Sanctum of Santorum is shrunk by apathy
Sanctum of Santorum is shrunk by apathy
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006
Published: August 11 2006 03:00 | Last updated: August 11 2006 03:00
The average age was about 40. But among the 100 or so people who gathered to listen to Rick Santorum, the Republican senator for Pennsylvania, most were above 70 or below 10. The senator was flanked by his wife Karen and their six children, all of whom are "home schooled" - a growing practice among conservative Christians, who disdain America's secular public schools.
Mr Santorum, who was visiting West Kittanning, a backwater about 30 miles from Pittsburgh, once dubbed the steel capital of America, has two objectives in his re-election campaign. First, to discredit his opponent, Bob Casey, who, like Mr Santorum - but unusually for a Democrat - is "pro-life" and therefore immune to a large chunk of the senator's social conservative rallying cry. Polls show Mr Casey several points ahead of Mr Santorum, who won previous races by large margins. Democrats need to win six Senate seats out of the 33 being contested to regain control - and Mr Santorum's is one of the six most vulnerable.
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Second, the senator aims (without fully admitting it) to put distance between himself and President George W. Bush, whose low approval ratings have made him a liability to fellow Republicans for the first time since he arrived in the White House in 2001. Mr Santorum's knack of leaping from the particular to the general and from the demography of this small gathering to the global war on terror betrays years of practice.
"As I look out I see a lot of children," said Mr Santorum, his audience gathered at the local fire station. "We have worked hard to keep your kids safe. If there is a difference in this race, it is over security. My opponent is fond of quoting the 9/11 commission [a bipartisan inquiry into US security failings in the 2001 terrorist attacks] and claiming the Bush administration has ignored many of its recommendations. But he ignores the most important one of all - to 'secure our borders'."
Dressed in fawn slacks and blue polo shirt, Mr Santorum proceeded to link the Democrats' opposition to a bill that would crack down on illegal immigration to the opposition party's alleged reluctance to take tough measures against terrorism. The audience seemed unfazed by the senator's switch from the local children to immigration to "Islamic fascism" and "world war three" in the space of a few sentences.
It was also a practised attempt to kill two birds with one stone. Mr Bush opposes the tough Republican-led bill on immigration. The senator implied that Mr Bush was also not firm enough in defending America's national security. "I have to say I disagree with the president on how we should conduct the 'war on terror' - and I disagree with Mr Casey too," he said.
"I say this is a war on 'Islamic fascism', not a 'war on terror'. In the second world war our enemy was
'the Nazis', it was not the blitzkrieg. Today we are fighting another world war and our enemy is Islamic fascism, not their methods. We have to be courageous enough to say who the enemy is."
The refrain went down well with the local firefighters in this economically stagnant corner of a largely post-industrial state. But many in Pennsylvania sense he is fighting a losing battle this time.
First elected to the Senate in 1994 at the age of 36, Mr Santorum is a national standard-bearer of the Christian right. But so far the 2006 campaign has been dominated by voters' economic insecurities, anxiety over the war in Iraq and a general mood of anti-incumbency.
At the next stop, in neighbouring Jefferson County where Mr Santorum addressedpicnicking local Republicans and went canoeing with his children in the state park, the senator admitted he has to contend with an unusually sour public mood.
"I blame the media and 24-hour-a-day television news," he said in a brief interview, having just emerged from the water. "There is an excess of information and there is a constant demand on politicians to respond instantly to the media - 20 or 30 years ago, many more people were involved in politics than today."
An elderly woman, who said she was a Santorum loyalist, demurred when asked whether issues such as opposition to gay marriage and stem cell research were resonating with voters. "Not really. I know some of them [people who are gay] and they don't do me any harm," she said. "Most people around here are concerned with jobs and the economy. People aren't feeling very happy."
Then it was time for the senator's cavalcade to drive to the next engagement at a farm fair in Butler, another rural county. One of the tyres on his campaign bus had burst, so Mr Santorum's family were distributed among supporters' cars. The bus was adorned with a picture of the family and emblazoned with his slogan: "Keep up the fight". In contrast to his previous campaigns, Mr Santorum is having to battle apathy within his support base.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006
Published: August 11 2006 03:00 | Last updated: August 11 2006 03:00
The average age was about 40. But among the 100 or so people who gathered to listen to Rick Santorum, the Republican senator for Pennsylvania, most were above 70 or below 10. The senator was flanked by his wife Karen and their six children, all of whom are "home schooled" - a growing practice among conservative Christians, who disdain America's secular public schools.
Mr Santorum, who was visiting West Kittanning, a backwater about 30 miles from Pittsburgh, once dubbed the steel capital of America, has two objectives in his re-election campaign. First, to discredit his opponent, Bob Casey, who, like Mr Santorum - but unusually for a Democrat - is "pro-life" and therefore immune to a large chunk of the senator's social conservative rallying cry. Polls show Mr Casey several points ahead of Mr Santorum, who won previous races by large margins. Democrats need to win six Senate seats out of the 33 being contested to regain control - and Mr Santorum's is one of the six most vulnerable.
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Second, the senator aims (without fully admitting it) to put distance between himself and President George W. Bush, whose low approval ratings have made him a liability to fellow Republicans for the first time since he arrived in the White House in 2001. Mr Santorum's knack of leaping from the particular to the general and from the demography of this small gathering to the global war on terror betrays years of practice.
"As I look out I see a lot of children," said Mr Santorum, his audience gathered at the local fire station. "We have worked hard to keep your kids safe. If there is a difference in this race, it is over security. My opponent is fond of quoting the 9/11 commission [a bipartisan inquiry into US security failings in the 2001 terrorist attacks] and claiming the Bush administration has ignored many of its recommendations. But he ignores the most important one of all - to 'secure our borders'."
Dressed in fawn slacks and blue polo shirt, Mr Santorum proceeded to link the Democrats' opposition to a bill that would crack down on illegal immigration to the opposition party's alleged reluctance to take tough measures against terrorism. The audience seemed unfazed by the senator's switch from the local children to immigration to "Islamic fascism" and "world war three" in the space of a few sentences.
It was also a practised attempt to kill two birds with one stone. Mr Bush opposes the tough Republican-led bill on immigration. The senator implied that Mr Bush was also not firm enough in defending America's national security. "I have to say I disagree with the president on how we should conduct the 'war on terror' - and I disagree with Mr Casey too," he said.
"I say this is a war on 'Islamic fascism', not a 'war on terror'. In the second world war our enemy was
'the Nazis', it was not the blitzkrieg. Today we are fighting another world war and our enemy is Islamic fascism, not their methods. We have to be courageous enough to say who the enemy is."
The refrain went down well with the local firefighters in this economically stagnant corner of a largely post-industrial state. But many in Pennsylvania sense he is fighting a losing battle this time.
First elected to the Senate in 1994 at the age of 36, Mr Santorum is a national standard-bearer of the Christian right. But so far the 2006 campaign has been dominated by voters' economic insecurities, anxiety over the war in Iraq and a general mood of anti-incumbency.
At the next stop, in neighbouring Jefferson County where Mr Santorum addressedpicnicking local Republicans and went canoeing with his children in the state park, the senator admitted he has to contend with an unusually sour public mood.
"I blame the media and 24-hour-a-day television news," he said in a brief interview, having just emerged from the water. "There is an excess of information and there is a constant demand on politicians to respond instantly to the media - 20 or 30 years ago, many more people were involved in politics than today."
An elderly woman, who said she was a Santorum loyalist, demurred when asked whether issues such as opposition to gay marriage and stem cell research were resonating with voters. "Not really. I know some of them [people who are gay] and they don't do me any harm," she said. "Most people around here are concerned with jobs and the economy. People aren't feeling very happy."
Then it was time for the senator's cavalcade to drive to the next engagement at a farm fair in Butler, another rural county. One of the tyres on his campaign bus had burst, so Mr Santorum's family were distributed among supporters' cars. The bus was adorned with a picture of the family and emblazoned with his slogan: "Keep up the fight". In contrast to his previous campaigns, Mr Santorum is having to battle apathy within his support base.
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