DIXON, Ill. (MCT) — You might call it a Reagan love-fest.
Standing in front of a statue of Ronald Reagan on a horse, on a street called Reagan Way, Rick Santorum on Monday invoked the 40th president and his political platforms in an effort to gain momentum in the town where Reagan spent his childhood.
“Ronald Reagan understood that faith plus family equals freedom,” Santorum said in a speech in front of a cheering crowd waving American flags and holding signs that read “Don’t Believe the Liberal Media.”
Most Republican candidates speak of Reagan during their campaigns, but Santorum took this strategy to the extreme in the town that knew Reagan as “Dutch,” spending most of his speech referring to aspects of Reagan’s “three-legged stool” of free enterprise, strong defense and conservative social policies.
Santorum compared the threat of radical Islamists today to the Soviet threat that Reagan faced as president, and criticized President Barack Obama for cutting defense spending as he pledged to “build the strongest military on the face of the earth.”
Santorum was speaking to a largely supportive crowd in a town that seems the very picture of Americana. People gave away cookies and bumper stickers at a lemonade stand, the crowd sang “God Bless America” before the event, and children passed around popcorn buckets collecting campaign donations.
