Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum (2015)

Richard John "Rick" Santorum (* 10. May 1958 in Winchester , Virginia ) is an American politician of the Republican Party , of the State of Pennsylvania in both houses of Congress represented. He was elected to the US House of Representatives for the first time in 1990 and to the US Senate in 1994 .

Santorum belonged to the leadership of his party in the US Senate, but failed in 2006 when trying to be re-elected. In 2012 he ran for the presidency in the internal party primary and became the main conservative opponent of the establishment candidate Mitt Romney , but in the end lost significantly against him. Four years later, Santorum entered the Republican primary again, but this time remained an outsider and withdrew from the race in early February 2016.

He represents - even in comparison to other Republicans - very conservative and Christian fundamentalist positions, especially on socio-political issues such as abortion and homosexuality , which has repeatedly led to public controversy.

Family, education and work

Rick Santorum (1995)

His father Aldo Santorum (1923–2011) comes from Riva del Garda and immigrated to the USA from Italy . His mother Catherine (* 1918) has Italian and Irish ancestors. Both parents worked in health professions. Santorum received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1980 and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Pittsburgh in 1981. After graduation, he worked with J. Doyle Corman , a State Senator, until 1986 from Virginia. He received his law degree from Dickinson School of Law in 1986 , was admitted to the bar and opened a law firm in Pittsburgh .

After a long political career, he returned to the private sector in 2007. After his first presidential campaign, he became CEO of EchoLight Studios in June 2013 in order to make family-oriented feature films.

Santorum is a member of a Roman Catholic parish near Washington . The Same also include the former head of the FBI , Louis Freeh , and the judge at the Supreme Court , Antonin Scalia .

Rick Santorum and his wife Karen Garver Santorum have seven children: Elizabeth Anne, Richard John ("Johnny") Jr., Daniel James, Sarah Maria, Peter Kenneth, Patrick Francis and Isabella. Her son Gabriel Michael (1996) was a premature baby with only 20 weeks pregnancy and died two hours after his birth. Rick and his wife took the child home to say goodbye to him along with their other children (then four, six, and eight years old). Although spending time with the dead child is recommended in the case of stillbirth, Santorum was mocked by two commentators during the election campaign. Karen wrote a book about her experience: Letters to Gabriel: The True Story of Gabriel Michael Santorum . His wife is the author of a book on good behavior for children. Both were accepted into the Order of Malta on November 12, 2004 as knight and lady .

Political career

He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1990 at the age of 32 , defeating Democrat Doug Walgren since 1977 . After two terms, he ran for one of Pennsylvania's two seats in the US Senate and surprisingly beat the Democratic incumbent Harris Wofford in the November 1994 election , which was generally extremely favorable for Republicans . In the Senate, Santorum sat on the rules of procedure committee and was most recently chairman of the Senate Republican Conference , the third highest hierarchy level for Republican Senate members.

In the November 2000 election , Santorum was re-elected against Ron Klink . When attempting a second re-election on November 7, 2006, he clearly failed . His challenger, Bob Casey , won by an 18 percentage point lead, the highest defeat by an incumbent Senator in 30 years. In addition to a generally unfavorable political mood for the Republicans (against George W. Bush and the Iraq war ), various controversial decisions and statements were blamed for his defeat .

Before this defeat, Santorum was considered a possible Republican candidate in the 2008 US presidential election .

2012 presidential campaign

Rick Santorum performing in Iowa (2011)

In April 2011, Santorum announced that it had opened an account to raise funds for a possible presidential campaign; he was a candidate for the November 2012 presidential election , participated in the Republican primary and became the leading challenger to establishment favorite Mitt Romney on the conservative side.

In the first primary on January 3, 2012 in the state of Iowa , he delivered a head-to-head race for victory with his competitor Mitt Romney . After falling behind, a recount showed that Santorum had won by 34 votes. However, since clear results could not be determined during the review from eight constituencies, the Iowa area code was initially a draw between Romney and Santorum. After the votes were counted again, he has officially been the winner since January 20th with 24.6% and seven delegate votes.

In the following primary elections in New Hampshire (January 10th), South Carolina (January 21st), Florida (January 31st) and Nevada (February 4th) he stayed, sometimes significantly, below the 20 percent mark and secured himself thus a total of only three delegates the votes.

On February 7, he was able to win in all three primary elections of the day in the states of Minnesota , Missouri and Colorado somewhat surprisingly against the favorite Romney with a clear lead, which brought him the votes of 40 delegates in Colorado and Minnesota. In Missouri, the delegates were not distributed until March 17, but due to the complicated electoral system there it is not known who gets how many votes, which will only be revealed at the election party conference at the end of August.

In Maine , where the primaries took place over a period of eight days from February 4 to February 11, he ran little election campaign and got just under 18% and three delegate votes.

In the three primary elections at the end of February he was narrowly defeated by Romney in Michigan (February 28) and Wyoming (February 29) and a little more clearly in Arizona (February 28), but was able to secure 24 delegates. What is remarkable is the good result in Michigan, Romney's home state, in which Romney was only able to win thanks to an advertising campaign costing several million euros.

In Washington on March 3, Santorum was only third behind Romney and Paul with 24% and 10 delegate votes, but was able to win in 3 out of 10 states ( North Dakota , Oklahoma and Tennessee ) on March 6, Super Tuesday , and stayed in Ohio just behind Romney. In these four countries he was able to win a total of 70 delegate votes for himself. In the other six states that voted that day ( Alaska , Georgia , Idaho , Massachusetts , Vermont and Virginia ), there were only 13 more delegate votes. In Virginia he was not allowed to run because he had not previously been able to produce the required number of signatures.

After a clear victory in Kansas on March 10th with 52% and 33 delegate votes, he also prevailed on March 13th in the two southern states of Alabama and Mississippi , where successes by both Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich were previously considered possible ; in Hawaii , however, he was defeated by Romney and thus secured a total of 36 more votes from delegates on that day.

In the votes in the US Virgin Islands , Guam and Northern Mariana Islands (March 10), as well as American Samoa (March 13) and Puerto Rico (March 18), where he had previously angered the Puerto Ricans , he won no delegate votes.

On March 20, as expected, he lost to Mitt Romney in Illinois and secured only ten delegates, whereas he was able to win clearly in Louisiana on March 24.

In the primaries on April 3 in Maryland , Washington, DC and Wisconsin , Santorum only reached second place behind Romney. Nevertheless, Santorum announced in a speech on election night that it would continue to fight for the Republican presidential nomination.

Overall, Santorum won it in 11 states (Alabama, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Tennessee) and received the votes of over four million people. On April 10, 2012, Santorum declared that it would withdraw from the race for Republican presidential candidates. His election campaign only "rested", which legally enabled him to continue collecting donations in order to settle debts incurred through election campaign costs. In August 2012, Mitt Romney was nominated as a Republican presidential candidate, who was defeated by incumbent Barack Obama in November .

2016 presidential election

Rick Santorum announced on May 28, 2015 that he was running again for the US presidency for the 2016 election . In contrast to four years earlier, Santorum never managed to attract a lot of attention in the dense field of applicants of 17 candidates in the party's internal pre-election process. In polls, he never got beyond the low single digits and gave shortly after the first vote, the caucus of Iowa , announced on February 3, 2016 its withdrawal from the nomination process. He announced that he would now support the candidate Marco Rubio .

Political positions

education

Rick Santorum with the former Polish President Lech Wałęsa

In 2001, Santorum unsuccessfully attempted to amend the President's No Child Left Behind bill so that "a full spectrum of views" about the origins of mankind should be taught in school classes. This "Santorum Amendment" would have relativized the theory of biological evolution . According to this, public schools in the USA would have been obliged to discuss the controversies over scientific theories using the example of evolution. It was often feared that the detailed treatment of explanations that are purely ideological or religious and not recognized as scientific (such as intelligent design ) would have been prescribed for school lessons . However, a weakened version of the amendment was accepted by the Senate; two Ohio congressmen then argued that the motion required states to include intelligent design in their curriculum.

Religion in the workplace

Santorum and the Democratic Senator John Kerry from Massachusetts jointly introduced the draft Workplace Religious Freedom Act (WRFA) to the Senate. This bill would oblige employers to comply with the religious customs of their employees, as long as this does not represent undue hardship for the employer. For example, employers should offer more flexible shift work so that religious holidays or dress codes can be observed. Similar bills were tabled in 1997, 2000, and 2003, but none of them have had any success so far.

Pension insurance

Santorum is also an active supporter of the partial privatization of the national pension insurance ( social security ), which he prefers to use the term “personalization”. After the 2004 presidential election , Santorum held many debates in Pennsylvania to assess public opinion on the issue and to present the case for change.

Termination of pregnancy

Santorum is a representative of the right to life movement and rejects abortion even in cases of rape and incest . In his opinion, women who become pregnant after being raped should receive "the gift" "that God has given [them]". He believes that the zygote created at conception represents a person who enjoys the same rights as a born human being.

As a senator, Santorum supported draft laws to protect embryos and fetuses and the Roe v. Wade established the right to restrict abortion. He campaigned for the Unborn Victims of Violence Act , by which an act of violence that leads to the death of an embryo or fetus is punished as a crime of its own. In his plea for the law before the Senate, he described abortion as a "cancerous ulcer" and demanded that the embryo or fetus be respected. He co-authored the draft law banning partial birth abortion and introduced it to the 108th Congress of the United States . This type of termination of pregnancy was defined in the bill as an abortion in which the person performing the pregnancy induces childbirth until the fetus is partially outside of the pregnant woman's body to effect the death of the fetus.

In connection with the question of the legal status of abortions, he advocated prosecuting doctors who perform abortions - even in cases of rape or incest - but not women.

contraception

Although he is not mentioned as a sponsor of the Terri Schiavo special legislation, he nonetheless played an important role in getting the bill through the Senate, which was voted on March 20, 2005. Santorum has stated several times that it does not believe in the constitutional right to privacy , not even within marriage. That is why he is a particular critic of the Supreme Court's decision in the Griswold v. Connecticut dating from 1965, which established the right of married couples to purchase and use contraception. Santorum said in October 2011 that contraception was “not okay”, but “a license to do things in the sexual field that are completely contrary to how things should be.” Santorum was (until April 10, 2012) one of 12 Republicans who wanted to be Republican Party presidential candidates; During this phase of the election campaign, he described the birth control pill as "harmful to society" and supported a ban on reimbursement by health insurance companies .

Sex Morality and Homosexuality

Santorum sparked controversy through an interview with the Associated Press (AP) on April 7, 2003 and published on April 20, 2003. The interview was about the sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests, which was much discussed at the time. Santorum was asked how best to prevent this abuse. Santorum replied that the priests were "in a fundamentally homosexual relationship" with " post-pubescent men" and stated that he generally had "a problem with homosexual acts". His answer has been interpreted by some observers to mean that, in his opinion, the right to privacy does not extend to sexuality . In this context, he presented same-sex sexual practices together with adultery , polygamy , pedophilia and zoophilia as the “antithesis of the healthy, traditional family ”. In his opinion, sodomy laws rightly existed (at that time) to prevent acts which “were the basic features of our society and undermine the family ”.

Santorum rejects same-sex marriages and partnerships and believes that a father in prison is preferable to a homosexual father. Santorum felt persecuted by the gay community in the United States. This would lead a gay jihad against him.

In response to statements made by Santorum in 2003, blogger Dan Savage called for a redefinition of the term santorum ; Finally, the neologism "santorum" (meaning "by-product of anal intercourse ") was scattered in order to protest against the statements Santorum perceived as homophobic. The new word gained permanent notoriety as one of the most successful Google bombs in the United States and was discussed as part of his bid for the Republican presidential candidate in 2012.

Middle East and Islam

Iraq war

In February 2009, as part of his lecture series, he took part in an event at the University of Nebraska , in which he told the students present about the reasons for the Iraq war from his point of view . In his opinion, the George W. Bush administration made a huge mistake in not telling the Americans the truth about the war in the Middle East, and that the Obama administration repeated that mistake: "Is that true, are we really fighting terrorists? ".

He supported the war because not fighting would have endangered western civilization. He believes that Muslims are the enemies of America because they take their religion literally and tear it out of historical context: "A democracy cannot exist because Muhammad has already created the perfect law."

Iran

Rick Santorum announced that in the event of an election victory, he would ask Iran to allow weapons inspectors, or else allow Iran to be bombed.

Criticism of Israel

In 2003 Santorum announced that he would like to introduce an initiative of so-called "ideological diversity". According to this, educational establishments that represent a worldview critical of Israel should no longer have any public funds available. The initiative, which de facto would have curtailed freedom of expression, was criticized by opponents as mind control and McCarthyism and was not pursued.

environmental Protection

Rick Santorum thinks the warning from scientists that the average temperature of the earth will increase due to human influence is nonsense. This assumption was part of a conspiracy and therefore no action had to be taken against it. He is also an advocate of new oil and gas wells - without restrictions. In order to "unleash America's own energy production", Santorum does not rule out the expansion of nuclear energy either. He also advocates a radical dismantling of all subsidies and tax breaks in the energy sector, especially in the case of "non-market-ready [...] technologies for CO2 reduction".

death penalty

Santorum is basically in favor of the death penalty , but has apparently severely restricted this position in the meantime. For the last time he made a statement in 2005 on the question:

“I was very concerned about cases where someone might have been falsely convicted. DNA evidence should definitely be used whenever possible. I agree with the Pope that in the civilized world ... the use of the death penalty should be limited. I would definitely agree with that. I would certainly suggest that there should probably be more extensive restrictions on their use. "

immigration

Santorum is a proponent of the border fence between Mexico and the US . He considers the immigration of foreign workers to be "harmful, both economically and socially".

Arms Control

Santorum is in favor of gun law. Among other things, he said that he was against the ban on firearms or a UN control treaty.

euthanasia

Santorum claimed in 2012 that elderly people in the Netherlands were involuntarily murdered by doctors. 10 percent of all deaths in the Netherlands are euthanasia, and of these 50% are involuntarily killed.

secularism

In late 2014, he falsely claimed that the United States Constitution did not provide for a separation of church and state . At best, secularism is provided for in the constitution of the Soviet Union .

In the media

In the US television series The Newsroom on HBO (Season 1, Episode 6) Santorum's attitude to homosexuality was thematized.

Fonts

• It takes a family. Intercollegiate Studies Institute 2005, ISBN 978-1-932236-29-3 .
• It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good. Intercollegiate Studies Institute 2006 (2nd edition), ISBN 978-1-932236-83-5 .
• Rick Santorum. Monument Press 2005, ISBN 978-0-9769668-0-7 .

Web links

Commons : Rick Santorum  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Wikiquote: Rick Santorum  - Quotes

 Wikinews: Rick Santorum  - on the news

• Rick Santorum in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Interview with the Associated Press
• Speech at Republican National Convention 2004 (video)
• Dan Savages Website Spreading Santorum
• Father First, Senator Second
• Wolfgang G. Schwanitz : Rick Santorum, web version 4-2012 (PDF; 137 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rick Santorum is the new CEO of EchoLight Studios . EchoLight.com. June 24, 2013. Retrieved October 18, 2013.
2. ^ Peter Wehner: Partisan Politics and Vicious Assaults. Commentary , January 5, 2012, accessed February 8, 2012 . 
3. ↑ Matthias Rüb: The underdog. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , March 10, 2012, accessed on April 11, 2012 . 
4. ^ US election information from the State Agency for Civic Education Baden-Württemberg, accessed on March 8, 2012.
5. ↑ Does Santorum's 2006 Loss Prove He's Unelectable? Six reasons why he lost. ( Memento of the original from March 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: National Journal . 
6. ↑ Searching for candidates in the USA. n-tv , March 6, 2007, accessed February 8, 2012 . 
7. ↑ Alex Katz: Santorum Makes Move Toward Presidential Run. RealClearPolitics, April 14, 2011, accessed February 8, 2012 . 
8. ↑ Sebastian Fischer: Gingrich can hope for victory in South Carolina. In: Spiegel Online , January 21, 2012.
9. ^ Romney wins in New Hampshire. zeit.de , January 11, 2012, accessed on March 19, 2012 . 
10. ↑ Newt Gingrich wins clearly. stern.de , January 22, 2012, accessed on March 19, 2012 . 
11. ↑ Mitt Romney's Dirty Victory. focus.de , February 1, 2012, accessed on March 19, 2012 . 
12. ↑ Romney scores for the first time with tea party people. spiegel.de , February 5, 2012, accessed on March 19, 2012 . 
13. ↑ Outsider Santorum wins three US primary elections. spiegel.de , February 8, 2012, accessed on February 8, 2012 . 
14. ↑ Missouri Republican Caucuses 2012: Market for the Bin? Wahlfieber.at , March 16, 2012, accessed on March 19, 2012 . 
15. ↑ Romney gets his fourth victory in Maine. tagesschau.de , February 12, 2012, archived from the original on February 13, 2012 ; Retrieved March 3, 2012 . 
16. ↑ Romney wins in Arizona and Michigan. (No longer available online.) Maerkischeallgemeine.de , March 1, 2012, formerly in the original ; Retrieved March 3, 2012 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
17. ↑ Romney wins preliminary round in Wyoming. zeit.de , March 1, 2012, accessed on March 3, 2012 . 
18. ↑ Republican area code is like water torture. focus.de , March 4, 2012, accessed on March 14, 2012 . 
19. ^ Romney wins six states, Santorum three. zeit.de , March 7, 2012, accessed on March 14, 2012 . 
20. ↑ Virginia does not have Perry and Gingrich on the note. handelsblatt.com , December 24, 2011, accessed March 14, 2012 . 
21. ↑ Rick Santorum Strolls to Victory. stern.de , March 11, 2012, accessed on March 14, 2012 . 
22. ↑ Santorum with a double victory in the southern states - Romney wins in the Pacific. Abendblatt.de , March 14, 2012, accessed on March 14, 2012 . 
23. ↑ TOTAL DELEGATES. cnn.com , March 14, 2012, accessed March 14, 2012 . 
24. ↑ Mitt Romney can score points in Puerto Rico. stern.de , March 19, 2012, accessed on March 19, 2012 . 
25. ^ Romney wins in Illinois , Zeit.de, accessed April 2, 2012
26. ^ Santorum wins in Louisiana , Zeit.de, accessed on March 26, 2012
27. ^ Santorum detached SZ, April 4, 2012
28. ↑ The clock starts tonight Washington Post online, April 4 2012
29. ↑ Santorum clears the way for Romney
30. ^ Rick Santorum suspends presidential campaign USA today, April 10, 2012
31. ↑ Rick Santorum joins the US election campaign. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , May 28, 2015.
32. ^ Robert Costa: Rick Santorum to drop out of 2016 presidential race. In: The Washington Post , February 3, 2016.
33. ↑ spiegel.de February 4, 2016: US primaries: Republican Rick Santorum also gives up
34. ↑ https://marcorubio.com/ ( Memento of the original dated February 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
35. ↑ ^{a b} Kate Harding: Rick Santorum thinks pregnancy through rape is God's gift? Seriously? . In: The Gurdian , January 25, 2012.
36. ↑ Tanya Somanader: Santorum: It's 'A Biological Fact That Life Begins At Conception,' Thus Every Fertilized Egg Should Have Full Rights . In: Think Progress , September 1, 2011.
37. ↑ Rick Santorum, Karen Santorum: Bella's Gift: How One Little Girl Transformed Our Family and Inspired a Nation . Nelson Books, Nashville 2015, p. 46 .
38. ↑ Lindal Buchanan: Rhetorics of Motherhood . Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale 2013, ISBN 978-0-8093-3220-5 , p. 101 .
39. ↑ p. 3 (108th): Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 . From: govtrack.us , accessed February 20, 2016.
40. ↑ Rick Santorum - Abortion. PoliGu.com, accessed February 8, 2012 . 
41. ↑ Meet the Press transcript for June 12, 2011. June 12, 2011, accessed February 8, 2012 . 
42. ↑ Sebastian Gierke: How Rick Santorum bowls himself offside. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. April 3, 2012.
43. ↑ Martin Kilian: Instead of the pill, an aspirin between the knees . In: Tagesanzeiger. February 22, 2012.
44. ↑ Stephanie Coontz: Santorum's stone-age view of women. In: CNN , February 15, 2012.
45. ↑ see also zeit.de March 9, 2012 / Eva Schweitzer : The Vagina Monologues of the Republicans.
46. ↑ Hannah Beitzer: Santorum and the anal sex. Süddeutsche Zeitung , January 7, 2012, accessed on February 8, 2012 . 
47. ↑ Michael A. Memoli, Mark Z. Barabak: Rick Santorum Focuses on gay marriage. Los Angeles Times , January 6, 2012, accessed February 8, 2012 . 
48. ↑ Nina Mandell: GOP Presidential candidate Rick Santorum says gay community is waging jihad on him . In: New York Daily News , Aug. 29, 2011.
49. ^ Spreading Santorum. January 3, 2012, accessed February 8, 2012 . 
50. ↑ Chris Rovzar: Does Rick Santorum Really Have a Google Problem? New York , September 7, 2010, accessed February 8, 2012 . 
51. ↑ Steve Peoples: Santorum Talks About Longtime Google Problem. Roll Call, February 16, 2011, accessed February 8, 2012 . 
52. ^ Nicole Gatz: Santorum speech excites crowd. Daily Nebraskan, February 17, 2009, archived from the original on June 22, 2012 ; accessed on February 8, 2012 . 
53. ↑ Associated Press: Santorum: US wrong to condemn Iran scientist death. In: The Guardian. 14 January 2012
54. ↑ Free Press
55. ↑ The Rick Santorum Interview. In: rushlimbaugh.com of June 8, 2011, accessed February 15, 2012
56. ↑ Rick Santorum on energy and oil issues2000.org  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 7, 2012  
57. ↑ Santorum's website on energy policy, ( Memento from February 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
58. ↑ Santorum on Capital Punishment ( Memento of the original from April 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: 2012.republican-candidates.org , accessed March 8, 2012 
59. ↑ Santorum on Immigration ( Memento of the original from March 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed March 8, 2012. 
60. ↑ LZPB BaWü
61. ↑ gunowners.org
62. ↑ Santorum argues gun control on 'This Week' . In: UPI , January 20, 2013.
63. ↑ blog.html | mini / Washington Post on the subject of patient murder in the Netherlands
64. ^ CNS News