Tonight’s primary contests yielded great results for the “social issues” conservative. Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum won both Alabama and Mississippi. After not being able to wrap up the nomination on Super Tuesday, Mitt Romney has real problems connecting with the most conservative elements of the Republican base. This win in particular on the part of Santorum cuts both ways. Obviously, Romney continues to look bad, but this also means that Newt Gingrich has an increasingly less viable path. Despite that, Gingrich appears to have every intention to stay in the race regardless. The fact that Gingrich based his entire reasoning for staying in on the “Southern Strategy” and still couldn’t take these southern states shows a lot about his viability.
Running on social issues and values benefits Santorum. These two wins in Deep South states illustrate a connection with working class conservatives. When you look past this base, however, the rhetoric doesn’t play so well generally. Santorum once said that America “was great before 1965” One can only wonder what was meant by that. Jim Crow nostalgia anyone?
-Marc W. Polite
Likes post-1965 America