On the national scale, the Republican Party has become divided into two distinct camps: fiscal conservatives like Gov. Scott Walker and Rep. Paul Ryan, and the social and religious conservatives like Rick Santorum. Within the past 10 years, the party has become dominated by the social and religious conservative bloc, and this year’s GOP primary is a case in point. Many voters who are conservative because of their stance on economic policy won’t have a candidate this year. The more moderate, center-right conservatives are being silenced as the Republican Party moves further and further to the radical side of the right. While I think that Gov. Scott Walker’s first two years in office have had a negative impact on the state, the situation in Wisconsin could be much worse. For instance, if Wisconsin had a governor like Rick Santorum.
Even though Walker’s collective bargaining bill set of a wave of populist outrage in left-of-center Dane County that sparked a series of recalls and court appeals that continues today, Wisconsin has gained national attention from conservatives who see the past year and a half as a success story for fiscal austerity. Although he may not be the most popular person in Madison, Walker has been widely praised by the Republican politicians on the national level, and Ryan has become a golden boy for fiscal conservatives across the country. “The best governor in America is Scott Walker,” said Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, the conservative group largely funded by brothers David and Charles Koch. Walker’s budget bill may have made him the archenemy of Madison liberals, but it has galvanized his popularity among the country’s conservatives.
On Saturday, Americans for Prosperity held the “Defending the American Dream Summit” in Milwaukee. A crowd of more than 1,000 listened to speeches by the likes of GOP presidential candidate Santorum, Sen. Ron Johnson and Ryan. While state politics have largely overshadowed the presidential primary campaign, this “summit” displayed the influence a tumultuous year of Wisconsin politics has had on the GOP primary and highlighted Wisconsin’s role as a “battleground state.” Santorum’s opponents, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul will all be visiting the state before the April 3 primary. According to Paul Ryan, political events in Wisconsin – especially the upcoming Walker recall election – will be a preview of the presidential race in November. He added, “It’s going to be states like Wisconsin that figure this thing out.”
By far the most interesting speaker in Milwaukee on Saturday was Santorum. Santorum found time to voice his support for Walker – he claimed that “[Walker] had the courage to go out and make the case to the people of Wisconsin and the Legislature, and I support him for doing that,” – but according to the Wisconsin State Journal, Santorum spent most of his time criticizing his main opponent in the GOP race, Romney, for his support of government health care and his belief in global warming.
Although he supports Walker, Santorum is a different sort of GOP politician, a candidate who is a social conservative before he is a fiscal conservative. In fact, three of the four major candidates in the upcoming GOP primary, namely Santorum, Romney and Gingrich, are social conservatives – perennial contender Ron Paul is the only fiscal conservative in the running. Controversial fiscal reforms in Wisconsin have attracted the attention of the national GOP, but they haven’t pushed the party in the direction of fiscal conservatism – which is unfortunate, because that’s exactly where the Republican Party should be headed.
It’s a little bit scary that a politician like Santorum is being seriously considered as a candidate for president of the United States. He represents everything I find problematic about the radical right of the Republican Party – his platform is based almost entirely on religious values, and he says things like, “You’re darn right we cling to our guns and our Bibles,” and, “My public policy [is] written on my heart because I’m a conservative,” and “Don’t nominate a moderate!” Personally, I wouldn’t trust the next four years of national public policy to what is written on Rick Santorum’s heart, and I think a moderate is exactly what America needs.
While the Republican Party has taken note of the past year of Wisconsin politics and expressed its support of Walker’s stance on fiscal reform, the GOP has lost sight of the fact that the “success story” of Wisconsin was, if anything, a success story for fiscally conservative economic policy. Crazy as it might sound, the field of candidates in the Republican presidential primary would be a lot less frightening if there were fewer candidates like Santorum and more like Walker.
Charles Godfrey ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in math and physics.
