Is Santorum a liberal?

“Somehow liberals have been unable to acquire from a life what conservatives seem to be endowed with at birth: namely, a healthy skepticism of the powers of government to do good." – Daniel Patrick Moynihan

The short answer to the titled question is no.  Obviously, Rick Santorum’s emphasis on social issues, and the content of his rhetorical flourishes, will not find adherents among those who identify as liberals.  But in larger terms, in the overall conception of what politics has to offer, the answer isn’t so obvious.

In his book A Conflict of Visions, Thomas Sowell advanced the thesis that what really divides liberals and conservatives is a different vision of the world.  Across a wide spectrum, liberals tend to have an unconstrained vision, while conservatives maintain a constrained vision.  In other words, Sowell addressed in book form what Pat Moynihan observed and noted in the quote above.

And that is what makes Santorum’s forays into divisive social issue commentary so perplexing.  It isn’t so much the content, as the overriding question of why he keeps going there.  I am sympathetic that the idea that culture is more important than anything else, and that our culture is in need of repair.  What I can’t for the life of me see is what a president of the United States can do about it.  Still, less that a president in the upcoming terms will have any extra political capital to spend on those issues after addressing our fiscal and likely foreign policy concerns/crises.

At National Review, Mona Charen in a column titled Don’t Pick Rick makes essentially the same point:

“Additionally, as Santorum himself seemed to acknowledge in the Arizona debate, the social issues that worry him (and should worry all of us), such as the collapse of the two-parent family, are not the kinds of problems that government can or even should attempt to solve. Yes, welfare programs that reward unwed parenting by subsidizing it are part of the problem. But, as Santorum will tell you (repeatedly), he helped reform welfare. That was the easy part. The rest is cultural change, and the president of the United States has very limited influence there.” http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/291843/don-t-pick-rick-mona-charen

In a way it reminds me of my very first vote which was the Carter versus Reagan presidential race.  Throughout the campaign Carter focused on his excellent command of policy details as a point of contrast to Reagan.  And my reaction to this strategy was that after four years Carter still didn’t understand his job.  Listening to Rick Santorum in the last couple of weeks I’m drawing the same conclusion; that he thinks he’s running for Archbishop of Canterbury instead of president of the United States.