Former Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) grounded his remarks in our founding. He quoted the Declaration’s central truths that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” He believes that we have strayed from that foundation. “Government is doing too much” and has intruded too much in our lives. It has, he said, “too much control” of our lives.
The Senator’s remarks got right to the heart of the matter. He said that the “people believe in themselves.” They have, in his view, an inherent freedom (or, in other words, the substance, the capacity, and the wherewithal) to make the important decisions in their lives. To be faithful to our founding he said that we must now “limit government’s scale and reach in our lives.” For those reasons he criticized Obamacare and TARP.
The Senator firmly identified himself as a social conservative. He said that the “social issues are the issues that matter.” He said that the judiciary cannot create life, it did not create marriage, and it has no right to re-define either one of them.
As with Representative Bachmann, I want to hear more from this speaker over the coming months. Other than Obamacare and TARP, what are the ways in which government has over-reached? And what are your plans for scaling that back?
Among other things, we would like to know the Senator’s views on the federal role in education. This is more important than ever before. The Obama administration has used the carrot-and-stick Race to the Top program to foist a national core standards scheme upon the states. Standards guide curricula. Publishers will align textbooks with standards. And teacher training will follow. That’s a scheme that puts faith in elitists in government and academia –not in the people. It is a scheme that cuts the people out of the decision-making process.
So please tell us, Senator. Is that an area in which we need to scale back the federal government?
Originally posted at Get Conservative.