OPINION:
It’s all right there is the title of Rick Santorum’s new book, published Monday: “Blue Collar Conservatives: Recommitting to an America That Works.” The former presidential hopeful estimates there are about 6 million of the hard working stalwarts out there. And he warns that the Republican Party could be overlooking them, a topic the author takes very personally - particularly as he mulls another run for the White House.
“In 2012, a mass of blue collar voters, enough to have tipped the balance of the electoral college in favor of the Republican candidate, simply stayed home on election day. Why? Despite their deeply conservative values, they had lost faith that the Republicans spoke for them and had their backs,” Mr. Santorum points out.
“Enough with pandering, enough with focusing on business owners to the exclusion of everyone else - the vast majority of Americans - who work for them. Republicans need to regain the trust of the hard-working members of every family, church, and community across America whose most immediate problems are lack of jobs and opportunity,” he continues.
Mr. Santorum, 55 and a father of seven, remains unapologetic about his pro-life, pro-family, pro-faith beliefs and traditional values; indeed, he acts on them. At the height of his 2012 quest for the White House, Mr. Santorum suddenly bolted from the campaign trail to be with his young daughter Bella, who suffers from a genetic disorder and had taken ill.
He has not shied away from Second Amendment issues either.
“A well-armed family is a safe family; a well-armed America is a safer America,” Mr. Santorum told CBS News.
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