Republican women stuck in a 1950’s mindset are gaga over Ricky S. In a weird way, they see him as a surrogate knight in shining armor who stands for wholesome faithfulness in a world full of two-timing man-scoundrels — like Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich.

According to the New York Times:

There is no mistaking the bond that Mr. Santorum has with conservative women — particularly married women — a group that has formed a core of his support since the primaries began in January. He has handily carried the votes of women in primaries that he has won, including those in Mississippi and Alabama. And where he has lost, in Arizona, South Carolina and Illinois, he has enjoyed a higher level of support among women than men.

The Web site ricksantorum.com attracts more women than men, 60 percent of its visitors, a larger share than for the Web sites of other candidates, according to Nielsen ratings that were released last week. Among other things, there may be an empathy factor at work: A New York Times/CBS News poll taken this month found that 73 percent of Republican female voters said Mr. Santorum understood the needs and problems of people like them, compared with 52 percent who said the same about Mr. Romney.

What kind of women support Santorum?

  • Then several women in the crowd called out that Mr. Santorum was a Christian and a “man of faith,” and that he was “honest and honorable.” Bursting with enthusiasm, one woman said, “He’s for life!”
  • “I like that he’s been married only once, and that he has character and faith; that’s what touches me,” Kay Verdi, 75, said.
  • “I can tell you why he does well with me, because he’s strong on family values and he’s very religious,” Ms. Kersker said. “I think that this country needs to have a renewal of its moral compass, and this is the man to do it.”
  • “His ideas don’t infringe upon my rights at all,” said Lauren Deppe, 21, a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “As far as birth control, my mom and I say you’ve got birth control right with you. It’s called abstinence.”
  • “The main issue for me is that he’s strong and pro-life,” Ms. Klotz said. On the issue of abortion, she said, “We’re getting on God’s last nerve, hello! We can’t keep killing people in this country and getting away with this. God will have the last say.”

Here is my favorite one, because it captures the simpleton mindset of his sisterhood of Stepford supporters.

  • “If he can run his household, he can run the country. Amen!” Haley Harris, 18, told the Mandeville crowd.

Well, that sums it up. I guess he’s qualified to run the free world because he can control the little woman at home. (Isn’t Obama running his household too?)

Meanwhile, Evangelicals are ignoring their historic bigotry towards Catholics to embrace Santorum. Another Times article says:

Mr. Santorum has, in fact, performed far better with evangelical Christians than with Catholics, who have preferred Mitt Romney, a Mormon, in virtually every state. Through a critical reading of the data, Mr. Santorum’s base of evangelical Protestants and conservative Catholics could be seen by cynics as a coalition of zealots, held together by intolerance. By another way of thinking, however, his candidacy offers proof of a growing tolerance on the part of evangelical Christians, a willingness to shed ancestral religious prejudices.

I tend to agree with the first explanation that this is a coalition of crackpots and cranks. If they are ever successful and accomplish their dangerous, narrow-minded cultural agenda, they will turn on each other like rabid wolves. They won’t be able to help themselves, because that is what fanatics do. Such types set up a vision of utopia and then they seek to eliminate all who they perceive to be blocking their twisted vision of the way things should be.