Mr. Santorum, Your Slip Is Showing

There is a worrisome paradox in Rick Santorum, who easily won Louisiana on Saturday and remains the main opponent of Mitt Romney in the race for the republican nomination. On the one hand, Santorum expresses liberal outbursts that often none of his opponents, except Ron Paul, can imitate.

Wanting to demonstrate that Romney’s business experience is not really pertinent, he argued, rightly, that Americans do not need a “manager” of the economy, but someone who will “uproot [the state] by the root.” It is true that the consistency of his support for the free market is poor: He promises, for example, a friendly tax system for the manufacturing system, which is equivalent to an industrial policy that is rather backward, if anything. But his remarks in favor of economic freedom are often refreshing.

In addition, he represents a religious right that is not very enlightened. He attacked President Obama, who “seems to prefer pornography to children and families.” He doesn’t seem to understand the importance of secularism; in fact, we do not want the state to become uprooted. Santorum’s authoritarian slip is showing and we regret that Brassens is not here to react.

A cartoon circulating on Facebook exemplifies this. It reminds us that Santorum accuses Obama of lacking firmness toward the Iranian state. The cartoon shows Santorum carrying a sign that says: “America is trapped in the clutches of Satan.” Nearby, the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad responds: “That’s funny, that’s also the slogan for my presidential campaign!”

The contribution of the pornography industry to the GDP of the United States is miniscule, probably one hundredth of a percent, but this type of estimate doesn’t signify much in economic terms. It suffices to note that porn consumers attach enough value to it to spend a couple billion dollars a year on pornography. This sovereignty of the consumer is ultimately the only thing that matters in the economy.

What worries us about Santorum is that he understands nothing about the indivisibility of economic freedom and freedom itself. He believes that no one should consume what he dislikes himself, and his own preferences are conservative and not liberal in the traditional sense. Like Obama, he wants to impose his values on everyone else: Only the content of the values differs between the two men.

The conservative leanings that Santorum represents occupy a prominent place in the Republican Party and race. Newt Gingrich has attached himself as well. On the other hand, the liberal or “libertarian” leanings are represented by Paul. Romney, meanwhile, tries to play both courts, and it’s not certain that he understands the philosophical issues involved. The result of the race will show whether the libertarian tendencies gained ground within the Republican Party.