White Lightning Axiom: Redux

I really cannot see anything outstandingly bad about this article. It does speculate about the reasons that prompted the Senator to put this book out though:

The book has prompted speculation as being the first chapter in a possible 2008 presidential run. After all, the title invites direct comparisons to another potential candidate, U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D., N.Y.), who wrote It Takes a Village, a 1996 book described by Santorum as "feel-good rhetoric masking a radical left agenda."

But the book is likely to put a more immediate stamp on his 2006 Senate reelection bid. National and state Democrats see the book as a treasure trove of opposition research that they say illustrates how far he sits outside the mainstream.

I guess it all depends on what you consider the mainstream. I agree with some of what he says but I also have to disagree with his stance on 2 income families as well. The Mrs and I both have our careers but acknowledge that her's is probably the more stable and profitable one:

Generating perhaps the most criticism are his comments on two-working-parent households.

"In far too many families with young children, both parents are working, when, if they really took an honest look at the budget, they might confess that both of them don't really need to, or at least may not need to work as much as they do," he wrote.

He went on to question why women find a career more gratifying and socially affirming than staying home with their children. "Here, we can thank the influence of radical feminism," he wrote.

Here I am, a Conservative with a NYC wife who kept her own last name and has a rewarding career. I don't think she is playing into the clutches of 'radical feminism' any more than I am a symbol of the marginalized man of modern times. However, unless you say strong things that will generate a response, your book will fall into the dust-bins of history. I encourage anyone interested in the Senator (either for or against) to read through the article and then look into the book. The article author, Carrie Budoff, took a few moments to highlight some of Sen. Rick Santorum's Views:

On unmarried couples living together: "Despite all the evidence, as a society today we will go to almost any length to avoid telling ourselves, and others, the truth: marriage is better than living together. Too few of us dare say living together without the benefit of marriage is wrong."

On working mothers: "Many women have told me, and surveys have shown, that they find it easier, more 'professionally' gratifying, and certainly more socially affirming, to work outside the home than to give up their careers to take care of their children. Think about that for a moment. What happened in America so that mothers and fathers who leave their children in the care of someone else - or worse yet, home alone after school between three and six in the afternoon - find themselves more affirmed by society. Here, we can thank the influence of radical feminism, one of the core philosophies of the village elders."

On home-schooling his children: "We liked the idea so much that we have some of our children enrolled in some of these public cyberschools - until the increasingly uncivil world of partisan politics extended its venom into our home and into our children's education."

On "powerful forces" shaping our society: "They are what I call the 'Bigs' - big news media, big entertainment, big universities and public schools, some big businesses and some big national unions, and of course, the biggest Big of all, federal government. When I hear that catchphrase of the liberals, 'It takes a village to raise a child,' I hear Big... . Top-down, elitist prescriptions imposed by those who believe they are the postmodern kings of the masses - particularly of the supposedly ill-informed 'peasants' of red-state America."

On abortion: Abortion puts the liberty and happiness rights of the mother before the life rights of her child.... This was tried once before in America, when the liberty and happiness rights of the slaveholder were put over the life and liberty rights of the slave. But unlike abortion today, in most states even the slaveholder did not have the unlimited right to kill his slave.