I Have a Soft Spot for Rick Santorum

1/6/2012—Although I have been critical of Rick Santorum over the years—see 9/11/2010 below—I have a soft spot for him because of his commitment to fighting global poverty. While he was in the Senate, I don’t know of any campaign to help Africa that did not have his full support.

Unlike other Republican candidates for President, Santorum is not a capitalist first. And he is obviously sincere in his commitment to the poor, whatever differences one may have over tactics. I don’t know the specifics of his platform, but this is not a man who will lightly cut welfare and food stamps.

This is important to note because I am increasingly wondering about the commitment of the left to issues of economic justice, the occupy Wall Street movement notwithstanding. Ever since Bill Clinton ended welfare as we know it to the resounding silence on the left, the question arises whether the left is anything more than abortion and gay rights (for purposes of disclosure, I am pro-life and pro-gay marriage).

This comes to mind because of the hatchet job just done on Santorum by Sarah Posner, senior editor at Religion Dispatches (Santorum from the Religious Angle). The story skewers Santorum for all the usual reasons, but unconscionably for a story ostensibly about Santorum and religion, does not even mention his religious commitment to fighting poverty. Is poverty just not important to the left anymore unless we are talking about increasing taxes on the wealthy?

The story is unfair in other ways too. Santorum believes that secularism leads to a loss of social morale and low birth rates in Europe. All Posner does is make fun of that claim. But it is an empirical claim and is either correct or incorrect or a matter of interpretation. Loss of social morale does lead to low birth rates and Europe’s non-Muslim population is shrinking. It is not something to make fun of but discuss.

I am beginning to wonder about Posner and by extension Religion Dispatches, for which I have written quite happily in the past. Can they any longer write reasonably about conservative religion or is it now all polemic?