In a speech at Fisk Hall on Wednesday evening, 2012 Republican Presidential candidate and former Senator Rick Santorum discussed the importance of strong American leadership on national security and said he was considering running for president in 2016.
Santorum's speech to a crowd of more than 300, sponsored by the Northwestern University College Republicans, focused on necessities for the United States in foreign affairs: supporting the American economy through a strong military, ensuring peace by exerting strength, understanding and defining security threats and leading the world in addressing these threats.
In turn, he criticized the Obama administration for failing at each of these and diminishing the United States' role as a global superpower and guarantor of global peace.
“We have the credibility to be able to exert our influence around the world," Santorum said. "But today, we are at a critical moment in our history where that credibility is being eroded.”
Santorum insisted that the U.S. can't shy away from identifying and addressing threats to American and global peace, and that the Obama administration has been unwilling to address those threats. Citing Obama's lack of proactive fighting of ISIS and willingness to negotiate with Iran over nuclear weapons, he said Obama was "neither strong, nor principled" when handling dangers in the Middle East. That, Santorum said, made the U.S. seem weak in the world's eyes.
"The world senses it and is taking advantage of it," Santorum said. "We need to send out a signal to the rest of the world that we are strong, that we are capable."
Santorum introduced his speech using World War II as an example. Following the war, he said, the economy was booming, America emerged as a superpower and used its economic and military might to ensure democracy and contain the spread of communism. Now, he believes that "political correctness run amok" prevents Americans from clearly identifying national security threats.
Santorum said Americans weren't afraid to identify Nazis as Germans or communists as Soviets back in the 1940s and '50s, but are too squeamish to identify Middle Eastern terrorists as Muslims.
“We used to get it right," he said. "We had no problem defining Nazism. We had no problem defining Communism. We didn’t let that sensitivity get in the way.”
After his prepared remarks, Santorum answered questions from the audience on everything ranging from climate change and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to economic development and his political future.
When asked about his presidential aspirations by North by Northwestern, Santorum said that he's preparing to run for president again, but won't make an official decision until late 2015. He ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, winning 11 states but losing to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Before running for president, Santorum represented Pennsylvania in the United States Senate from 1995-2007 and the state’s 18th District in the House of Representatives from 1991-1995.
While Santorum’s speech focused on national defense, he also touched on his Senate record of anti-poverty and welfare reform legislation, touting his resume for another presidential run and rebuking criticism of his controversial views on social issues.
The former senator is best known as a staunch social conservative, though his speech focused on national security. A devout Roman Catholic, Santorum has spoken of the traditional family as the foundation of a prosperous society. He also opposes abortion, contraception and same-sex marriage.
Santorum’s opposition to homosexuality is prolific enough to source a Wikipedia article. He called homosexual sex “antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family,” in a 2003 interview with the Associated Press, and compared same-sex marriage to polygamy in a 2012 New Hampshire campaign question-and-answer session.
However, Santorum insisted on open debates and dialogue about these issues when asked, painting his detractors as closed-minded and quick to jump to conclusions.