Granted, Rick Santorum is the clear social conservative in the GOP race today. His positions on social issues are clear. His defense of Christian values is commendable. But, despite his declaration yesterday, he’s no Ronald Reagan.
Back in 2008 Rick Santorum was speaking out against “radical individualism” – like lower taxes and less regulations.
Rick Santorum said this on NPR in 2008:
This whole idea of personal autonomy, well I don’t think most conservatives hold that point of view. Some do. They have this idea that people should be left alone, be able to do whatever they want to do, government should keep our taxes down and keep our regulations low, keep our regulations low, that we shouldn’t get involved in the bedroom, we shouldn’t get involved in cultural issues.
That is not how traditional conservatives view the world. There is no such society that I’m aware of, where we’ve had radical individualism and that it succeeds as a culture.”
Let’s not fool ourselves that Rick Santorum is a small government guy. He’s not.