It seems that almost anyone even remotely interested in the Republican nomination for president this cycle has had their moment in the spotlight. Everyone, that is, except Rick Santorum. Many are beginning to attribute his lack of public attention to his extremist anti-gay rhetoric.
Now to be fair, there are other GOP candidates who also haven't had much of the limelight, namely Utah's Jon Huntsman. But there's a big difference between a virtually unknown late-comer to the race and former Senator Santorum who has been running full-steam since the beginning.
In virtually every other aspect, from health care to the military, Santorum would appear to be the darling of the Tea Party right. So to account for his apparent lack of support for his campaign, we might assume that it would be his overtly aggressive stances against basic civil liberties for LGBT people.
There isn't a single Republican candidate for president whom I would consider a friend of the LGBT community, but there's a bright line between opposing marriage equality and going out of your way to spew vitriolic and false propaganda.
Here are a few Santorum gems:
- "[T]he state is not doing a service to the child and to society by not putting that child in a home where there is a mother and a father. ... This is common sense. This is nature. And what we're trying to do is defy nature because a certain group of people want to be affirmed by society, and I just don't think that's to the benefit of society or to the child" (2011).
It seems that the country is finally moving along fast enough that a campaign based squarely and solely on attacks against homosexuality finds itself dead upon arrival. Distortions against any minority community, while perhaps previously effective, no longer carry the social legitimacy they used to -- especially among voters under 40 who are less and less likely to be opposed to fellow citizens simply because of how they were born.
Perhaps other Republicans who are considering future runs for office would do well to take note of the failed "Google Me" Santorum campaign, and the results of a campaign based on hate.