Santorum out of the race

As a progressive I am nothing but glad that the horrendous ultra-conservative Rick Santorum has dropped his presidential bid. Not because he looks like a horrible person, no, I am sure he is a wonderful father and a pleasant man, but because he brings with him the kind of populist rhetoric that is destroying politics. See, when Santorum thinks something has to happen, he does not say it because it fits within a set of overarching principles loosely based on an idealized version of Ronald Reagan, but because Jesus told him to. And he is not alone in behaving this way.


The first amendment strongly states that it would not favour one religion in any way, shape or form, and keep church and state separated. Somewhere along the line men like Rick Santorum forgot how important such a law is. There was something frightening about what is essentially a theocrat, preaching that the laws should be in accordance with Jesus, rather than thinking of pragmatic solutions for complex issues, almost winning the presidential election. Almost winning, you say? Yes, Almost winning.

Because here's the kicker. Despite starting out lowest in the polls, Rick Santorum won millions of votes, several states, and got a great amount of support from several conservatives. Had Newt Gingrich realised his campaign was dead in the water months ago, those votes would have probably gone to Santorum. And running on what is essentially a fifth of Romney's campaign budget, one can hardly imagine what would happen had Santorum had a similar budget.

Imagine, a man who does not believe in evolution, and actually thinks that it somehow promotes atheism becoming president. Imagine a president who has built his entire campaign around freedom, yet wants to limit the rights of gay men and women, immigrants, and pregnant women alike. A man who thinks the best way to prevent teen pregnancy and viral diseases among our youth is not to teach proper sexual education or give contraceptions, but to make them abstain from sex until marriage, further increasing the problem.

To say that Mitt Romney is any better is also questionable (if I had to pick a republican, right now, it would be Ron Paul), but to imagine that so many people in the most prominent western country in the world would like to see a man elected president who comes with such medieval shenanigans as Rick Santorum does is, frankly, shocking. I can't be the only one in this. Anyone else have an opinion on it?