Former United States Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) spoke in Old Cabell Hall on Thursday evening as the Grand Opening Speaker for the University’s Young Americans For Freedom chapter.
The talk, titled “America at the Crossroads: What Obama’s Second Term Means for Our Nation,” featured a speech from Santorum followed by questions from the audience. Santorum focused his speech on three topics: the current situation in Syria and the Middle East, the state of the family in America, and a summary of his views on the state of nation.
On Syria, Santorum expressed his disappointment with the Obama administration’s decision to agree to a chemical weapons deal promoted by the Russian government rather than carrying out air strikes against the Syrian government. “We have gone from super power and leader of the free world to today having set aside and elevated an autocrat and former KGB thug in Vladimir Putin as peacemaker,” he said.
Santorum cited a speech he gave at the University in November 2007 where he stressed the importance of confronting radical Islam and its followers around the world. “You see this president denying any problematic side of what’s going on within the Islamic religion in the Middle East,” Santorum said.
In Santorum’s opinion, pro-West factions in the Middle East must be supported and anti-West threats confronted. He said the lack of support for former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak as he attempted to retain power in 2011 and recent failure to support what he believes were initially pro-Western Syrian rebels were mistakes. “Was he [Mubarak] a thug? Yes,” Santorum said. “Was he doing a lot of bad things? Yes. But he was our thug…Peace through strength works.”
Santorum spent the next portion of his speech focusing on his views on family structure. A fierce opponent of gay marriage, Santorum worked to explain and defend his stance to the audience. He focused on his opinion that a “traditional family structure,” consisting of a heterosexual married couple with children, benefits the American economy and American youth.
“When we as a society don’t support that optimal relationship for children, we are doing them a great disservice,” he said.
Following the conclusion of his speech, Santorum took questions from the audience and met with students for further discussion and pictures.
Second-year College student Anthony Hadford, chairman of Young Americans for Freedom at the University, said he was pleased with Santorum’s speech and the similarities between Santorum’s ideology and that of the chapter.
“He’s always supporting his views despite if something is popular or not,” Hadford said. “We know that our views are not going to be popular and we’re still going to fight for them.”
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