Ten Reasons Why My Iowa Caucus Vote Goes to Rick Santorum

I put a lot of thought in who I was going to support on January 3rd when we have our Iowa Caucus.  Eliminating who I wasn’t going to vote for was a lot easier than making my final decision after narrowing it down to four.  By last week I had narrowed my decision to two, but after prayerful consideration I am confident in my choice of who I would like to see be our next President.  That person is the former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum.

This isn’t an anti-endorsement of the other candidates as I think many of them have merit and strengths and I would be happy to support them in a general election should they win the nomination.  It also doesn’t mean my candidate of choice lacks weaknesses or is perfect.  There was only one Person who walked the face of the earth who was (and is) perfect and He isn’t on the ballot.

Why am I choosing Rick Santorum?  Ten reasons:

1. He is a man of integrity.  What you see is what you get.  There hasn’t been any doublespeak.  He doesn’t have any skeletons in his closet.  He doesn’t flip flop.  He’s a strong family man. If you spend any time around him it is quite evident that he loves his wife Karen and their seven children.  He has strong character, and is faithful both to his family and God.
2. He has consistently articulated and boldly defended a worldview that closely aligns with mine.  This doesn’t mean we agree 100% on every issue, but he understands that our rights come from God and that man’s law cannot and should not trump the laws of nature and nature’s God.  He understands that since our rights come from God it is government’s role to protect those rights not add to or subtract from them.  I agree with him when he has talked about some people’s position on the 10th Amendment as “states’ rights run amok.”  I agree with him when he said that an individual state does not have the right to legislate wrong.
3. He has been a faithful champion of the family.  He has been so for years, and this campaign has been no different.  I had mentioned that he was spot on when bringing up the fact that the chief cause of poverty is the break-up of the family.
4. He has been a faithful champion for life.  He believes in the sanctity of life from conception to natural death.  He has a solid track record on life.  He will be an advocate for a personhood amendment to our constitution and fight for the advancement of the prolife cause, not just give it lip service.
5. He has a tangible social and cultural policy agenda that outlines what executive orders he’ll issue and legislative directives that will be areas of priority.  One of which is the elimination of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
6. He will be a champion for parental rights and religious liberty.  As a homeschooling father that is vitally important to me.  He also understands that the ultimate stakeholder with the education of children are parents, and that they, not the State, are the ones who bear responsibility.  He will scale back all federal expansion into the area of education, and undo what has been done unconstitutionally through executive order.
7. Not only is he a solid social conservative, but he is a proven fiscal conservative as well.  His leadership with welfare reform has unfortunately been largely ignored.  The National Taxpayer Union has deemed him to be a “friend of the taxpayer.”  His plan to help expand manufacturing jobs is specific, bold and I believe doable early in his first term.  If passed it would surely make a positive impact on manufacturers.  He was against TARP and the Stimulus packages from the beginning.  He also understands that Obamacare must be repealed and federal entitlement spending mandates on the states must end.
8. He understands our national security threats.  Many people who focus on just his social conservative record tend to forget that he is a foreign policy wonk (that was the focus of a lot of his work post-Senate).  He was one of the first to see the threat in Iran.  He believes in American exceptionalism and understands what it will take to defend our nation against future threats.
9. He is a fighter and I have no doubt he would match up well against President Obama in a debate.
10. Frankly, he’s earned my endorsement.  Nobody has campaigned harder in Iowa than Rick Santorum.  He’s kept his promise to campaign in every one of our 99 counties, nobody else in the field has come close to that kind of commitment to our state.