In case you missed it, Senator Santorum was recently interviewed on “Tucker Carlson Today.” Tucker Carlson credited the Senator with being one of the “intellectual architects” behind the realignment in 2016, with Donald Trump’s stunning victory, as he stood up for the working families. Defending America’s working families has long been one of Senator Santorum’s passions, and we carry that work on at Patriot Voices by championing policies that help families with young children and fiscal policies that protect America's working families. 

During the show, Senator Santorum also shared about the impact of losing their son Gabriel, and how the journal Karen kept during her pregnancy would become "Letters to Gabriel: The True Story of Gabriel Michael." FOX News released this touching clip of this conversation you can watch here

Congratulations to Patriot Voices President Nadine Maenza for receiving the  Cedars of God Award by In Defense of Christians during their Annual Solidarity Dinner this past week. The award read:

"With extreme gratitude for your focus on religious freedom and its vital role in combating Christian persecution around the world. We thank you for all that you have done for the protection and preservation of Christians and Christianity in the Middle East."

You can watch her keynote address here where she explains the disconnect between what the Washington, D.C. policy and think tank world think is happening in country and what is actually happening on the ground. She used Afghanistan and Iraq as recent examples. She commended In Defense of Christians for being an important bridge between these two worlds. You can learn more about their important work advocating for Christians and other religious minorities here. 

Our executive director, Shonda Werry, co-authored an article last week on the dangers of failing to teach America’s young people about the evils of communism. Critical race theory in our schools is a growing threat – but this Marxist takeover of our education system is only possible because we have abandoned teaching about how harmful the Marxist ideology is. 

"The United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan raises new questions about what we gained from our twenty-year war there. In this “woke” era, our education system has turned away from teaching the evils of Marxism, leaving our children unable to understand the dangers of radical ideologies in all forms.

At a time when parents are, understandably, outraged by the ideological hijacking of teachers’ unions and curriculum by philosophies rooted not only in Marxism itself, but also in pedagogies that could have been taken from a Soviet-era playbook for undermining American society, it may seem a curious time to advocate for more Karl Marx in the classroom.

The truth is, though, that this indoctrination has been able to gain a foothold in our education system precisely because of our failure to teach the devastating consequences of implementing Marxism."

Read the rest of the article on Townhall here.

Our annual Patriot Voices Day was a huge success with an in-person audience on Capitol Hill as well as those attending digitally via Zoom. While it was officially off-the-record, we always knew bloggers would probably be listening but wanted to create a space where we could have a conversation about important issues.

We had a great line-up of speakers! Congressman Andy Biggs from Arizona spoke about the lockdowns and war powers. Congressman Mike Johnson from Louisiana spoke about the opportunities ahead for us as conservatives. Congressman Byron Donalds from Florida gave a powerful speech about critical race theory. We also heard from other members who spoke about the crisis at the southern border.

With all the challenges our nation is currently facing, our voices are needed now, more than ever. We are the voice for the unborn babies, for the victims of religious persecution, and for working families.

I made the important case that the U.S. Senate was created to slow down legislation in order to build consensus. Yes, that is a good thing! It gives “the people” the time to read legislation, understand the consequences, and come together to make wise decisions about what is really the best way forward for our country. The filibuster is important because it gives us that important space and requires broad support to invest power to or divest power from the federal government.

We also are proud to have mentioned several Democratic Senators because we still believe that we should work together from time-to-time. Our country is worth the bipartisan effort. In fact, it may be the only way forward for our country past the ugly dialogue we are seeing on social media. 

Thank you to those that attended and support Patriot Voices' important work! Let’s continue to work towards policies that support families, life, and freedom!

Rick Santorum

America lost a great patriot, Foster Friess, on May 27, 2021. He was one of Patriot Voices' first supporters who shared our mission to support working families and approach political disagreements in a civil way. In the past, we had supported some of his projects with Foster's Outriders, including his "coffee challenge" encouraging us to invite someone with whom we disagreed to have coffee. One of his favorite projects was to surprise struggling families that had a child or family member with a disability with a vacation, often to Disney World. His generosity and kindness brought a real joy to those around him, and certainly made the world a better place. Senator Rick Santorum had the opportunity to give the eulogy at his funeral that you can watch here. Rest in peace, dear friend, we are glad to have the hope we will be together again. 

"This is totally consistent with our world view"

Read this interview by Focus on the Family with Patriot Voices President Nadine Maenza and author Gayle Tzemach Lemmon.

We were right to be confident in him as we doubted Trump.

Wall Street Journal op-ed by Rick Santorum 

Twenty sixteen seems like a lifetime ago, but it’s been fewer than five years since conservatives like me were struggling to accept Donald Trump as the Republican nominee for president. Mr. Trump was a thrice-married New York casino magnate, who had given thousands of dollars to liberal politicians including Chuck Schumer and Kamala Harris. Now he was poised to lead the Party of Reagan?

I had my own personal confrontations with Mr. Trump. In 2011 he called me a “loser.” I immediately phoned to remind the not-always successful developer that not winning at everything doesn’t make you a loser—that learning from your defeats makes you a winner. He told me I was “too conservative” and “too pro-life.” A few months later he endorsed Mitt Romney.

So when he was about to secure the 2016 nomination, conservatives like me needed reassurance that he would follow through on the campaign promises he was making. Much of that reassurance came in the form of Mike Pence.

Watch a conversation about why conservatives are supporting Paid Family Leave with Rick Santorum, Nadine Maenza, and Adrienne Schweer from this year's summit.

Providence Magazine

by Nadine Maenza and Lord David Alton

“We feel forgotten and abandoned sometimes. The world does not know much about the challenges and difficulties that face us. All countries in the region do not recognize conversion from Islam. This makes life very difficult for us, especially in terms of marriages, funerals, and obtaining birth and death certificates, because we are still considered Muslims by law.”

These were the words of Pastor Nihad Hassan, who leads one of three Kurdish churches in Beirut, Lebanon, whose members are mainly Syrian Kurds who fled the war in their home country. Pastor Nihad estimates the number of Kurdish Christians living in Lebanon at over 5,000. “Fifty families have emigrated to the West recently, and we used to have a flourishing church and over 250 families in Afrin [in northern Syria] before the Turkish invasion.”