The Neo Barbarians

This is the last of my four commentary’s on the would-be Republican nominees.

Rick Santorum is both very interesting and very pedestrian, and I think his campaign is very important for America, not because he has any chance to become President, but rather as what is likely going to be the passing of an era.

From my perspective Rick Santorum is a throwback to another time, and another era in the American electorate. From his rhetoric I take him to be a well-intended and committed Catholic Christian. He has a very positive record on support for things like AIDS prevention programs in Africa. From all I can discern he is a decent man who truly believes in making the country a better place for all Americans.

That being said, I think he is out of touch with the America of 2012 and operates under the influence of rose colored glasses as he looks to the past for guidance on the future. He is only four years older than I and was profoundly impacted (as was I) by the rise of the Christian political right in the late-1970’s. The Moral Majority, formed in 1979, reflected the unease of an America that believed that the orderly and “moral” world of the 1950’s had been replaced by one of chaos and wide spread disregard for the American values that they believed they remembered. They passionately believed their vision was indeed the majority opinion and thus the name of the origination.

I won’t discuss it now at length, but this memory of a moral past in America is rather like remembering the middle ages in the likeness of King Author’s Camelot. The past that was remembered by Moral Majority voters, and is remembered by Senator Santorum simply never existed. What is important to realize is that many people, like Santorum, truly believe life in the world prior to 1965 was as it is depicted in Leave It to Beaver, or The Andy Griffith Show.

The present is not as pleasant as the past for people like Santorum. For people like this they equate the world of Al Qaeda and the great recession is causally linked to the fact that it is now the norm on prime time TV to have the main characters living with their girlfriend or boyfriend. They believe that teen pregnancy is up due to sexting (when the fact is teen pregnancy is down significantly from 20 years ago). They seek a path to the imagined simplicity of the past.

What they don’t realize is that people like this no longer comprise anything near a majority. They missed my blog posting that declared the culture wars over, and their side had lost. Those under 40 years old have a difficult time even grasping how they see the world, and their ranks of elderly culture warriors are thinning each year. Not only can Rick Santorum not win on the platform of Puritanical Christian morals, he damages the chances of all Republicans by his current success in the primaries.

The Democrats must be enjoying this spectacle of the Republicans self-sabotage their chances to claim either the White House or the Senate in November. There was no reason to resurrect the culture war. Had they stayed on a “national debt” and “we don’t want to be Greece” theme they would have a fighting chance at victory, but at this rate they will certainly keep the White House and might well reclaim the house.

So, though I understand where Rick Santorum is coming from, I could never vote for him.