Rick Santorum appears to be running as a fairly faithful Catholic. What I mean by that is that his positions on issues line up with Church teaching about 95% of the time. Obviously this is a rough estimate, but the areas where I find him straying a bit are in the areas around an issue. There are certain bloggers that would disagree. In fact, one very well known blogger from a big blog conglomerate, whom I will not name, has gone so far as to mock Santorum's claim that he is a Catholic candidate.
The other day I posed the question whether a faithful Catholic, let's say one that would appease even the blogger mentioned above, could win a presidential election. The reason I ask this, is because even someone like Santorum, who has some areas where he seems to stray a bit from where some think a Catholic candidate should stand on certain issues, seems to be facing a barrage of attacks for his faith-candidacy position.
- Last night, while at a friends, we were watching various news programs and we came across Brit Hume on Fox. I couldn't find the transcript, but what he essentially said was this:
- Santorum's Catholic faith is a major portion of who he is as a candidate.
- The plays well during the primary, because it appeals to the conservative base and seperates him from Romney.
- During the general election it will hurt him though; many "Catholics" don't "believe" all the teachings of the Church, and as moderates and independents come into play, the "Catholic" position on things will not win him many votes.
I wonder if Hume isn't on to something, at least in part? This isn't a critique of the Catholic teachings, but more on the American culture. We have allowed our culture to become something that no long aligns with Christian and Catholic belief. That being said, does it then mean that we can't (or shouldn't?) have a Catholic candidate, because they cant win in a Presidential election?
Do you think Hume is right? Would you vote for Santorum in a primary if you knew that he would lose in the general? While I don't believe this to be the case, some do.
Also, in voting our conscience, do we take this into consideration? Must we vote for the person that most aligns with our beliefs, or can we vote for the person that we know will be a lesser of two evils down the road in the general election? Would you prefer a more "lukewarm" Catholic where at least they were Catholic and held some of the exact beliefs that the Church does? or Would it be even better if they weren't Catholic, but just aligned closely with the teachings of the Church?
The situation we find ourselves in is a tough one and I just wonder if we might not need to reevaluate exactly how we look at candidates and what we expect them to be, within the context of the reality of our country.
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I will vote for Santorum.
I get so annoyed when people start saying a candidate must play to the moderates. When republican candidates play to the moderates, they no longer seem to be different from the democrats and then we start talking about voting for the lesser of two evils instead of voting for the right guy. I want someone to be BOLD in his/her convictions and I do believe that Santorum provides the starkest contrast to Obama for the Presidential election.
I think that Brit Hume should stop drinking watered down cool aid and stop discouraging people from voting for Rick Santorum on this pretext. I have watched and listened to Brit Hume long enough to know that much...We do what we must do and leave the rest to our Sweet Lord!,,
See, why is it an issue only when conservatives might stick to their guns and unapologetically run as themselves? Obama, in my view, really didn't run as anything other than a hardcore lefty last time (which isn't normally attractive to most) - but because the democrats understand how to win elections, his base banded together even though there are many types of democrats, which modeled an attractive unity to moderates. But we always do this stupid thing to ourselves - regardless the candidate or their religion - and end up nominating the one we think will do ok with moderates, rather than conservatives. And then we lose.
I think Santorum's Catholicism will be the contrived scapegoat used to nominate Romney. But I don't think it would've hurt him in the general the way the MSM would have us believe.
I tend to agree with all of you, but the narrative right now in the MSM *IS* that RS might be "too Catholic" for the swing/indep. voters that often make up the victory margin in Presidential races.
He is also "not Catholic enough" for some very orthodox Catholics.
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