Breaking from libertarian orthodoxy, Sen. Rick Santorum endorsed a modest raise to $8.75 in the minimum wage over three years to show voters Republicans care about stagnant wages.

“I’m not for what Barack Obama wants to do,” he told the Missouri Republican Party’s Lincoln Days gathering, (raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour). “But, the idea that the Republican Party, at a time when median wages are stagnant, is opposing the minimum wage is stupid politics. . .Sometimes when someone is hurting, they want to know that one thing more than anything else. People don’t think we care.”

I think Santorum may need to divorce his positive message from a critique of the Republican Party, but focusing on how people are hurting because rising prices and stagnant wages are cutting into their paycheck is spot on.

Maggie Gallagher is editor of ThePulse2016.com.