During a debate back in January the candidates were asked their opinions on SOPA. SOPA is the controversial Internet regulation bill created to stop Internet piracy. Rick Santorum said he didn’t like the law, but emphasized an effort to combat theft of intellectual property. Santorum said that he wasn’t comfortable with an Internet free-for-all.
There are already laws against piracy. If it’s a problem then pay for more enforcement. Citizens shouldn’t have to surrender their freedom so politicians and large corporations can go on a fact finding expedition. What Santorum should have said is that he’s not comfortable with liberty. The idea that people should be free to smoke, drink, talk, and do whatever they like as long as they’re not hurting anyone else doesn’t sit right with some religious conservatives. Rick Santorum has made no secret that he doesn’t like libertarians.
Santorum explicitly declared, “I am not a libertarian, and I fight very strongly against libertarian influence within the Republican Party and the conservative movement.”
Is it really surprising then that Santorum supported earmarks, voted for the Medicare prescription drug plan and backed No Child Left Behind? He also pushed dairy subsidies, steel tariffs and sided with unions over workers. It’s in this way that Santorum is like J.R.R. Tolkien’s famous character Boromir in The Lord of the Rings.
Boromir was very well aware of the evil nature of the one ring but thought that the ring could be used for good. Rick Santorum knows the problems with government intervention and yet he has no problem supporting “well-intentioned” government programs. At the very heart of Santorum’s philosphy is a fear of freedom. Santorum very rarely talks about personal freedom because he doesn’t believe in it. Fighting against libertarian influence is a fight against liberty itself.
Santorum has received a pass from many conservatives who haven’t taken the time to look past his statements on social issues. Does anyone really think that Rick Santorum would be serious about reducing the size of goverment? What has he ever done to advance the cause of economic liberty? One of his ideas is to subsidize manufacturing with special tax breaks. Why should anyone be surprised? Santorum wants to pick winners and losers because he doesn’t trust people to choose for themselves.
Nice post Mr. Henshaw. I admire those who are willing to critique their own party members. More of us liberals should do the same.
So whats your thoughts about Ron Paul? Pardon if you have already written about him in previous posts.
I like a lot of what Ron Paul has to say, but his ideas on foreign policy are just a little crazy. He seems to think that if the US Military just left everyone alone there wouldn’t be any problems in the Middle-East. That’s not true. If we followed Paul’s advice things would be even worse.
The other thing is he always blames war for bankrupting the nation when the conversation is about fiscal problems. No doubt that the war has cost a lot of money, but as I’ve mentioned on the blog before we could eliminate the Defense Department and still have serious debt problems.
Club Soda is working on some blog posts about the problems with each candidate. It’s a little more difficult to bash on Romney because he’s shifted all his policies. Romney is a bit of a wild card. Santorum is a liberal when it comes to fiscal discipline and a statist when it comes to social issues.
Liberals will absolutely hate Santorum because of his ideas on religion, but his ideas about goverment and it’s role in everyday life are closer to President Obama than to President Reagan.
[...] The only person who doesn’t seem to know this is Rick Santorum. It’s never been a secret that I don’t like Rick Santorum. Evangelical voters who have bought into his brand of [...]