Santorum will always live in infamy in my scrapbook through no fault of his own. He happened to come by locally one night in 2012, the very same night the college where I taught was visited by a famous Iowa novelist, a Pulitzer Prize winner, someone known throughout the world as a Calvinist, Marilynne Robinson, whose novel Gilead had struck me (and millions of others) as immensely compelling and blessedly Christian. Marilynne Robinson was, in other words, the quintessential Dordt College visiting lecturer.
Her "First Mondays" speech had been so immensely thoughtful that along the way it lost most of the students assembled in BJ, but I had hoped for a much better crowd than the paltry numbers that showed up for her evening lecture. It was just plain scant.
I was embarrassed and angered because just next door, the BJ Auditorium was jammed for a stump speech by a right-wing, social conservative from Pennsylvania who, among other things, was quite out front about faith and politics, making the absurd claim that "there's no such thing as a liberal Christian," the kind of red-meat line that the neighborhood loves.
That's why the place was packed. That's why, in 2012, gunning for a win in the Iowa Caucuses, Rick Santorum, whenever he could, campaigned throughout the state in a Pizza Ranch. He was, "the Pizza Ranch candidate," long before Trump corralled the region's huge Christian conservatives. Santorum was "BT," before Trump, but evidence for the theory that things were in place for His Magnificence when he got into the mix four years later. That year, Santorum won. He did (okay, by 34 votes).
Sen. Rick Santorum, the Roman Catholic evangelical, so vastly outdrew Marilynne Robinson that night, that later, after her lecture, I apologized when I brought her back to where she was staying. "I'm so sorry for the small crowd," I said. "Within shouting distance, the college hosted Rick Santorum tonight and you got beat."
I don't remember exactly what she said, but I do remember feeling that she was less perturbed than her ornery host. The beating is what I'll always remember about Rick Santorum, his mad, thronging worshippers packing the BJ the night Marilynne Robinson was two buildings away speaking in a cemetery.
Whatever happened at Dordt College in the runup to the 2012 caucuses had nothing to do with CNN pulling the plug on Santorum. He has been one of a few proponents of Republican views on the network, and hasn't been anywhere near to being fanatically Trumpian. Of course, because he's not running for office he has nothing to lose by disagreeing with the Gread Orange Potentate. The fact is, Santorum messed up. Here's how the Washington Post reported it:
The even greater horror of the original sin was that the earnest audience at the Young America's Forum seemed not to question Santorum's bigotry. They all bought it, as if they too believed it, which they likely did.
Look, if you're a conservative, you can think of the "1619 Project" as rat poison and regard "critical race theory" as some diabolical, Stalinist horror, but still maintain that what the Pizza Ranch candidate said--or didn't say--was abhorrent.
That night, no one, it seems, raised a question. People applauded, like they all must have done back in 2008, when Rick Santorum, held forth in the BJ Haan, and Marilynne Robinson had a crowd of a couple dozen people right next door.
That's why the place was packed. That's why, in 2012, gunning for a win in the Iowa Caucuses, Rick Santorum, whenever he could, campaigned throughout the state in a Pizza Ranch. He was, "the Pizza Ranch candidate," long before Trump corralled the region's huge Christian conservatives. Santorum was "BT," before Trump, but evidence for the theory that things were in place for His Magnificence when he got into the mix four years later. That year, Santorum won. He did (okay, by 34 votes).
Sen. Rick Santorum, the Roman Catholic evangelical, so vastly outdrew Marilynne Robinson that night, that later, after her lecture, I apologized when I brought her back to where she was staying. "I'm so sorry for the small crowd," I said. "Within shouting distance, the college hosted Rick Santorum tonight and you got beat."
I don't remember exactly what she said, but I do remember feeling that she was less perturbed than her ornery host. The beating is what I'll always remember about Rick Santorum, his mad, thronging worshippers packing the BJ the night Marilynne Robinson was two buildings away speaking in a cemetery.
Whatever happened at Dordt College in the runup to the 2012 caucuses had nothing to do with CNN pulling the plug on Santorum. He has been one of a few proponents of Republican views on the network, and hasn't been anywhere near to being fanatically Trumpian. Of course, because he's not running for office he has nothing to lose by disagreeing with the Gread Orange Potentate. The fact is, Santorum messed up. Here's how the Washington Post reported it:
Talking about the founding of this country, Santorum said that American settlers “birthed a nation from nothing,” and that “there was nothing here” when they arrived, ignoring the history and culture of the Native American people.When given a chance on air to explain himself later, quite simply he didn't get the job done. We're not talking about "political correctness" here; we're talking about denigrating the character of the only minority people who can look at the rest of us and see a host of illegal aliens.
The even greater horror of the original sin was that the earnest audience at the Young America's Forum seemed not to question Santorum's bigotry. They all bought it, as if they too believed it, which they likely did.
Look, if you're a conservative, you can think of the "1619 Project" as rat poison and regard "critical race theory" as some diabolical, Stalinist horror, but still maintain that what the Pizza Ranch candidate said--or didn't say--was abhorrent.
That night, no one, it seems, raised a question. People applauded, like they all must have done back in 2008, when Rick Santorum, held forth in the BJ Haan, and Marilynne Robinson had a crowd of a couple dozen people right next door.
That, I remember.
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