There's something to be learned from the sweater vest

Rick Santorum's surprise second place finish (virtual tie for first) in the Iowa Caucuses took the political world by storm, and a surge of campaign donations and an uptick in the polls have invited inevitable scrutiny of his record. His heavy appetite for pork, comfort with K Street, and extreme positions on abortion, contraceptives, and gay rights are disqualifying in my mind and speak to the weakness of a candidate who lost his last bid for reelection by 18 points in a swing state. These qualifications aside, as I said in my post on Wednesday, Mitt Romney would be smart to analyze and partially co-opt Santorum's themes centering on rebuilding societal bonds and fully embracing the Reagan Democrats ripe for picking come fall.

The modern Republican Party represents an uncomfortable marriage between libertarians, social conservatives, and military hawks (neocons). Romney spoke often in his 2008 campaign about uniting the three legs of the Republican stool, but the second group has been elusive thus far in the 2.0 version of his candidacy. The base is skeptical of his commitment to their values on a range of issues, from reducing the size of government to his commitment to appointing originalists to the Supreme Court who will overturn Roe v. Wade and otherwise walk the party line. Since the 2012 campaign kicked off last spring, no less than five contenders for Romney's foil have risen and fallen (Santorum's collapse is pending).

In all honesty, like John McCain in 2008, Romney will not likely earn the trust of true believers before they cast their ballots next November. This bond will be sealed through his running mate selection, a subject of a post soon-to-come. He can, however, begin pivoting towards the general election contest and testing his message for the summer and fall, and he would be wise to revisit Santorum's widely acclaimed victory speech last Tuesday.

As David Brooks so ably captured in his New York Times column yesterday, something is amiss in America, as our citizens have become deeply disenchanted with both public and private institutions and our social fabric is unraveling. President Obama tapped into this four years ago, but unfortunately, the cause of "hope" and "change" begins and ends at the White House door. In short, despite his lofty rhetoric, he was the change he had been waiting for.

If Romney seeks to live up to his campaign slogan and help voters "believe in America" once more, he must transcend economic stewardship and emphasize the fact that lower taxes, reduced spending, and balanced budgets are one important leg of the stool, but culture matters, and ours is badly frayed.

The late great Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, "The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself." I think this captures the spirit of Rick Santorum's message and appeal to at least a quarter of caucus-goers last Tuesday evening.

The libertarian wing of the party is right that the "new red menace" (to quote Mitch Daniels), our national debt, is spiraling out of control and imperils the economic security of our posterity. They are wrong, however, to downplay the importance of our mutual obligations to one another in a society. Their hatred of all things government is not only impractical, but truly selfish. Good citizenship certainly means working hard, paying one's bills on time, and obeying the law, but it is empty without acknowledgment of our mutual destiny as a society.

The problems our country currently faces, beginning with a debt that has surpassed our annual GDP, but also encompassing underfunded and ill-structured entitlement programs, a crumbling infrastructure, exponential growth in health care costs (the true driver of unequal access and not resolved by Obamacare), and a broken immigration system, will not be resolved if we continue to train our eyes only on Number One. If Mitt Romney and his eventual running mate can help restore this mutuality between us as individuals and our 300 million compatriots, the America he envisions will slowly, but surely, be reawakened.