Santorum's social policies, campaign suicide

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is either an ignorant man or a complete hypocrite. The self-professed Roman Catholic zealot is aiming for social conservatives who may be reluctant to vote for Mitt Romney, but his tactics in gaining support have proven not only tacky, but illogical.

Santorum selectively uses Catholic tradition and Biblical criticism to justify his obsessive stance against gay marriage. While several, if not the majority of American politicians, do not support marriage equality, few of them would dare be as crass as Santorum.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Santorum said, "In every society, the definition of marriage has … [never] included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be."

He even went so far as to say that "if the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery." It is worth noting that although the Catholic Church is adamantly against gay marriage, it does not aim to demean members of the gay community. More importantly, isn't the goal of a politician to create unity and support, regardless of his platform?

Conservative voters aren't going to back a candidate who supports marriage equality, but, according to Pew Research, 58 percent of Catholics believe that homosexuality should be accepted in society. Santorum's choice to ostracize the gay community so blatantly is one of his many suicidal campaign moves.

Santorum also defies Catholic dogma on climate change. According to The Guardian, Santorum stated, "It's just an excuse for more government control of your life and I've never been for any scheme or even accepted the junk science behind the whole narrative." Rick, Rick, Rick. Even Pope Benedict XVI has stated that climate change is real.

Santorum's rhetoric and demeanor mean two things: bad public relations and a lost shot at winning. While he has a working strategy, his misunderstanding of the American perspective at large will prove to be his downfall.

As much as American conservatives are willing to support any candidate who is not Romney, chances are they'd rather pool behind Newt Gingrich or Ron Paul. Voting conservative doesn't automatically mean the voter is in for a zero tolerance, anti-science, Bible regime, Rick.