Who is the Real Social Conservative?

If I told you that a person:

1. Voted to use tax payer money to fund Planned Parenthood (number one provider of abortions in America)
2. Voted to pass legislation used to criminalize and indicted Pro-Life peaceful protesters
3. Endorsed Pro-Abortion candidates over Pro-Life Candidates
4. Has voted in the past to federally fund contraception (birth control) [1]

AND you consider yourself pro-life would you vote for that person?

Would you call that person a conservative or liberal?

Anyone want to take a guess at who this describes?

It’s probably not who you are thinking it is. People are probably quick to think of a “liberal” candidate/politician. Someone who has openly said they support a woman’s right to choose. Romney or Obama is a likely first thought.

Well you’d be wrong!

You would never consider it to be the person who casts himself as the “social” conservative, the most “prolife” candidate, or the defender of religious freedom. The person who is described above is Rick Santorum!

He has based his whole conservative image on social issues. Why? Well he knows that his record on fiscal issues, limited government, lower taxes, and privacy issues are liberal NOT conservative [2]

So he has hung his hat on courting the Evangelicals and Catholic religious conservatives. He has pandered and catered his message to massage their ears! And they (I should say we because I am an Evangelical) have bought it!

However when you examine his record here is what you’ll find:

• He voted for funding planned parenthood – His defense is that it was included in a much larger spending bill. Well herein is part of the problem. He is for spending in general. If he didn’t mind spending taxpayer money he would have voted no on that principle alone…but to go further if he was SO admitatley prolife there is NO WAY he could vote for any spending bill that included funding Planned Parenthood. He will also try to say the money from the government doesn’t go toward abortions. Understand the term fungible and how it works. [3]  Basically, if you only have $100 and you need gas but you also want groceries but you couldn’t afford both you are forced to make an either or decision (I like food I’d get food and walk). Now say I gave you $100 and tell you to get some food with my money. You can now afford things that you couldn’t before. You may not ever spend the money I gave you on gas but you are now able to afford gas. The same is the case with government funding of Planned Parenthood. Let alone the fact that the government is giving ANY  support to ANY private organization at all…ESPECIALLY one that is providing services that are against the conscience of a large percentage of US citizens.
• The legislation is The Abortion Clinic Access Bill [4] and Rick Santorum voted Yay. If he’s against abortion so much why in the world is he voting for access to the clinics? Furthermore, many prolife groups warned that this bill would be abused and end up getting peaceful demonstrators arrested. Well it has.[5] If you are prolife do you want people to have access to clinics or have them closed down? I am confused.
• Does the name Arlen Specter ring a bell? It should. He was a liberal prochoice Republican from the same state as Rick Santorum, Pennsylvania. There was a more social and fiscal conservative choice (Pat Toomey) that was in the Republican primary in 2004 against Specter. Santorum, however, endorsed the liberal prochoice candidate. WHAT? Why would a prolife candidate endorse a prochoice candidate if prolife issues are so important to him? Specter won in a close election less than 1%. Here’s more fuel to the fire. Specter later switched to the Democratic Party and cast a crucial vote in the Senate to pass Obamacare. Oh and by the way Toomey may sound like a familiar name to you now because he beat Specter and the democrats in 2010 mid-term elections.[6] Imagine if Santorum had endorsed Toomey could that have affected less than 1% to feel comfortable with Toomey over Specter? Now ask yourself, would Toomey have voted for the 1st Amendment trampling (forcing Religious institutions to provide contraception to their employees) and the abortion funding Obamacare? The answer is NO! Santorum essentially helped Obama get through his healthcare legislation by supporting Specter.
• He previously voted to continue funding for Title X…which funded contraception. Title X is the only existing federal grant program that is completely devoted to providing comprehensive family planning and other related preventive health services to individuals.[7]

I could keep writing on all the other anti-gun legislation, Endowment of the Arts etc but you get the picture by now.

Here’s my point if he wasn’t so spend happy he never would have indirectly, THOUGH knowingly, voted for Planned Parenthood or Title X. If he was really wanting Abortion clinics closed not easier access; he wouldn’t vote for legislation that leads to the prosecution of peaceful protesters. AND if he was the conservative prolife politician he casts himself has he wouldn’t vote for these OR endorsed Specter out of conscience. Santorum has no problem spending money even when the bills contain pro-death appropriations.

The truth is he is a big government spending Republican who is neither consistent on Fiscal conservatism nor Social conservatism. He isn’t against over spending just Democrats overspending. If and when it’s Republican deficits and debt ceiling increases he doesn’t mind spending. 6 out of 7 times while in Congress he voted in favor of raising the debt ceiling.[8]

We have a candidate who has NEVER voted for raising taxes, unbalanced budgets, or spending increases. Who has also NEVER voted for funding Planned Parenthood, Title X, did not vote for the Access to Abortion Clinics bill OR endorsed Pro-Choice candidates.

In this election we don’t have to make the often vexing decision between social conservative vs. fiscal conservative. We have a candidate that embodies BOTH. RON PAUL!

RON PAUL has introduced a bill in the Congress that would effectively end Roe vs. Wade with a simple majority of votes and a presidential signature. The Sanctity of Life Act would return jurisdiction to the states and overturn Roe vs. Wade. This bill would save millions of lives immediately while we work on a Constitutional amendment and/or getting judges in place to overturn Roe vs. Wade. The changes at the Federal level are still years away…and difficult (that’s part of the problem of big centralized government. It is difficult to change once something is enacted.) Why not do stop gap measures in the meantime until the latter is accomplished. Most states would vote to make abortions illegal and immediately end them. WE DEFINITELY wouldn’t have all the states funding abortions![9]

Ron Paul is the conservative option to Rick Santorum…on both SOCIAL and FISCAL issues!

SOURCES:

[1] http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/10549-santorum-voted-to-subsidize-abortion-planned-parenthood

[2] http://americanvisionnews.com/1768/santorum-is-a-big-government-says-red-state

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fungibility

[4] http://www.votesmart.org/bill/5480/21800/27054/abortion-clinic-access-bill

[5] http://thenewamerican.com/culture/family/7374-doj-targets-pro-life-activists

[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlen_Specter

[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_X

[8] http://www.thepoliticalguide.com/Profiles/Senate/Pennsylvania/Rick_Santorum/Views/Debt,_Deficit,_Spending,_and_the_Size_of_Government/

[9] http://ontheissues.org/TX/Ron_Paul_Abortion.htm