So long, Santorum

Santorum bowed out of the GOP race a few days ago which means GOP voters are stuck with Mannequin-Man Mitt Romney.

Santorum is on the opposite end of my political ideology yet I couldn't help but root for him in the GOP primary. There was a morbid joy out of watching the Republican party eat itself from the asshole out. But there was something else, too.

Rick Santorum's views on many things were deplorable to me but he was definable. Mitt Romney was not. When it came to blasting Rush Limbaugh for calling a woman a slut, Santorum had the most strongly worded response to Rush and that was calling him "absurd." Romney just said, "I wouldn't have used that language," which in my world means, "Yeah, he said the right things just not in the right way." Dissing Rush Limbaugh in the Republican party is like calling Jesus a monkey-descended messiah.

But the one thing I admired Rick Santorum's rise most for was that he was the candidate with no money and with no chance. He rose and he surprised everybody. He was beating Mega Millionaire Mannequin-Man Mitt fair and square on a shoe string budget. He was winning the old fashioned way: stumping for votes and getting them. Whether or not you're on the same side of his politics (I definitely am not), that has to give you some kind hope that our democracy can still function even in the avalanche of corporate money being flooded into our elections.

You were a hardworking candidate, Rick Frothystuff. I toast you for that. Mannequin-Man Mitt now will have his handlers put on brand new clothes and a brand new face for him and will forget you ever existed. And most voters will forget HE ever existed in his GOP primary form.

So long, Santorum.