That's a valid question.
To a large extent, winning a general election means turning out your own supporters. Evangelicals, unfortunately, have really bad turnout percentages. Conservative Roman Catholics are often from demographic groups which are likely to vote Democrat if they don't have a key religious motivation to vote Republican.
On the other hand, most pro-homosexual and pro-choice people aren't going to vote Republican anyway, so nominating a candidate who has a decades-long history of being vilified by the homosexual and pro-abortion community has the advantage of turning out conservatives to vote. Annoying people who probably wouldn't vote Republican anyway isn't a major problem.
I realize there are economic conservatives who define “conservative” in terms that closely resemble libertarianism. Those people aren't going to like Santorum, and I understand that. For those people who think being conservative is being opposed to “government intruding in your bedroom,” Santorum’s opposition to gay marriage and abortion won't go down well.
My response to Republicans who think that way is to say that I respect their right to vote for Mitt Romney, but even Romney professes to believe the same things Rick Santorum clearly does believe. Also, Newt Gingrich is also pro-life and opposed to gay marriages. So if we're going to have a Republican nominee who claims to be pro-life and anti-gay-mariage no matter who gets nominated, why not nominate someone who excites the base and turns them out in large numbers — including the key demographic of ethnic blue collar Roman Catholics in the upper Midwest who will be key to winning the states we need to win the presidential race?
I'm not saying Newt Gingrich can't win those voters — he may very well be able to do so. What I **AM** saying is that I seriously doubt if Mitt Romney can do so.
Bottom line: Liberal left-wing attacks on Rick Santorum are likely to seriously backfire. If groups like ACT-UP and Code Pink are stupid enough to do protests at Santorum events, most of America will be so grossed out, and conservative Catholics and evangelicals so deeply offended, that the net result is a plus for Santorum.
You can tell a lot about someone by knowing who their enemies are. Santorum’s enemies are the right ones to have.
See Psalm 139:21: “Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?” I don't think that passage is appropriate to cite in very many cases, but with regard to homosexuality and abortion, it is.
“To a large extent, winning a general election means turning out your own supporters”
I wonder if this is really true. . . in this election cycle. Somehow I think we need more than just our own supporters to win this one. I like Santorum as much as I don’t like Newt. Better than any candidate running in terms of alignment with my own principles and politics. My worry is that the chances are dim that the dumbed down american electorate will click with him. Most certainly Newt has less than that chance.
Your analysis make perfect sense to me, but I just don’t see it played out in this culture of uneducated voters.