Rick Santorum responds to Ohio Referendum results; calls it a "broken pure democracy"

[NYSforKennedy2024]

https://newrepublic.com/post/176741/rick-santorum-blames-very-sexy-issue-abortion-republican-election-loss-democracy

“You put very sexy things like abortion and marijuana on the ballot, and a lot of young people come out and vote. It was a secret sauce for disaster in Ohio,” Santorum whined Tuesday night on Newsmax.

“Thank goodness that most of the states in this country don’t allow you to put everything on the ballot, because pure democracies are not the way to run a country.” (Otten, 2023)

[BigZuck08]

I wonder how'd he react if a state passes conservative legislation via popular referendum

[Lambsbread]

Republicans run on being the party of personal freedom and then turn into full on authoritarians the moment people choose to do things that aren't on the pre-approved list of freedoms

[No War, but the War on Christmas]

Republicans run on being the party of personal freedom and then turn into full on authoritarians the moment people choose to do things that aren't on the pre-approved list of freedoms

If Republicans didn't have double-standards, they wouldn't have any standards at all.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

He's sad that you can't get gay marriage bans passed like you could in 2004.

[Pericles]

I guess the question is whether direct democracy is good as a system or whether it's good because it helped you out this time on these issues. My experience in NZ is more negative as we had a mess of a referendum on legal weed that ended up with a No vote that killed most hopes of drug reform for years.

[President Johnson]

I wonder how'd he react if a state passes conservative legislation via popular referendum

"The people have spoken and rejected radical left politicies advocated by the Democrat Party. Accept the results or you're an enemy of democracy."

[OSR stands with Israel]

I wonder how'd he react if a state passes conservative legislation via popular referendum

When it came to Brexit it was the opposite . Conservatives thought it was great Cameron put it to referendum while liberals and progressives thought it was horrible and him putting party over country (Tbf his motivations were that).

[Yoda]

I wonder how'd he react if a state passes conservative legislation via popular referendum

One need not wonder. Hop in your Way Way Back Machine and go all the waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in time to the year of our Lord Two Thousand And Four and see if you can find any quotes from Rick Santorum bemoaning the sorry, sad state of our "broken, pure democracy" after Ohio passed a same-sex marriage ban.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

most voters are somewhere on the middle of issues like abortion and marijuana. legislative deliberation is necessary (though not sufficient) to hash out the details and balance interests in an informed way.  a plebiscite may be fine in terms of affirming or rejecting such legislation once passed, but not a good venue for initial or exclusive decision-making.

[BigZuck08]

I wonder how'd he react if a state passes conservative legislation via popular referendum

One need not wonder. Hop in your Way Way Back Machine and go all the waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in time to the year of our Lord Two Thousand And Four and see if you can find any quotes from Rick Santorum bemoaning the sorry, sad state of our "broken, pure democracy" after Ohio passed a same-sex marriage ban.

I stand corrected

[progressive85]

When voters agree with beliefs I don't have = democracy is bad.
When voters agree with beliefs I have = democracy is good.

Isn't this guy's 15 minutes of fame over yet?  I thought I got rid of him in 2006.

[Senator-elect Spark]

Embarrassed that this guy was my United States Senator.

[Edu]

Wonder what his opinion was back in 2008 when Proposition 8 passed in California

[Progressive Pessimist]

Snowflake...oh, wait he is a different type of white substance.

[Vice President Christian Man]

When voters agree with beliefs I don't have = democracy is bad.
When voters agree with beliefs I have = democracy is good.


Isn't this guy's 15 minutes of fame over yet?  I thought I got rid of him in 2006.

I wouldn't say those ideas are unique to Santorum or even the GOP for that matter.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Snowflake...oh, wait he is a different type of white substance.

Cocaine?

[Badger]

Embarrassed that this guy was my United States Senator.

And Congressman here

[Independents for Nihilism]

While I also disagree with governing by referendum (I see it as often an abdication of responsibility by elected officials and is how you end up with things like Brexit), Santorum is sort of coming at the right answer in the wrong way here. What I mean is that when topics like abortion access or drug legalization are on the ballot, either explicitly here or implicity like in the 2022 midterms, young people will definitely turn out more than usual. The rub is that the GOP is completely failing to account for this and is still running candidates who fail to appeal to anybody under the age of 70.

This is quite literally an "Am I so out of touch? No, it's the children who are wrong." moment.

[Reactionary Libertarian]

Does the right really not get that banning abortion is defund the police levels unpopular? The denial after losing multiple times in very red states is shocking.

[Yoda]

Does the right really not get that banning abortion is defund the police levels unpopular? The denial after losing multiple times in very red states is shocking.

Shhhhhhh.....we need the most anti abortion candidate to win the Senate primary next year so Brown can pull out a win.

[Roll Roons]

Rick Santorum has not been in office since 2006 and lost his Senate seat by 18 points. Nobody cares what he thinks.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Abortion being called a "very sexy thing" has a high meme potential IMO.

[Person Man]

Cry harder, con.

[Pres Mike]

Rick Santorum has not been in office since 2006 and lost his Senate seat by 18 points. Nobody cares what he thinks.

No, Rick Santorum was the runner up in the 2012 republican primaries. Which makes him the front runner in 2016, since the previous nominees like Romney and McCain were prior front runners. So he deserves a lot of attention (lolz)