Faith Burnside: Why I support Senator Rick Santorum for President

Former Senator Rick Santorum, candidate for the GOP Nomination, 2016

 

Faith Burnside is the state chair of Indiana Students for Rick Santorum, and a friend of mine. The views expressed herein are her own. In the run-up to the election I will attempt to have articles by others who support differing or opposing views from my own to help my readers better understand the political climate of the moment. -Andrew Abbott

 

Monticello, IN- I have more than a few times been asked why I support Senator Rick Santorum for President,  and thus, this post was born.

 

First let us tackle Senator Santorum on the issues.

 

One of the most important issues that face a president is foreign policy, and out of all of the current GOP candidates for president Senator Santorum has the most experience with foreign policy. Senator Santorum served for 8 years on the Senate Armed Services Committee and authored the Syria Accountability Act  and the Iran Freedom and Support Act.

 

Further, and most importantly, Rick Santorum stands with Israel, Patriot Voices, the organization that Senator Santorum started and was chairman of for 2 years, took goodwill trip to Israel and has led the effort in standing with Israel against those who would attack her

 

Senator Santorum has often declared that as president he will fight to stop the rise of radical Islam and the threat of terrorism.

 

As the son and grandson of Italian immigrants, Rick Santorum believe in the American dream and importance of allowing healthy amount of immigration into our country. As president he hopes to downsize the amount of immigrant each year from the approximately 1 million immigrants we currently get to about 750,000, which he believes is a more healthy number that will allow for economic growth and jobs for American citizens.

 

Senator Santorum has been focused on helping middle class Americans who are the backbone of the country. In order to do this he believes in creating a fairer and flatter tax code that would greatly diminish the role of the IRS in our day to day lives. Senator Santorum’s thoughts on the American workers can be found in his book Blue Collar Conservative. Senator Santorum is committed to creating an atmosphere in which business can thrive with less government restrictions and more freedom.

 

As a member of the “Gang of Seven” which helped to expose the congressional banking and post office scandals in the early 1990s, Senator Santorum has long been a proponent of fiscal responsibility.

 

 Senator Santorum supports “No Budget, No Pay” legislation which would require a balanced budget or else the members of congress forgo their pay. He also has been a long supporter of a balanced budget amendment to the US Constitution.

 

Rick Santorum believes in school choice and stands for “Common Sense, not Common Core” He believes that parents, states and communities should make the decisions about education rather than the federal government.

 

Regarding family values and religious freedom, Senator Santorum is a strong believe in conservative values, such as the sanctity of life, the right to protect ones self and family, the definition of marriage as being a union between one man and one woman.

 

Senator Santorum also authored the Workplace Religious Freedom Act.

To me the most important issue facing this nation and our society in general is the issue of life/abortion. And this is the main reason I admire Rick J. Santorum. From his time in the senate to the present day Senator Santorum has been a champion for the Right to life and a hero in the battle for the Sanctity of life.

 

He wrote, and championed the fight to pass both the Alive Infant Protection Act and the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. Further he has written legislation promoting the use of Adult Stem Cell Research so that ethical research can be continued to cure debilitating diseases without the loss of human life entailed in Embryonic Stem Cell research.

 

Not one to stop with words, you can see his commitment to protecting the sanctity of life played out in his day to day walk. Senator Santorum is a protector of our weakest and most vulnerable citizens, those with disabilities. When his youngest daughter, Isabella, was born with a serious and rare genetic disorder called Trisomy 18, the resolve of the Santorums to protect the rights of the disabled was further galvanized. (read “Bella’s Gift”, authored by Senator and Mrs. Santorum with their daughter Elizabeth)

 

Rick Santorum, while in the senate, authored and helped to pass the Combating Autism Act of 2005 and also authored Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Along with the organization he led, Senator Santorum was a key voice in the fight against the “United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities” which was a treaty that would have put the US under international law and given the power of making decisions regarding the treatment of disabled Americans to unelected UN officials.

 

Those are the issues and stances that cause me to want to support Rick J. Santorum for president, but add to that, his happy and successful family (which shows me that he has been faithful to take care of his biggest responsibilities), his sons who are Citadel Cadets and planning to join the military(this shows me that Senator Santorum values, and has taught his children to value patriotism, and that he will not be reckless in his use of our armed forces. He knows that those soldiers have faces, names and families), his previous successes in running for office and the organization he founded, Patriot Voices which does amazing things to protect our family, faith and freedom, and I see a man who loves his family and loves his country.

 

That is the sort of man I want to be president. This is the man I want to run my country.

 

Faith Burnside