In Praise of Rick Santorum

I say praise with the express acknowledgement that I think Rick would have had a hard time winning the Republican nomination, let alone winning a popular—or even an electoral majority—against the current president in the general election in the first place. His case for the presidency was always a long shot—a long shot which depended upon his own personal weaknesses which I need not go into, but which also depend upon factors outside of the control of all of the putative Republican nominees. Nonetheless, Rick chose to take the risk and he ran.

Santorum was willing to expose himself—and his family seemed willing to expose themselves—to endure the personal scrutiny that the actions which a family must take regarding their own special needs members. Santorum cancelled several important venues—like an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press—in order to attend as a father to the special needs of his young daughter. This action should be applauded even if it may have had a detrimental impact on his chances for a good showing in Florida. The more cynical minded may say that this move was entirely electoral calculation, but I reject such cynical reasoning. I don’t think Rick did what he did as a sop to some social conservative vote that may have been wavering in its vote in his favor. He already had that vote. Rather, I like to believe that he did what he thought he ought to have done. He ran for president out of a sense of his own sense of the importance to the causes he held to be right for the nation, and likewise he went to his daughter’s bedside for the reasons he thought were right.

So I praise Santorum for choosing to run for president despite the fact that he knew he already had pressing and touchy familial issues that could come into conflict with his duties as a candidate—let alone the ways in which the importance that those particular issues could run counter to what he was obligated to do as president. He already knew the potential for a conflict between what is good for his family and for his nation (let alone for his personal ambition), but he chose to run for president nonetheless. He always presented himself as one who could pursue the common good, not only despite of, but because of the specific familial circumstances in which he found himself.

I mention this issue explicitly in comparison to one of my favorite Republicans, viz. Mitch Daniels. The governor of Indiana is one of the most articulate, down to earth and straight-forward advocates of conservatism, especially with regard to the troubled sustainability of our deficits regarding the long-term liabilities pertaining to our current and future health care expenditures (as evidenced in his response to the president’s State of the Union address). But Mitch decided not to run for personal, private reasons—reasons which leave the rest of us guessing. Mitch knows what is best for his family, and I have no basis from which to criticize his decision. However, Rick decided to run despite the now well-publicized reasons which could have easily been used to justify his not having a concern for himself holding the office of the president for the entire nation.

Despite all this praise, I think Rick always had his problems with persuasion in favor a majority of Americans in a general election—especially when compared to the advantages of an incumbent president—but given his recent concerns regarding his special needs daughter, he ought to be applauded for putting himself out there in the first place.

With this encomium to Rick’s virtue that seem like a campaign elegy, I don’t mean to write off his chances for ultimately winning the nomination as the primary season goes on (though I think the chances are doubtful at best). I just simply wanted to praise both his civic and personal virtue in this specific case.

Despite his virtue, I have my doubts—if such may be the case—on Santorum as an effective Republican nominee.