Rick Santorum, the man who surprised the world with his performance during the Republican primaries, has been announced as a speaker in the Republican National Convention.

Former Pennsylvania Senator, Rick Santorum’s, effort in the primaries made him very popular among the conservatives. His designation as a speaker in the Convention is trying to prove that the differences that arose during the primaries are over and that the Republican Party is united under Mitt Romney’s figure.

His appearance as a speaker in the Convention would greatly help Santorum’s political career and his future aspirations. The Convention is his great opportunity to solidify himself as the social conservative leader of the nation.

Santorum’s official website explains that “Rick Santorum was a candidate for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in 2012 and became known as a voice for conservatives who didn’t feel their voice was being represented.  His grassroots approach to campaigning – including visiting every one of Iowa’s 99 counties and his stunning victory in the Iowa caucuses – catapulted him to frontrunner status where he ultimately won 11 states and 3 million votes during the Republican primary process.” Santorum had a great performance in the Republican primaries, even though he didn’t have the money or the resources other candidates had.

Rick Santorum and his wife Karen are the parents of seven children, and during the primaries he consistently talked about the importance of needing strong families to build a strong economy. His basics proposals were that the government should give incentives for “marriage, children and free enterprise.” With his speeches he gained the support of the country’s most conservative sector.

Rick Santorum is also a dedicated believer in the dignity every life has. Santorum’s younger daughter, Isabella, was born with a condition called Trisomy 18, and the doctors didn’t expect she would survive her first day. But the little girl has beaten all odds and celebrated her fourth birthday in May of 2012. This experience has made Santorum a strong fighter against abortion.

His official website tells us his pro-life initiatives. Santorum “wrote and championed legislation that outlawed the heinous procedure known as Partial Birth Abortion as well as the ‘Born Alive Infants Protection Act,’ the ‘Unborn Victims of Violence Act,’ and the ‘Combating Autism Act’ because he believes each and every individual has value and the most vulnerable in our society need to be protected.”

A Washing Post reporter wrote that “Santorum was a tea party kind of guy before there was a tea party.”

Rick Santorum recently tweeted: “Honored to be speaking at @GopConvention where conservatives from across country will rally together for @MittRomney & make voices heard!” Let’s wait to see what kind of speech he has prepared for the Convention.

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The Republican Primaries have been a surprise for the world. Most of those who do not live in the United States, are unable to explain how a figure like Rick Santorum became so popular and, for some time, threatened the now certain Republican candidate Mitt Romney.

Santorum has turned into a political figure worth studying.  The other aspirants competing to become the Republican candidate never viewed him as a serious rival. However, Santorum was certain that poll results do not win elections; votes do.  He was also certain that if he worked hard, he would have his chance.

He knew that some of the other possible nominees were arrogant and would never consider him a serious threat unless he could really scare them. At the beginning, he had the huge advantage of having no pressure and of not being committed to anyone. He had more freedom to develop his political program because no one expected anything from him.

In order to understand how Rick Santorum had so much popularity with his speeches that sometimes seemed as if a reverend was giving them, and not a politician, it’s  necessary to have some facts about how religious the United States really is. Gallup International indicated, in 2010, that 43% of Americans  reported they go to church regularly. This is a much higher percentage than in Europe,where in countries like France the church attendance percentage is  21%. The United States is a very religious country, and that is why someone like Rick Santorum was able to persuade so many voters.

Rick Santorum had a good strategy. He knew where to hit first, and he did it hard. He won the conservative state of Iowa in the primaries, and suddenly, he appeared on the map. The voters in the rest of the country realized that Perry, Cain, Gingrich, and Romney were not the only ones competing; Santorum had something to say too. The former senator of Pennsylvania appeared on the political map and, although now he has already retired from the primaries, I am sure that this is not the last that we will hear from him; in the future he may have his chance.

Santorum ended his journey winning eleven states. He’s the first politician that I can truly say seemed really sincere, and he didn’t mind being politically incorrect, since he was more worried about saying what he really thought. It was a positive experience seeing someone in politics with clear principles about controversial topics, which most politicians are not willing to talk about because they could lose votes.

Rick Santorum had success in his speeches because the most conservative bases of the Republican Party, which includes evangelical and rural voters, loved him. They realized that he was sincere and Romney, on the other hand, was seen as a questionable conservative.

In the end reality shut down the dream of Rick Santorum when the voters realized that he would not win an election in November, and so they chose Romney, who is a more electable candidate. This story is worthy of study. It was amazing the way a little and insignificant fish almost ate a shark, and how Santorum became even more popular than figures known all around the country; it shows us that in politics nothing is written.

Image Courtesy of  Gage Skidmore

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In 1988 the scientific community established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as a forum for sharing their concerns about documented – and disturbing – changes in global weather patterns. By 1997 the evidence of climate change was so convincing that 191 nations signed the Kyoto Protocols, aimed at slowing the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Fast forward to 2012. NASA has produced clear evidence that atmospheric CO2 levels are higher than they’ve been in 400,000 years. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the federal agency in charge of the National Weather Service, states that there is no longer any doubt that human activity is changing the chemical characteristics of the Earth’s atmosphere. The national science academies of the world’s leading economies, including the U.S., Germany, Russia, and China, have declared that climate change is real and urged their governments to take immediate, aggressive action.

And then there’s Rick Santorum.

Along the campaign trail in Colorado, Ohio, and Michigan Santorum has declared climate change to be a hoax cooked up by the Obama administration to scare people about oil exploration. Spending less money on oil exploration means more money for the federal government, Santorum said, which means more government control over peoples’ lives.

He doesn’t explain how the government would make money by allowing less oil exploration, or how any of that would equate to more control over peoples’ lives. Nor is it important that concerns about global warming began long before Obama entered politics, or that America’s most prestigious scientific institutions are urging immediate action to reduce carbon emissions. Somehow it’s all connected, and in the alternative reality of Tea Party politics, the more elaborate and mysterious the conspiracy, the more plausible it becomes.

Romney and Gingrich have also questioned climate change, but it’s clear they are just pandering to conservative audiences. Both have acknowledged the problem during their political careers and will likely do so again when the primaries are over. And neither man has accused the country’s scientific establishment of being involved in a vast conspiracy to deprive the American people of their freedom.

Not Rick Santorum. His strident rejection of any scientific evidence that conflicts with his religious or social views has helped make him the new champion of the far right, which is why he is surging in the polls. But if he wins the nomination based on his anti-science agenda, he’ll be in no position to back down during the presidential campaign.

Intellectual curiosity is not a quality that American voters prize in their leaders, as the election of George Bush clearly demonstrated. But they do expect them to respect and support America’s scientific establishment, not label them as political enemies. Questioning the severity and timing of climate change is one thing; but where’s Santorum’s evidence that it’s a hoax?

Right now, Santorum is preaching to the Tea Party choir, and they’re cheering him on. But in a presidential campaign, the national media won’t be so kind. Republicans should be deeply concerned.

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