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Blue Collar Conservatives
Wall Street Journal and National Review Offer Praise for Rick
Santorum's Blue Collar Conservatives
Verona, PA - In case you missed it, both The Wall Street Journal and
National Review offered praise for former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum's
book Blue Collar Conservatives. Below are excerpts from each
article:
From The Wall Street Journal's Gerald Seib:
Republicans already obsessing about the 2016 presidential sweepstakes
have paid little attention so far to Rick Santorum. That's a
mistake...It is a mistake because Mr. Santorum has written a new book,
"Blue Collar Conservatives," that shows he grasps two important
realities that seem to escape many others. The first is that, outmoded
stereotypes notwithstanding, blue-collar Americans, particularly
working-class whites in the South and Midwest, today comprise a core
element of the Republican Party. The second reality is that, because of
the alienation these people feel from both the political and economic
systems, the table is set for a new period of populism....
Democrats, Mr. Santorum argues, have alienated many working-class
Americans with their focus on race-based politics, and have harmed
their economic hopes by failing to recognize the extent to which the
breakdown of the family structure has undermined economic prospects of
blue-collar American. But he also argues that Republicans haven't
taken advantage of the opening by offering policies that speak more
directly to those blue-collar Americans in their midst. He wants tax
cuts, but directed toward middle-class families and parents with young
children in particular. He calls for more spending on infrastructure
projects....
Implicitly, Mr. Santorum's analysis recognizes one of the
underappreciated trends in current American politics: the extent to
which the two parties have undergone an identity switch.
Increasingly, college-educated and upper-income Americans, once assumed
to be a comfortable fit as Republicans, have become core elements of
the Democratic Party. Meanwhile, blue-collar whites, once the core of
the Democrats, increasingly have become Republicans.
As it happens, Hillary Clinton did well among these very blue-collar
voters in her 2008 primary run for the Democratic nomination. Mr.
Santorum is pleading with his party not to take them for granted now.
From National Review's Quin Hillyer:
Rick Santorum is the most frequently underestimated politician of our
lifetimes. Santorum is always the underdog. Perhaps that's one reason
his sympathies lie with underdogs, his message is crafted toward
underdogs, and his support often comes from those a bit lower on the
socioeconomic scale than the voters Republican office-seekers typically
attract....
Santorum's book is admirably replete with specific policy suggestions
that fit this template of a conservatism for jobholders, along with his
uniquely emphasized (and perhaps a bit too repetitive) linkage between
the erosion of traditional values and the economic plight of
non-professionals. This was one of the things the media missed in 2012:
When Santorum spoke about social mores during his presidential battle,
he did so not as a scold but, instead, almost always in the context of
economics, as in his mantra that "the most effective antipoverty tool
is a combination of work, education, and marriage." His new book, in a
fashion more enjoyably readable than most political manifestos,
effectively explores the implications of that thesis both for policy
and for politics...
In the cultural wars of "us against the man," Santorum clearly is an
"us." Minus the character flaws, Santorum is the Pete Rose or the Jimmy
Connors of American politics, the guy with whom supporters can identify
for his work ethic, enthusiasm, and lack of blow-dried pretensions...
The message of his new book is almost pitch-perfect, and Santorum has
proved he can carry the tune.
Go to Santorum’s Facebook page here
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