Rick Santorum had this to say in Politico (Hat-tip: Reason):

“Look, the Republican Party isn’t going to change. If we do change, we’ll be the Whig Party. …We’re not the Libertarian Party, we’re the Republican Party.”

Rather than respond directly to this assertion, I’ll simply offer another quote and then contrast the electoral records of the two speakers.

“If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism.”

That one was from Ronald Reagan.

Let’s compare and contrast their electoral careers.

Rick Santorum narrowly won his first House seat 51%-49%. After two terms he then narrowly won a Senate seat with just 49% of the vote despite running during the ’94 Republican wave. After two terms he was then ousted, getting thumped by Bob Casey Jr. 59%-41%. In the 2012 Presidential election, he managed a virtual tie in the Iowa caucus, followed by a few wins in the south before petering out and losing the nomination to Mitt Romney.

Ronald Reagan, on the other hand, was twice elected governor of California, the largest state in the union. After almost accomplishing the rare feat of defeating an incumbent President in a primary in 1976, albeit one appointed by Richard Nixon, Reagan went on and won a decisive victory in 1980 against incumbent President Jimmy Carter, and was then reelected in one of the most lopsided contests in Presidential history, taking 49 of 50 states against Walter Mondale. He is widely believed to have cemented an electoral realignment that brought millions of new voters (so-called “Reagan Democrats”) to the Republican Party.

So whose vision should today’s Republican Party adopt? The big government, social-and-values-based conservatism of Rick Santorum? Or the keep-government-out-of-our-values, limited-government conservatism of Ronald Reagan (perhaps best exemplified today by Rand Paul, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz)? Which sounds like the recipe for success to you?