Conservatives ‘Will Never Have’ Smart People on Their Side, Santorum Says

Posted on Sep 16, 2012

Gage Skidmore (CC-BY-SA)

Apparently being smart and having conservative values do not go hand in hand. At least, that’s what former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said during a speech at the Values Voter Summit over the weekend.

“We will never have the elite, smart people on our side,” Santorum told the audience, as he attacked the erudite and scholarly masses (that by his own logic probably would not be in attendance at the summit he addressed) for not having conservative values. Santorum of course is well known for his hard-line position on social issues such as gay marriage and abortion.

For the record, it wasn’t just smart people Santorum criticized. He also joined in the growing Republican chorus that blames the media for, well, everything (even though as a paid commentator for Fox News, Santorum once was, technically, a member of the media). Also, libertarians aren’t really that cool in his book either when it comes to certain “values” issues.

BuzzFeed:

The media “doesn’t like the other side,” Santorum said. “And not necessarily, I would argue, because they agree with them, but because they can influence the country.

“If just a few people make decisions about what this world looks like, what this country looks like, then you have people sitting in offices at major media outlets and Hollywood who think they can deal with a small group of people, to get them to jump through the hoops they want you to,” Santorum said.

Santorum also criticized the libertarian wing of the Republican party for not supporting what he sees as the pillars of conservatism: religion and family.

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—Posted by Tracy Bloom.

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