Santorum's Appeal

Puzzles People

   If you google "Santorum's Appeal" you will see there are a number of articles of commentators who can't figure it out. How is this guy winning after all the nuttified things he says? He sounds actually like something out of a fifties sit com sometimes. Some of it sounds downright bigotted- the anti-gay marriage stuff just sounds flatly unacceptable. His views on working women frightening. After he explained his working grandmother I was a bit more relieved, but still wondering. Then there was the whole college kids are snobs thing-or maybe just Harvard kids. Really silly. So why is he winning? Well the states with low college attendance might explain it. And the places where 'traditional values' means no working women might explain it also.

   I can however see the appeal to a few other people- Those who think a massive mind-F was done on the country on this pro-abortion business find him appealing. How convenient that guys with no sexual morals can now just tell the people they want to sleep with without commitment to 'get rid of it.'  Turning fetuses with human DNA into 'its' is not something that sits comfortably with even people who call themselves Democrats. How does this turn bad boys into monsters? Some women wish that wasn't an option for them so easily. This is probably Santorum's greatest strength- he is a good and kind decent man. A guy who took care of his wife and seven kids and stayed married. Nice. Even liberal democrats have to applaud that. A good and kind decent man.

  And his wife looks like she doesn't spend three hours with a blow dryer fixing her hair. She looks like she may even have picked up a bottle of Clairol root touch up highlights at the CVS for fun. She looks just like a person you would want to grab a Starbucks with or someone you could see jogging with a toddler in a stroller on a tree lined street. She just looks nice- and normal. As they say in the land of Wobeggon, a little better than average, but not so much better to be a 'snob' perhaps. Someone who didn't go to Harvard, but got a pretty good law degree anyway. It's a big country and most of it didn't go to Harvard.

They are relatable, this couple. They still love each other and you can see them ushering in grandchildren into the White House.

     The Santorum's appeal comes from the dignity they give the ordinary. Kind of like Saint Therese's way of making the ordinary a place with capacity of great Love to manifest. Perhaps she could be the patron saint of their campaign- so  they show people that ordinary people from Pennsylvania can Love their Neighbors in ordinary ways to make collectively an extraordinary country. 

   The rising tide will raise all boats if we all aspire to help each other be a little better than average.
Even the poorest of the poor that Mitt wants to ignore.