (Pray that God sends us good leaders. Please say a prayer now.)
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To: Josh Painter

Each one of the Republican had their 10 minutes of fame. RS just happened to be the latest in the bunch. He was lucky only that his turn was during the primaries. Mitt Romney will be our candidate and it is beginning to be the time to rally behind him

Rick Perry was my first choice Newt was my second choice but, it is not going to happen. We need to get rid of obama, that needs to be our objective.


82 posted on 04/13/2012 10:55:41 PM PDT by Irish Eyes
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To: Josh Painter

Each one of the Republican had their 10 minutes of fame. RS just happened to be the latest in the bunch. He was lucky only that his turn was during the primaries. Mitt Romney will be our candidate and it is beginning to be the time to rally behind him

Rick Perry was my first choice Newt was my second choice but, it is not going to happen. We need to get rid of obama, that needs to be our objective.


83 posted on 04/13/2012 10:56:04 PM PDT by Irish Eyes
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To: All

People, like Rush, who actually did their research, KNEW how conservative Rick is:

“Rush: Santorum is last real conservative still standing
Rush contends that Santorum is winning now because he is the last real conservative still standing and that if the establishment were right, Romney would be winning everything and the race would already be over.

To the question of whether Santorum has ‘broad appeal’, Rush reframes it to “Does conservatism, properly explained, cheerfully proclaimed, have broad appeal?” He says it does every time it’s tried, it’s just that it doesn’t get tried enough. But it is essential to paint the stark contrast to Obama’s policies and Santorum can do it”

http://www.therightscoop.com/rush-santorum-is-last-real-conservative-still-standing/

Too bad Rick didn’t have more money.


84 posted on 04/13/2012 10:57:59 PM PDT by Sun (Pray that God sends us good leaders. Please say a prayer now.)
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To: All

Yesterday, Rick Santorum spoke at the NRA and received a STANDLING OVATION, right in the middle of his speech!

Rick is conservative, and exciting. Too bad winning the presidential nomination has become a rich candidate’s game.


85 posted on 04/13/2012 11:01:32 PM PDT by Sun (Pray that God sends us good leaders. Please say a prayer now.)
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To: TexasRepublic

You have to give a specific citation for anything you think Sarah said.


86 posted on 04/14/2012 7:45:20 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: GeronL
I don't think you are talking about Scozzafava. This took place within the context of a Special Election, not a primary.

In the absence of a primary she was chosen by the 11 Republican county chairmen in that district to run as the Republican nominee.

The rest follows, but it didn't involve a primary, or Republican party officials taking sides, or any of the facts you cite.

87 posted on 04/14/2012 7:53:54 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: Josh Painter

Forbes is not a real Conservative.


88 posted on 04/14/2012 7:54:52 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: OrangeHoof
BTW, the House of Representatives did, in fact, Impeach Billzo.

You probably missed that part.

89 posted on 04/14/2012 7:56:58 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: Reily
Scuzzyflubber ALSO seems to have been a classical FISCAL CONSERVATIVE ~ which most of these union guys are ~ which is why half of them always vote Republican no matter what the top leaders want them to do!

No doubt the locals up there were confused, but at the time she was "right" on the topics of the day ~ although she was certainly wrong about killing babies and that sort of stuff.

10 years earlier she might have got away with it. Reminds me a lot of the character who was Tony's wife in the Sopranos, and not terribly like his ever so leftwingtard sister!

Life imitates art.

90 posted on 04/14/2012 8:02:50 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah
yeah I don't know much about her....all I know is what some local New Yorker GOP’er posted here and what Hoffman said on a blog
91 posted on 04/14/2012 8:07:36 AM PDT by Reily
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To: Reily
Newt discussed the situation in an interview. It's been discussed in magazines and newspapers ~ local and national.

Just like in Virginia, if you operate your primary in a way that no one can run in it you will forever and a day be accused of cheating. The ol'boys in New York sat down together and chose a party hack ~ apparently without finding out what her party was!

Joke's on them.

92 posted on 04/14/2012 8:11:38 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah
BTW, the House of Representatives did, in fact, Impeach Billzo. You probably missed that part.

No, I didn't. It was botched because both Newt and Bob Livingston had affairs of their own they didn't want outed so they lacked zeal in leading the impeachment through the Senate. Livingston fessed up and resigned while Newt kept his secret but was oddly silent about Clinton's crimes toward the middle and latter parts of the impeachment saga. You probably missed that part.

93 posted on 04/14/2012 10:47:09 AM PDT by OrangeHoof (Obama: The Dr. Kevorkian of the American economy.)
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To: Josh Painter

He is not Mitt, he is not Newt, and he has better character.

Easy


94 posted on 04/14/2012 10:53:34 AM PDT by dforest
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To: OrangeHoof

Exactly. You nailed it. I never bought into trying to make Newt something he isn’t. If you go back some years, his recored is awful. That is because he is a big government republican acting conservative now to try and get voters.


95 posted on 04/14/2012 10:57:04 AM PDT by dforest
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To: OrangeHoof
Last i saw was lindsey graham trashing the dickens out of Billzo.

He tagged him out as far as I was concerned. But Democrats have an endless tolerance for utter trash so we didn't have the votes to convict there.

House had nothing to do with that.

96 posted on 04/14/2012 10:57:55 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: joe fonebone

Bingo!


97 posted on 04/15/2012 9:44:41 AM PDT by gogogodzilla (Live free or die!)
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To: Principled
3 posted on Fri Apr 13 2012 12:20:52 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time) by Principled: “ABO and ABR and... they aren’t considering Newt.”

Some of us are not just considering but supporting Newt Gingrich now that our preferred candidate is out.

98 posted on 04/16/2012 12:17:17 PM PDT by darrellmaurina
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To: Kenny

Bleah, stop spewing your lies. Where is this mythical talk of a show on FOX? RINO Roger Ailes just said Newt will never be back on FOX, that’s how much of a GOP establishment a**hole he is. Newt’s out on the campaign trail, still updating his stump speech and just delivered it in North Carolina 2 days ago.

http://electad.com/


99 posted on 04/16/2012 12:59:22 PM PDT by JediJones (From the makers of Romney, Bloomberg/Schwarzenegger 2016. Because the GOP can never go too far left.)
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To: Kenny

Rick’s FIGHT?! LOL! When the going got tough, he dropped out! Some of the evangelical leaders who backed him now say they made a mistake and wish they had backed Newt. Newt is still going all the way to Tampa and has been campaigning in Delaware, North Carolina at at the NRA in Missouri. He said he’s gotten 6,000 new donations since Rick tucked his tail between his legs and scurried home, afraid he would lose Pennsylvania.


100 posted on 04/16/2012 1:02:02 PM PDT by JediJones (From the makers of Romney, Bloomberg/Schwarzenegger 2016. Because the GOP can never go too far left.)
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