Ever since the GOP primary began, the liberal propaganda machine (aka the media) has been out to get Rick Santorum, former senator from Pennsylvania and current candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.  He’s been criticized for his firm stance on social issues such as gay marriage and women’s health, his relentless opposition to the socialist policies of the Obama Administration, his stylish choice in sweater vests and, most notably, his religious beliefs.

So far we at the Highlander have done little to combat these baseless attacks on Mr. Santorum’s character, but we can no longer stand idly by as America’s last, best hope for a brighter future is carelessly cast aside.  And so it is with great pleasure that we announce our official endorsement of Rick Santorum’s bid for the presidency.  Now, let’s dispel some of those nasty rumors, shall we?

Many have suggested that faith plays too large a role in Santorum’s platform, that he is only interested in seeing Christian values validated, replicated and enforced by the government (as if that were a bad thing!).  Individuals of this irreligious predisposition have no doubt been biased by the erroneous notion that religion shouldn’t play a role in politics.

They side with JFK, who said in 1960 that he believed “in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute, where no Catholic prelate would tell the president (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote.”  Last month, Santorum stated publicly that the speech makes him want to “throw up.”

We couldn’t agree more; the separation of church and state is just so icky.  Think about it – we could be living in a nation that refuses to acknowledge the religious doctrine of any faith as a legitimate source of legislation.  Bleh!  And people act as though this is the way it should be, like it’s in the Constitution or something!

What many Americans fail to recognize is that Santorum is defending the interests of an abused minority.  President Obama’s war on religion has been really hard on Christians, who make up a meager 78 percent of the population.  Most recently, Obama threatened to force religious organizations to pay for contraception for all their female employees, regardless of whether or not said organizations approve of the use of birth control.

Though the president later rescinded the mandate and suggested that insurance companies pay for contraception instead, the message conveyed by the White House was clear: Christian voices have no pull in the realm of American politics.  Many shrugged off Obama’s overt attack, errantly believing that he had given them exactly what they asked for, but luckily Santorum was up to the task.

Back in October of 2011, when the debacle began, Santorum said, “One of the things I will talk about, that no president has talked about before, is I think the dangers of contraception in this country…. Many of the Christian faith have said, well, that’s okay, contraception is okay. It’s not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.”  The voice of reason – at last!

Americans hear all about the benefits of birth control – that it can help couples avoid unwanted and/or unplanned pregnancies and significantly reduce the incidence of abortions on a national level and so on – but why does no one ever talk about the dangers associated with it?  All contraception really does is give people an excuse to be promiscuous and, furthermore, have sex outside of the holy bonds of marriage.

This is a conviction that many religious people in America share, excepting perhaps the 98 percent of sexually experienced women of childbearing age who identify themselves as Catholic and have used a method of contraception other than natural family planning at some point in their lives (according to a poll conducted by the Guttmacher Institute last year), and yet Obama boldly denies their right to uphold said conviction.

The First Amendment clearly states that no American should have to perform any service, pay any fee or abide by any law that in any way compromises his or her religious beliefs.  That’s why Buddhists don’t have to pay taxes to fund any of America’s wars and Native Americans aren’t required to follow property legislation that keeps them from conducting religious ceremonies on privately owned land that once belonged to their tribes.  I mean, what kind of backwards nation would stand for it?

The main point here is that Rick Santorum is not trying to force his religious beliefs on the American people – he is trying to protect them from the hoards of liberal heathens who have taken hold of this nation.  And if preserving Christians’ God-given right to have their morals reflected in the laws of their government means limiting the rights of a few other minor demographics (women and LGBT individuals, for example), then so be it.

Santorum is no zealot – he is the white knight of the Republican party, marching us bravely into a new era in politics by dragging us back to a significantly older one.  He is the president our country needs, but not the one it deserves.  As for Santorum’s critics, perhaps they’re right:  the senator from Pennsylvania may well be mentally unstable – just mentally unstable enough to win, that is!

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    The Highlander editorials reflect the majority view of the Highlander Editorial Board. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Associated Students of UCR or the University of California system.