Look, I won’t be voting for Santorum no matter what. Accept that up front. But I expect someone playing at this fucking level to at least have the basics down. But in the past month he’s apparently worked hard on alienating these voting blocs:
Latinos (Gotta speak English to be American)
Women (Contraception? Women don’t need that!)
Users of porn (essentially most of the damn Internet)
People who understand the constitution (a minority, I know, but c’mon!)
For God’s sake. At this rate Herman Cain will have a better chance of being the nominee and he’s withdrawn and a flake.
I’ll give him credit for holding firm for his beliefs. Those beliefs are crazy, but he seems a lot less interested in changing them to suit other people than the typical politician (outside of Ron Paul).
None of those groups are particularly rich in Republican voters. Santorum is trying to get nominated as the GOP candidate, and is pandering to the most likely voters in the Republican Party. It is the dilemma the party has painted itself into for the last three years; candidates have to tack so far to the right to get nominated, they cannot plausibly pivot back to the center to court independents and moderate democrats after the nominee is chosen. Whoever is nominated is going to get hammered with the over-the-top right-wing purity oaths they swore to during the primaries.
He most likely honestly believes that a majority of people think like he does. Or if they don’t, then he has to show them the error of their ways. Either way, he wouldn’t stop saying what he thinks and trying to put them into action.
Latinos make up a pretty large portion of the electorate in the Puerto Rico Republican primary, though, which was where he was and what he was campaigning for when he made the English as official language statement.
Puerto Rico is something like 80 percent Spanish-speaking. It’s also true that Santorum was going to lose their anyway, but he certainly stepped in it.
I’ve already posted my opinion. Santorum isn’t really trying for the 2012 nomination. He’s setting himself to be the front-runner for the 2016 nomination.
The big problem with the Conservative/Tea Party message to themselves is the belief that if they truly expouse and hold to their “true conservatism”, the country will follow, and they will win.
The scary part for the rest of us is that in some areas of the country, this is a winning strategy.
The bad news for these people is that it won’t carry the country as a whole.
I don’t get why people say this. Whether or not there is a federal law mandating that English be the main language is not a matter of personal opinion, it is a matter of fact. And in fact, what Santorum said is false. I can’t say if he is lying or just wrong, but either way, making false statements is not simply stating one’s beliefs.
He knew he had no real hope here, so he was not pitching to us. He was pandering to the hardcore RW stateside by heading for Puerto Rico and going on the record saying that. So his supporters would be all *“Hell yeah, Rick! Tell 'em to get off welfare and talk Amurcan! Why do we even let Pwartou Ricah, wherever the hell that is, have a primary anyway?” *
And I will grant that maybe he plans to pass a law making English the national official language, BUT I think he’d find it hard to impose a Federal Mandate for “English-Only” upon the* individual* states.
He has since “clarified” that we would still speak Spanish at our homes, in the street, at our private businesses, but that English must become the “principal” language of education and government. Not much of an improvement.
Yes, but, the only one of those which is a Republican primary voting bloc is women. And any woman who is a Pub in the first place probably just nods at that shit.
Santorum appeals to one kind of voter, the insane conservative. The only way to even stay in the race is to keep saying insane conservative bullshit. He probably knows he can’t win, but he does have a chance of preventing Romney from winning either, at which point anything might happen.