you smart people think you're so smart with your facts and rational thinking and logic.

We're stupid so hooray for us. But we should still be your leaders because we're holier than you.

How did these people manage to get enough power to pass voter ID laws and gerrymander the districts so effectively? I don't get it.

@3
By showing up and voting.

@3: By being disciplined and focused and by setting nuance and complexity aside. The Democrats have never been able to manage that. Getting the Democrats to unite behind a message is like herding cats. Conservatives are either-or in their thinking; it's much easier to rally the troops behind a "with us or against us" message.

If he thinks that America is sustained by Church and Family, why is he involved in government?

What Santorum is mangling beyond all recognition is that those who have a firm faith in God, which isn't logical or reliant on base power, will be who flock to their banner. (This is in reference to a section in the New Testament that I don't have handy today.)

Unfortunately, he and they at the Values Voters Summit are wrong, because they don't rely on their Christian faith. Faith is, at it's heart, trust in God, and they have thrown that away and decided to, instead, interpret the Bible to meet the needs borne by their fears and hatreds.

They've decided to avoid at all costs the hard work of accepting and applying that which is hard to do, and have decided that being selfish, using God as their excuse for the specifics of their selfishness, is what matters most.

And one of the worst things one can do, per the New Testament, is to use God's word towards selfish ends diametrically opposed to God's word.

@7
"Faith is, at it's heart, trust in God, and they have thrown that away and decided to, instead, interpret the Bible to meet the needs borne by their fears and hatreds."

Isn't that what religion is?
Which is why every believer knows in his/her heart that God loves them and thinks the same way they do about the important things.

Oh, I listened to it again and he said why he's been involved in government and the Conservative Political movement: To try to get his "values ENFORCED", apparently unlike those Liberals who "believe they should have to power to tell you what to do."

@8: No.

Most of the religions that have great followings tend to demand the best of us, and that is not always an easy thing to accomplish when you are tempted to slip over the line from self-interest to selfishness, which tends to be the root of most sin, per the tenets of most the world's largest religions.

Among the hardest things to maintain is a sense of humility. That you won't and don't always have all the answers, but that adherence, to listen and to try to truly understand, the tenets of your faith, even (or especially) when it's hard, will guide you toward a valid answer.

The folks at the Values Voters Summit have lost their humility. And as a result, it makes it that much easier to be selfish rather than faithful.

And thus to lose their faith in the process, while demanding that they are the only ones among the faithful.

Since he used his thumb and forefinger to enumerate "church" and "family," I'm kinda surprised he didn't go ahead and mock-shoot some off-stage target complete with forearm recoil, and wink at the camera.

Keep laughing, but Santorum's speech was, well, smart.

I'd ban single ideology theology degrees, and make everyone who wants to study their own religion for a certificate have to do at least three years of studying other religions (including the made up stuff, like Scientology, Mormonism and the Flying Spaghetti Monster). Doctors don't get a degree for spending four years studying just the circulatory system, so theology should be the entire body of religion.

Family, yes.

Church, fuck no.

@11
I think you've slipped into the "no true Scotsman" fallacy there.
As an easy demonstration, just look at all the different Protestant denominations.
And then the variations between churches in those denominations.
And that's just one division of Christianity.

Yet, isn't it the media (Huffpo) and the intellectuals who make a career out of saying how they are on the side of the "Working Man"?

@17: ...no. Media, Huffington Post or otherwise, make a career out of bringing news to people in a format that interests them. Intellectuals sometimes go into industry, but more commonly they make a living in research.

Unfortunately @13's right. His speech was very smart, as in shrewd. The Republicans have used their shrewdness a lot more effectively than the Democrats have used their intelligence.

Shorter Rick Santorum: "I'm too stupid to know what the basic premise of America is."

@16 - oh, so that's what that is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Sco…. I didn't realize there was a name for the "There are no gay Muslims / violent Christians / bigoted Americans / what have you, because if there are any, they aren't true Muslims/Christians/Americans/etc." that I've been hearing on & off since high school -- other than bullshit. So thanks.

@16 That may be true, but at @8 you've used a gross overgeneralization and then you go on to say that religions have massive variety.

He's a very good speaker. Let's give him that. He's not consistently disciplined in presenting his message. He'll stick his foot in his mouth from time to time. But he has both clarity and sincere passion when he speaks, as well as a sort-of everyman quality, like a Mr. Smith from hell. I can see why he's so popular among his people.

@24 is right -- we may be quite lucky that Romney's the nominee because the base actually likes Santorum, and he might have gotten some voters who just don't like Romney and who either won't vote or will vote for Obama.

What about functioning nonreligious families? As an atheist who does assign value to family, I mean how am I not offended by this?

He sounds like Hitler or some type of dictator. I think we have our 2016 Republican Presidential Candidate right here. If and I hope Romney loses this election, he'll be done politically. As for Santorum, I think he'll either continue to run for presidential office or become the next Jerry Falwell.

@14 "Including" the made up stuff? Which stuff isn't made up?

Hate to break it to him, but a LOT of everyday conservative Christians are college-educated, their parents were college-educated, and they want their kids to be college-educated. And beyond that, a lot of everyday conservative Christians are teachers, or work in the educational field in some other capacity. "Blah blah blah liberal indoctrination" aside, bottom line is that they benefitted from the economic opportunity provided by their college educations and want the same for their descendants.

If you're trying to define Values Voters as only those who are uneducated, all you're doing is shrinking the "Values Voter" pool in the end. You can only divide and conquer so often before you're left with very little.

@13, @20 -- smart in what way? Because, yeah, a certain kind of right wing evangelical crowd eats this stuff with a spoon, but what else does it accomplish?

Patriot Voices sounds like the name WCVB's NFL pre-game show.