Men are leading Rick Santorum’s mad charge for the White House. Tom Matlack wants to know why.
A poll released Wednesday showed Rick Santorum maintaining his lead nationwide among likely Republican voters, topping his closest rival Mitt Romney by a margin of nine percentage points.
The poll from Quinnipiac University showed Santorum with the backing of 35% of registered Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, compared to 26% for Romney.
Broken down further, the poll showed Santorum’s support was strongest among Republican men and evangelical Christians. Santorum led Romney 35% to 24% among men, and 45% to 19% among white evangelicals.
—CNN
I’ve asking around and come up with 10 reasons that men prefer Rick Santorum for President in growing numbers, causing the man people are starting to call “Saint-orum” to take a commanding lead in the Republican Presidential nomination process and making an evangelical resident of the White House a real possibility. Here are ten reasons that guys I know gave me. Please add yours to the comment area.
#10 He is for unprotected sex.
#9 A woman’s place is home with the kids so the man of the house can shoot guns at large game or Muslims.
#8 Let’s face it the guy is cute and most of us are closeted homosexuals. We just want him.
#7 God. And we know there is just one.
#6 We’re unemployed.
#5 The guy in the White House now is named Obama and it just confuses us.
#4 His book put Hilary in her place, uppity bitch.
#3 Gay people make us nervous (because we are gay). Gay marriage is only okay inside a JackAss film that also involves ingesting the sperm of a farm animals.
#2 We don’t want health care.
#1 Women’s bodies are for men to do with what they like.
AP Photo/Eric Gay
I laughed more than I should. I really despise Santorum. Yes, it is primarily because I have a uterus, which he seems to be incredibly interested in.
The alternate definition of his name is the only thing which makes his presence bearable.
Last time I checked, my wife has one of those too and she likes what he stands for. Then again, she was a full time mom and didn’t re-enter the business world until after the kids were out of school. She was laid off three years ago and has not been able to find a job. She lost her unemployment two years ago, so she’s not counted as one of the unemployed. Yeah, she’s also a women who was given a choice to abort our daughter 6 months into her pregnancy because of health complications but because of her faith… Read more »
I like seeing an occasional humor piece on the site. And Ron Oliver has defined quite well why Santorum and his supporters deserve a satirical treatment.
I agree, so long as we’re also willing to examine their motives more deeply. I think Daniel’s analysis bears merit. Even if, like he, I don’t agree with it.
Hi, I’ve been coming to Good Men Project for a long time and have probably, honest-to-goodness read over a hundred articles on this site by now. I was truly blown away when I discovered this site, because I had been looking for something just like it for over a year I’d say. I’m thus a huge admirer of Tom and what he’s been trying to do here, and probably 90% of the time I have pretty much agreed with his take on some extremely difficult and nuanced issues that people grapple with here and in their everyday lives concerning gender,… Read more »
Daniel…a lovely, impassioned comment, obviously heartfelt. But you left out one other possibility about why people are supporting Santorum – the Right Wing voting block is simply stupid. They don’t understand what they are voting for, they don’t understand the place of America on the increasingly small world stage, and they don’t understand the implications of “Christian” rule in this country. They are overwhelmingly white, male, and over 40 and they don’t understand what has happened to their lives….and like dogs backed into a corner, they are snarling mad and ready to fight. They perceive Obama as a black, foreign… Read more »
What Ron Oliver said.
“This is, of course, precisely how Germany moved into its rather dark period in the last centur”
You just made an excellent argument in daniel’s favour. The one sided and simplistic interpretations of the cause of world war one lead to the Versailles treaty and other punative policies. These impoverished and marginalised the entire country, creating the conditions which allowed the Nazis to sieze power.
Dismissing your opponents as “simple idiots” isn’t very intellectually honest.
That said, its a lightheated article and there are more serious political articles on the site.
Ron – Let me start by saying that I agree with you on one point: one *possibility* that people are supporting Santorum is that they’re stupid. If my above comment did not make it clear, I am sure that there *are* people who support Santorum because they’re uninformed or because they hate people who are different from them and that is wrong. My quarrel would be that I am equally sure that all of the candidates, Republican, Democrat, Independent, etc. have supporters who base their opinions on ignorance or prejudice. My main point then is that I think that the… Read more »
“Ron – Let me start by saying that I agree with you on one point: one *possibility* that people are supporting Santorum is that they’re stupid. If my above comment did not make it clear, I am sure that there *are* people who support Santorum because they’re uninformed or because they hate people who are different from them and that is wrong.”
And I’m pretty sure theres more than a few people who’ll vote Obama for silly reasons too. No reflection on the candidate, more the voters.
I don’t see Obama as any of which you mentioned. What I am looking at is that all my investments are gone down the tubes. I haven’t seen a raise in pay for more then two years although my reviews have been far exceeding expectations. I’ve recently experienced a mandate by the government to accept employee benefit services which fly in the face of my faith. Four male friends have settled for jobs where their income is less then half what they were making, accordingly they have taken on part time jobs to help their finances. The company I work… Read more »
Thanks for the comment Daniel. Just wanted to be sure you saw this, which is obviously more serious in tone on the same point: https://goodmenproject.com/good-feed-blog/why-i-agree-with-rick-santorum-on-sah-parenting-gasp/
Tom, thanks so much for linking the article about Santorum and his stance on stay-at-home parenting. That is very much the sort of article that I come to this site for: a writer identifies something or someone that they are generally opposed to, but they also point out the possibility of something worthwhile being defended by their opponents, and then they reiterate why it is that they still, nevertheless, because of several other enumerated reasons, are opposed to that thing or person. I still feel personally that the one serious article, simply by having also been posted, doesn’t excuse anything… Read more »
Very well said.
Daniel, I’m glad I read your post first in that it deminished my anger and brought me back in focus. Thank you for your objective view. At this point in time, as a conservative and a Catholic, I’m leaning toward Santorum for many of the reasons you mentioned. I too am not impressed with the candidates and as in years past, it’s a matter of what I see as the lessor of the evils. At the age of 57, things are not looking too good for my future. Thank you again for your reply. Take care.
Fucking brilliant, Tom.
#14. The general election gaffe he has to make is going to be a doozy given what’s already happened.
Not this man.
#11: We just like to say “santorum” because of the anal-sex meaning of the word.
#12: We like to say his name hoping that people will look up the word on Google.
#13: We want him to stay in the headlines to see how many inadvertent puns show up in the papers, like “Santorum Surges from Behind”
Very +1 😀
The best predictor of political outcomes is not polls, but prediction markets. Here are the “intrade” numbers for the 2012 primaries:
77% Mitt Romney to be Republican Presidential Nominee in 2012
10% Rick Santorum to be Republican Presidential Nominee in 2012
And for the general election:
59% Barack Obama to be re-elected President in 2012