GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum decided to go on a very liberal show called The View to talk about social issues. The View is a very popular show, and the hosts are very used to discussing all sorts of controversial issues. Would Rick Santorum be able to defend his views against the liberal hosts?

Here’s the 7.5-minute clip:

And Life News has a transcript of the most interesting part of the discussion:

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: So, Rick, you’re one much the most conservative candidates in the race. You want to ban all abortions, defund Planned Parenthood, ban gay marriage. Oppose same-sex unions. And yet, you want to govern all of the folks in the United States? Or are you just governing from — [ laughter ]

RICK SANTORUM: Well, my response is that people that have a different point of view, would you ask them the same question?

GOLDBERG:  Yes. I ask everybody —

SANTORUM:  But, I mean — but the point is, if someone has a different point of view, does that mean that they are only going to govern for people who support all those things?

GOLDBERG: That’s why I ask.

SANTORUM: The answer is to, of course not.

GOLDBERG: So, how will you say to your constituents who may be gay or may find themselves in a position with something like Planned Parenthood, what will you replace it with if you take it away?

SANTORUM: Well, first off, I’m for reallocating every dollar that goes to Planned Parenthood and put them in women’s health centers that actually provide more comprehensive services than Planned Parenthood does. Planned parenthood, for example, doesn’t provide mammograms. Now, I know people say they do, but they don’t. In fact —

GOLDBERG: Yeah, they do.

SANTORUM: In fact, Cecile Richards said yesterday in the hearing that, in fact, they do not. In fact, there are no Planned Parenthoods that provide any mammogram services. They basically provide abortion, contraceptive, STDs, things — and pregnancy tests. That’s it. There are much more comprehensive women’s health care centers. I spend a lot of time in Iowa. And in Iowa, there are 213 women health’s centers. Thirteen Planned Parenthood centers. So, If you said we were going to take the Planned Parenthood money, reallocate it to, actually, clinics that do provide a whole host of other women’s health services, women are probably going to get a more holistic health screening at those places than they would at Planned Parenthood.

What’s neat about this is how Hollywood celebrities and journalists basically form their worldview by listening to the words of the people they agree with, and never checking anything out for themselves by listening to the other side. So, Goldberg walks into a debate talking about Planned Parenthood doing mammograms on camera, and is corrected by Rick Santorum quoting Cecile Richards, the CEO of Planned Parenthood. That’s going to leave a mark.

To her credit, she is at least talking to people on the right. That’s not something I that happens often in academia, where the professors went out of their way to not engage with scholars who disagreed with them. They seem to not be able to handle the strain of having to listen to views they don’t hold. There seems to be a real dearth of critical thinking on the left, in general. But at least The View hosts had courage to listen to someone they didn’t agree with, and to be civil.