Everbody hates Rick Santorum: How the former GOP heavyweight became a political irrelevancy
2016 is heating up. Indiana's anti-gay law dominates the headlines. And nobody is paying attention to poor ol' Rick
MATT ROZSA
As Americans brace themselves for Rand Paul’s just-announced presidential campaign, it is appropriate to take a quick look at the increasing political irrelevancy of another likely candidate, one who less than four years ago nearly wrested the Republican nomination from Mitt Romney.
I refer, of course, to former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), who made headlines earlier this week by coming out in support of Indiana’s “Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” the controversial law that would allow business to discriminate against gay customers — this in spite of the fact that even a large number of Republicans have joined Democrats, independents, and the general business community in denouncing the bill.
Before we explore the connection between Santorum’s stance on gay rights and his waning political star, it’s important to note that for the last 40 years, the heir apparent to the Republican presidential nomination has been the runner-up from previous years’ primaries: See Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bob Dole, John McCain, and Mitt Romney. If that precedent were still in effect, former Sen. Rick Santorum would at the very least rank among the handful of frontrunners. Instead he trails in the single digits, where he has been since the very beginning of this cycle’s polling.
According to the Polling Report, he hasn’t reached 4 percent in more than a year.
The reason for this is as simple as it is monumental: Santorum’s political brand is linked to his staunch opposition to gay rights. Even a decade ago, that might have been enough to at least make him a strong contender in the GOP primaries. Today, however, Americans are moving inexorably in favor of full legal equality for the gay community. This has hurt Santorum considerably and, despite his other political weaknesses (most notably his landslide loss in the Pennsylvania Senate race in 2006), will in and of itself tank his chances at being president.
Even worse for Santorum, Republicans are far less religiously-minded in their politics than they’ve been in the past. While many conservatives are still quick to express ostensible support for using religion to shape government policies, 7 in 10 perceive religion as losing its influence in American life, with secular and/or non-Christian religious beliefs increasing in this country even as church attendance and specific denominational loyalties continue to decline. “Religion in general is not diminishing its social impact, but Christianity specifically is losing its authoritative power across society,” writes Professor Gary Laderman in The Huffington Post. “What we are witnessing today, and what has been especially visible in the past for some time now, is a process of dechristianization (not secularization).” Indeed, as Professor Mark Chaves noted in “American Religion: Contemporary Trends,” even evangelicals are showing signs of shedding exclusionary attitudes and identifying less strongly with their religious background.
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http://www.salon.com/2015/04/09/everbody_hates_rick_santorum_how_the_former_gop_heavyweight_became_a_political_irrelevancy/
