Rick Santorum Seeks Votes in Cumming

Georgia was certainly on presidential hopeful Rick Santorum’s mind as he spoke at First Redeemer Church in Cumming Sunday evening.

Lori Vance, who has worked closely with Santorum on the Senate floor to pass a partial birth abortion ban, was among those who arrived hours before the church doors opened. She drove five hours from Tennessee “just to support Rick” and proudly displayed a picture of her and Santorum around her neck.

Young Voters Travel Far to Hear Santorum Speak

Twenty-three-year-old Kevin Zurrica from Macon believes most people his age aren’t interested in the political process. But he hopes that Santorum will snag the nomination and win the hearts of America’s youth. According to Zurrica, America’s young voters are the key to any election.

“Young people are who put Obama in office,” he says.

A fellow 20-something, Sean Beckum, came all the way from Vidalia, hoping to hear more about Santorum’s economic and foreign policies.

Founding pastor of First Redeemer Church Dr. Richard Lee introduced the guest of honor to a crowd of about 2,300 attendees with an additional 1,000 in a nearby “overflow room”.

Family Was the Foundation of the Constitution

After a boisterous round of applause, Santorum introduced the crowd to his wife, Karen, along with three of his seven children who were in attendance.

He discussed his decision to run for president, which, he says, came after much prayer and deliberation with his wife.

“We decided that really the best way we could be a good father to our children and the best husband I could be was to go out and make sure that this country is one that we want our children to be raised in,” he said.

Santorum said those things that made the country great, which are the foundation of the nation, are being attacked.

“Rights are being stripped away. Power is being increasingly centralized and those who believe they know best are gaining more and more authority to tell us how to live our lives,” he said.

His grandfather left Italy to come to the United States in search of freedom.

“America is different. The people who line up to come to America are not like the people who are very happy just to stay behind, he said.

The rest of the world is ruled, Santorum said. The rest of the world's governments believe that rights come from the government, not God.

"Well, our founders were different,” he said. “ They created a fundamentally different country and they attracted different people to that country, people who wanted a different life. People who saw something special.”

Constitution Made for a Moral, Religious People

He tied the Constitution and religious morality together in front of a very approving audience.

“The reason we can have freedom, the reason we can actually operate under this radical document called the Constitution, which granted so many freedoms, gave so much control to the people is because, as John Adams said, our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people and is wholly inadequate for the governance of any other.”

Santorum then accused “the progressives” of saying the Declaration of Independence doesn’t mean anything and is not an official document of the country.

Referring to an interview last month in which Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg suggested that Egypt look at the Constitution of South Africa instead of the U.S. Constitution, he said an effort exists to separate the Declaration from the Constitution by five people on the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Santorum said President Barack Obama, Justice Ginsburg and many more on the left would like to "disconnect from God given rights, disconnect and try to marginalize, privatize faith in America.”

 He criticized Hilary Clinton and the President for calling it "freedom of worship" rather than freedom of religion.

" It is great to worship here but if this is all your faith is about, pastor, it ain’t much,” Santorum said with a glance back at Pastor Lee.

Requiring employers to provide contraception is trampling a Constitutional right.

"It is imposing his ideology on a group of people expressing their theology, their moral code and saying government will force you to do what your faith says is gravely wrong. Thank God the leaders of the church, of the Catholic church have said they will not comply,” Santorum said.

Santorum Cites Obamacare as Reason He's Running

“I got into this race because I saw Obamacare as a threat to the very foundational principles of our country," he said.

The government was taking "money, power, freedom from you and giving it to the hands of the few; the elite snobs who think they know better how to run your life and say we are going to take of you."

Santorum said 67 percent of the American public was against Obamacare.

"So he shoved it down America’s throat and said 'Trust me, you’ll like it once you know what’s in it. Once we know what’s in it'.”

Santorum said Obamacare is a game changer where the government is taking away the economic freedom of the people.

“They’re going to tell you how to live your lives not just economically but every other way they possibly can. Ladies and gentleman, this is the most important election in your lifetime,” he concluded.

GOP Candidate Criticizes Administration's Handling of the Deficit

Other criticisms of the Obama administration included mounting deficits.

“We’re destroying the future of our country. We’re on the road to bankruptcy and the President of the United States says we just need to spend more and the only thing we need to cut is the defense budget.”

This statement was met with boos from many in the audience.

 “The President of the United States says America was not a great country until the government got so powerful as to tax you, take your money, give it to people in power in Washington to redistribute to people that they believe need your money or deserve your money more than you do."

He continued by saying,

“Ladies and gentlemen, I believe that America was founded great. It didn’t become great because Government did these things. It became like every other country in the world because every other country believes that rights don’t go to you as an individual. They go to the sovereign and it’s for the sovereign to spread the wealth around.”

Santorum Claims Obama is Attacking the Family

“Let’s look at the condition of the family,” he said. “Thirty years ago, 71 percent of Americans over the age of 18 were married in America. It is now 51 percent, a 5 percent drop in the last three years, the most ever in that period of time. The family under assault.”

He also discussed a program that he helped sponsor while he was in the Senate called the Healthy Marriage Initiative.

“I saw this trend. We saw that dramatic increase in out-of-wedlock births, particularly involving teens. It is epidemic in some communities and it is destroying the very fabric of those communities. It is creating dependency from a very early age upon government” Santorum said.

He continued to link the deterioration of the family, namely the lack of a father figure, to a pathology of prison, poverty and drug addiction.

According to Santorum, President Obama has recently issued an order where abstinence can no longer be taught as a preferable way of not getting pregnant or that having sexual activity at a young age and outside of marriage is an at risk behavior.

“Now when you see that combined with the mandate to provide coverage it seems to come together, doesn’t it? Ladies and gentle, the President is out there, his people are out there, trying to wipe out anything between them and the individual so when there’s a problem they look to the government and when that happens America as we know it isn’t going to be America as we know it.”

Santorum Say Super Tuesday is About Defending Church, Family

Santorum reminded the crowd what this election is about which, according to him, is defending the church and the family in addition to the economy and jobs.

“You’ve got the biggest delegate prize on super Tuesday, the biggest day of this primary election. What are you going to do? Are you going to get up on Tuesday? Are you going to stand up and say we need someone who can go out and paint a vision for the American public as to what’s at stake in this election? Remind America who we are, why we are great and why we can and we must be great again. If we’re going to leave a country that is at least as good as the one we had, we were given. Someone who can clearly go after President Obama on issue after issue. Draw clear, bright contrast. Make him accountable for the record that he had? That your choice. That’s your choice two weeks from Tuesday. I appreciate your help in that regard,” concluded Santorum.

Georgia voters will be able to take part in Super Tuesday on March 6.

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