Santorum's thoughts on liberals and culture wars, and his exchange with a working mother questioning his belief in stay-at-home moms were among the highlights of his appearance at the headquarters of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute outside Wilmington.

It wasn't an occasion for vegetarians.

Lunch was a pig barbecued whole, with portions cut from his sides while his head and tail lay at opposite ends of an open grille. After the picnic, Santorum spoke, answered questions and signed books.

Santorum said that when he was in college at Penn State, he believed that "liberals and conservatives had the same view of America, what a good America would look like."

After years in politics, Santorum said, "I think that the left sees an America more like France, or Holland, or Sweden, as the good America. And I see America well, as America, as the country that DeTocqueville wrote about in the 1830s."

Among other subjects Santorum addressed:

• Liberal and conservative views of freedom - Conservatives, Santorum said, want freedom "for something better; we wanted a freedom for our community, our families, something we could build upon... as opposed to a liberal view of freedom from all restrictions, restraints, a freedom to do whatever I want to do, what I call 'no-fault freedom,' in a society where we have no ties that bind, no commitment to our neighbors."

• How dangerous popular culture is for kids - "You know you wouldn't send your child into parts of east Wilmington at 11 o'clock at night alone if they're 5 years old," Santorum said. "But when you sit a child down at a computer chat room, you're doing pretty much the same thing to their mind. It's a very dangerous place. Many parents don't realize that."

• How conservatives should fight the culture war - "Conservatives need to stop sitting on the sidelines, throwing stones at Hollywood, complaining about how bad they are," Santorum said. "We need to engage in the culture. They shouldn't be telling their children, 'Don't be an artist. Don't go to Hollywood, because you're going to be corrupted.'... we need people in Hollywood writing good scripts. We need musicians who are singing the truth."

• His favorite passage from the Bible - "Be not afraid," Santorum said. "Be not afraid to proclaim your truth. Be not afraid to say what you believe is true and fight for those principles in the public square."

• Why there aren't enough stay-at-home moms - "The role of a mother or father is just as important as a publisher, or a senator, or a lawyer... and that's not the prevailing attitude of this country."

The Chester County working mom who'd raised the question with Santorum said afterward, "I enjoyed saying to him that I was a working mother of four... I'm not troubled by his perspective, but I think I'm an example of how it could work and I wanted him to see me as that."

By Dave Davies, Philadelphia Daily News, Aug 11, 2005

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