For the last several weeks, many Republicans have hopped aboard the Rick Santorum ship. With primary wins in Colorado, Missouri and Minnesota, he continues on and is poised to win in Romney’s home state of Michigan.
In a few short weeks, the man has gone from an outlier to a serious contender, placing him at the forefront of American politics. Santorum’s sudden and somewhat surprising sprint for the lead places him in an unusual position of power.
Voters cannot find their groove with Mitt Romney, a situation that looks more and more bleak with each day that passes. As numerous Saturday Night Live skits, and much of the nation, have pointed out, people cannot relate to the guy.
Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich are diligently marching forward, despite generating little more than some teen spirit and a few negative ads, respectively. At this point, neither of these candidates are up to the challenge of taking on Romney.
On the other hand, voters see Santorum, who does not display the same robotic quality Romney does.
His nose hooks slightly to the right, he talks to his kids over national television and he almost never stops smiling. This man, a man of the people, puts on his pants and sweater vest every day – the same as you or I.
He paints the picture that he, Rick Santorum, is in the fields during the harvest, at the manufacturing plants, building America and home every night with the family. He directly contrasts himself with the image of President Obama he has perpetuated: that of an elitist in an ivory tower, looking down upon the citizens of this nation.
He will likely become the choice conservatives can make when they want to put a blue-collar man in the White House.
However, I cannot shake the feeling that Santorum’s vie for the nomination will end badly. I can look past the fact that Santorum will face ballot access problems in states like Indiana. Setbacks like these are not enough to remove a candidate from the race. Perhaps this fear is caused by his politics, which I find slightly abrasive.
Regardless of his views on climate change, energy or LGBTQ rights, there exists a larger problem with Santorum. After all, this would not be the first time a conservative candidate has stated views similar to Santorum.
No, I instead worry about the larger picture and the reason I fear he is suddenly so popular.
I am concerned that Rick Santorum is now a contender because he is not Mitt Romney. This does not make for a strong potential candidate. Choosing a person to represent a political party in the largest and most important election in our nation based on the fact that the candidate is not Mitt Romney is not only utterly ridiculous to think about, but it makes a mockery of our political system. This seems even more ridiculous when one considers that the “not Mitt Romney” candidate could go on to become President.
To be fair, I am not advocating either Mitt Romney or Rick Santorum by any means. Instead, I am suggesting that Americans, particularly Republicans at the moment, take a long look at their own political stance and see where it lies.
Choose the candidate who best represents the direction you want the nation to go in and pick them for that reason, not simply because they are not someone else.
