How did we get here? VII: The Mix Gets Frothy

With the Republicans, it seems nothing eliminates you from the national conversation permanently, with literal pedophiles being defended vigorously by the establishment, I suppose it is no surprise that a man whose name has come to be synonymous with butt stuff keeps making relatively serious runs at the nomination every election.

I speak of course of Rick Santorum, possibly the most anti-LGBT person in the race, which is saying something, something horrible.

Trustworthy

Position: Senator from Pennsylvania(2001-2007) currently a commentator for whoever will listen to him

Announcement Date: May 27, 2015

Withdrew: Feb 3, 2016

Accomplishments: Last name is now a synonym for a frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter, lost reelection by a legendary amount.
  
Redeeming Qualities: None whatsoever.

Seriously, this man is propelled by ignorance and hate in all things, I suppose his faith is something he probably holds honestly, but only to the exclusion of any critical thought at all, he is a bigot in virtually every way it is possible to be a bigot, he is corrupt, with a Senate career plagued with "pay for play" scandal, and is just an all around unpleasant guy, but he is so unassuming that no one really notices him unless they are forced to do so.

It certainly showed in his polling numbers, he never really got above the kiddy table for debates, and after the campaign really got rolling he sat comfortably in the 1% range until he dropped out with little fanfare in February. I don't know that anyone really thought he would amount to anything this year, unlike in 2012 when for some reason he at least thought he was a contender, his concession picture is a thing of beauty.

The thousand yard stare of the kid on the right there is subtly the best part.

He mostly slid under everyone's radar, but not in a good way, he never really got a good feud going with any of the other candidates, and as so often happens, never laid out any policy proposals that differentiated himself from any of his opponents enough for anyone to care, he is arguably more religious, but given that the entire group of these guys was pushing the religion angle as hard as possible that wasn't going to get him to stand out. He was a member of perhaps the most well represented demographic in the race, the middle aged ugly white guy, and honestly I had to double check to make sure my pictures weren't of Scott Walker, who we will get to in due course.

His star is on the decline and I think this is the last we will see of him on the national stage, he has no Senate seat and his constituency basically hated his guts by the time he left, in 2020 there will be hardly anyone left who even remembers why they should care about him, he will fade into obscurity and the world will be better for it, it is more than he deserves but the world is not a just place.


The most unbelievable thing about his run is that he really seemed to think he had a shot, there were other no-hopers in there, Huckabee, Carson, Pataki, and so on, but they all had other reasons to run, they were selling books or trying to build a brand, Santorum really gave the impression that he thought he had it in him to challenge the likes of JEB! and Trump