Joan Walsh: Rick Santorum, working class hero or free market fanatic?
Wednesday, Jan 4, 2012 1:25 PM UTC
The former Pennsylvania senator makes Romney look like the plutocrat he is, but he has no solutions for the economy
By Joan Walsh
For a modestly attended small-state caucus that ended with three candidates within four percent of one another, Iowa clarified a great deal about the GOP presidential campaign. Mitt Romney didn’t entirely shame himself; the man who once pondered skipping Iowa because of its conservative Christian caucus base wound up effectively tied for first place, ahead by eight votes when all the caucus reports were in. Most important, there’s already an official anti-Romney candidate, and it’s Rick Santorum. Two weeks ago, nobody saw that coming. He and Romney are going to fight a faux-battle over the role of class and the sputtering American economy that will ultimately offer no solutions for struggling Americans. But it might highlight issues that ought to matter in November.
Just as Ron Paul, who finished a slightly disappointing third, brings a welcome focus on the excesses of the American national security state, Santorum shows a concern for the casualties of the American economy that is rare for a Republican. It’s not that Santorum has answers, but it’s a little bit bracing even to hear the questions, in a race that has been mainly about destroying Iran and the evil socialism of Barack Obama. Don’t get me wrong: Santorum wants to destroy Iran, and Obama, and he has no solutions to the problems of income inequality and stalled economic mobility he professes to care about. But his election night speech established a huge empathy gulf between him and Romney that ought to rattle Romney in the weeks to come.
I found myself moved when Santorum talked about his Italian immigrant grandfather, a coal miner, who “worked in a mine in a company town, he lived in a shack.” Santorum described staring at his grandfather’s big, rough, workingman’s hands after he died, and realizing “those hands dug freedom for me.” I thought of that great Bill Withers song, “Grandma’s hands.” Mitt Romney will never make you think of Bill Withers.
And yet Santorum has nothing to offer the struggling, left-behind American worker. He gathered himself up to denounce his party for only talking about cutting taxes and regulations when people are hurting – and then he mainly talked about cutting taxes and regulations. Santorum’s answer to American economic insecurity is strengthening the American family. He offered the touching bromide, “When the family breaks down, the economy breaks down.” In fact, the reverse may be true.
Read the whole article at Salon.com