Richard John Santorum

“ I suggest you look at the neighbors of America where marriage is no longer a social convention, where marriage is no longer something that is expected, particularly of males, and see what the result is in those subcultures, see what the result is, see the role that government and community organizations have to play to save the lives of children, to give them some shred of hope because mom and dad aren’t there. ”

“ Why do we hold back? Why aren’t we willing to stand up and say children deserve moms and dads? The people have a right to define for themselves what the family is in America. Let the people speak. Let the people participate in this document. This is the Constitution, and judges should not be rewriting it without the people’s consent. That is what article V is all about. That is what this amendment is all about. It is not about hate. ”

“ What we are about today is to try to protect something that civilizations for 5,000 years have understood to be the public good. It is a good not just for the men and women involved in the relationship and the forming of that union, which is certainly a positive thing for both men and women, as the Senator from Alabama laid out, but even more important to provide moms and dads for the next generation of our children. ”

“ We can wait until more and more people enter into these unions in more and more States, after they become adopted. Then we can wait. Then, when we wait long enough, we say: Now we can’t take these rights away from people. ”

“ Certainly, the popular culture is not supporting those of us who have stood and supported this amendment. But just think about what America will look like, as we have seen in other countries around the world that have changed the definition of marriage, what America will look like with growing numbers of people simply not getting married; growing numbers of children growing up in nonmarried households. ”

“ The idea, somehow or another, and I know others have talked about this, that James Madison would be against this because ‘‘this is not a great or extraordinary occasion’’—I would say the fundamental building block of any society is marriage and the family, and the destruction of that building block is a fairly extraordinary occasion. ”

“ SANTORUM. Christopher Lasch says we get up every morning and we tell ourselves little lies so we can live. Today, we have gotten up and we have told ourselves a little lie. Oh, the family is OK. Oh, this isn’t right. ”