Republican ex-Senator Rick Santorum is one of the more polarizing social conservatives
in the 2016 Presidential election, even within his own party.
But what makes him so controversial?
Who exactly is Rick Santorum?
If Rick Santorum’s name sounds familiar, it’s probably because he’s been in the
public eye since the early 90s.
And most recently, he ran for president in 2012.
Santorum’s career took off when he was elected into the House of Representatives in 1990.
He, along with John Boehner and five other Republican Freshman Representatives were known
as the “Gang of Seven”.
They forced the House to investigate claims that certain members were overdrafting their
congressional bank accounts.
This led to Republican control of the House by 1994.
The following year, Santorum was elected into the US Senate, where he gained notoriety for
supporting a bill that would limit employers from preventing religious expression in the
workplace.
He also created the “Santorum Amendment” which proposed including intelligent design
in school curriculums alongside evolution.
Then, in 2012, he ran for president, and nearly beat out Mitt Romney for the nomination.
His views are fairly in line with socially conservative religious values.
But his most controversial opinions are on the topic of homosexuality.
In 2003, he supported criminalizing all homosexual activity, and compared it to bestiality.
This drew the ire of LGBT columnist Dan Savage, who campaigned for the redefinition of the
word “Santorum” to mean something... pretty gross.
You can google it if you’re curious.
He twice voted against adding sexual orientation to the definition of a hate crime.
And he also opposes all pornography, which he has said contributes to violence against
women, and the corruption of children.
On a related issue, Santorum opposes the idea of a “right to privacy”, and campaigned
against issuing contraceptives to married couples.
Furthermore, he has voted in favor of a constitutional amendment banning flag desecration, and supported
loosening cell phone wiretap restrictions.
He is anti-abortion, and has supported HIV/AIDS assistance, as well as financially assisting
low-income families and children.
He opposes amnesty for undocumented immigrants, but also opposes legal immigration as well.
And, he believes that English should be the official US language.
Santorum, like many of his conservative peers, hates Obamacare, and once compared it to apartheid
in South Africa.
He also claims that man-made climate change is “junk science”, and suggested that
global warming is a left wing conspiracy to increase government control.
He promises to drill everywhere for oil, and claims that there are enough fossil fuels
to last for centuries, contrary to scientific opinion.
Santorum has generated a good deal of weight within the religious social conservative community,
and an equal amount of vitriol among left and centrist voters.
Whether he can close the gap for the Republican nomination is yet to be seen.
To find out more about Santorum’s competition for the 2016 Presidential election, you can
check out our other political profiles on Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio.
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