Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Sunday advised Republicans that it would be easier to oppose equal rights for LGBT people, roll back reproductive rights for women, and cut the social safety net if they adopted the rhetoric of Pope Francis.
The day after the close of the 2014 Conservative Political Action Conference, host Chris Wallace told Santorum that a viewer had asked how the Republican Party could win the presidency with a far-right candidate if a majority of the party was more moderate.
"I care about the economy but want the government to stay out of many social issues," the viewer explained.
Santorum pointed to conservative Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott as someone who had won without changing his position on social issues.
"We've done a very bad job of connecting with working Americans, and we're out there in a very stressful time in American history," Santorum noted. "People are full of fear and anxiety about their future, and we're out there talking about cutting things."
"And I'm for reducing the size of government, I'm for reducing taxes," he added. "But when your whole answer is, 'I'm going to cut your benefits, I'm going to cut taxes for rich people,' you're not cutting it with average people. And that to me is the real missing link here."
The former Pennsylvania senator argued that part of the solution was to talk more like the pope.
"Pope Francis hasn't changed one doctrine of the Catholic Church, but he's getting four times the crowds," he observed. "Why? Because the way he's communicating to the average person out there. We need to learn some lessons of who is out there trying to reach average folks."
