In Attempt to Gain Support in Iowa, Santorum Calls For Bans on Divorce and Women’s Suffrage
By David Epstein
DES MOINES, IA — With only one week left before the Iowa caucuses, former senator Rick Santorum is looking to increase his support among evangelical voters, in the hope that they can propel him to victory. Though Santorum has been campaigning hard in and out of Iowa’s ninety nine counties, his poll numbers had barely climbed into the double digits until recently. Since entering the Republican presidential race, the former Pennsylvania senator has talked about the importance of promoting family values domestically and enforcing a strong American-centric foreign policy abroad. Given the importance of evangelical and other socially conservative voters in the first caucus state, Santorum has refocused his campaign exclusively towards social issues.
In a speech delivered at a campaign stop in the suburbs of Des Moines, Santorum broke away from his standard stump speech to deliver his new message. “I believe in an America that puts strong families first, and a nation that honors the word of God,” Santorum said. “And we can do both by outlawing divorce. If couples can’t split up, then families will be strong. We are a Christian nation, so it only makes sense to have the Bible be our law.
Santorum has spoken before about having American laws comport with Biblical injunctions, but had not previously gone so far as to call for the two to be directly linked. Santorum has long been known as a politician greatly interested in other people’s marriages. He gained fame and infamy for his opposition to same sex marriage, and for equating consensual sexual relations between two men as being on the same moral level as “man on dog” relations.
Later on in his speech, Santorum also called into question the practice of female suffrage. “I’ve talked a lot about traditional marriage, and I’ve said that the institution of marriage should not evolve. As Christians we also need to stand up for traditional genders,” preached Santorum. He went on to say, “The Bible calls for women to be submissive to their husbands. Well if they’re out there, in the streets, voting for whomever they want, how is that being submissive? For almost the entire history of voting and democracy, women have not been included. We need to stand up for that tradition.”
Santorum’s comments are sure to harm his support among women voters. However, his campaign is banking on a high turnout of conservative men, whose wives would rather they vote for Santorum than the thrice-married Newt Gingrich.
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Posted by David Epstein
on Jan 2 2012. Filed under Headlines.
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Santorum: let’s be heonst, at least Donald Trump will have more in cmomon with the candidates than with the vast majority of past moderators. Man’s definitely got a point, there if we’re going to have campaign by debate , then let’s make it a debate, not one more in a series of opportunities for left-leaning, pro-Democrap moderators to strut their stupid gotcha-stabs.At last a debate I’m interested in seeing and hearing.Why aren’t Huntsman and some of the other second- or third-string hopefuls getting in on this, too? This could be their only real shot.