Presidential candidate Rick Santorum and his wife Karen held their fifth child, Gabriel, for the entirety of his two-hour life.
Then they took him home, introduced him to their other children, and held a funeral the following day.
Santorum is the most conservative candidate for Republican presidential nominee. As such, he has faced savage attacks from the Left, most notably his “google problem.” Last month, Fox News commentator Alan Colmes joined the assault, calling the Santorums’ mourning for Gabriel “a very weird story.”
When Colmes later apologized, Santorum forgave him. Nevertheless, Gabriel’s story is not weird at all.
The Santorums’ care for their dead child left an impression on their other children and reinforced Rick Santorum’s pro-life stance. It is one thing to defend the life of a fetus in principle, but quite another to give a deceased child the respect he deserves.
At the birth of their daughter, Bella, the doctor advised that they “let her go.” Bella suffers from Trisomy 18, a serious genetic disorder.
When told to care for her “as she died,” Rick and Karen discounted the negativity. “We’re going to do everything we can to help her.”
For the past three years, she has been a “wonderful, joyful center of the universe for our family.”
Bella pulled through 36 hours of pneumonia two weeks ago. Rick took a break from the campaign in Florida, two days before the primary, to visit her. He continued to trail Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich in the polls, and this absence did not help his chances.
Santorum’s respect for Gabriel and his devotion to Bella join a long record of opposition to abortion. National Right to Life described his voting record as 100 percent pro-life for every one of the 12 years he was in the Senate.
He spearheaded partial-birth-abortion bans in the 1990s, and responded to Hillary Clinton’s book “It Takes a Village,” with his own book, “It Takes a Family.” He has taken a great deal of flack from this firm articulation of a pro-family stance, including the “google problem” mentioned above.
Among his own family, Santorum finds inspiration in his grandfather, Pietro Santorum, who worked in coal mines until the age of 72 and left fascist Italy for America’s free-market dream. Rick remembers his large, blackened hands as the hands that dug for his family’s freedom and prosperity.
Santorum aims to reward such hard work by decreasing government regulation. He has repeatedly said that “the federal government kills jobs.” By taking from the working rich and giving to the poor, the federal government removes any incentive for entrepreneurs to invent new methods of creating wealth.
This free-market dynamism made America the prosperous nation that attracted Pietro to leave Italy. Santorum defends it from big government with more than mere words.
The 1996 welfare-to-work effort cut both federal spending and poverty rates. It transformed welfare from an entitlement — writing checks to the needy — to a temporary assistance program. The new program included both caps on the amount of money given and time limits for the assistance.
Santorum’s enthusiasm for entitlement reform also led him to support Medicare Part D. While Ron Paul attacks him as a big-government conservative because of this bill, Santorum intended it as a first step toward the privatization of Medicare.
The program created health savings accounts, furthered a private-sector proposal for Medicare prescription drugs, and encouraged competition among insurers. Because further steps in this direction did not follow, the program did not achieve its final goal. Nevertheless, Santorum’s campaign pushes for Medicare reform along the same lines.
Although out of office at the time, Santorum firmly opposed TARP, the “stimulus” packages, and the bailouts of Obama’s administration. His zero percent rating by the AFL-CIO demonstrates his strong stance against Union restriction of the job market.
Santorum provides a powerful contrast to our current president, who has broken his promises, supported the reckless killing of fetuses — without knowing whether they are human or not — and restricted free markets, prolonging a devastating recession.
Rick Santorum’s love and respect for Gabriel and Bella, along with his dedication to the hard work of his grandfather, Pietro, demonstrate his commitment to life, liberty, and the hard work of pursuing of happiness.