On Thursday, Rick Santorum reached into his bag of awkward analogies in order to evoke his stringent opposition to marriage equality.

Waxing poetic in an interview with Iowa radio show host Simon Conway, Santorum airily opined that legalizing same-sex marriage is not unlike saying “the states have the right to redefine the chemical equation for water, it can be H3O instead of H2O.”

Conway asked Santorum what he thought of Senator Ted Cruz’s recent suggestion that conservatives should align with one presidential candidate (Cruz, naturally), which gave Santorum an opportunity to hatch his odd analogy. He derisively called Cruz a “libertarian” for wanting to return the marriage equality decision to the states:

“Look, I’m very proud of the conservative record I’ve put together. There’s no one who’s fought more on moral and cultural issues. I’m not a libertarian. There are people in this race that want the states to decide whether there should be same-sex marriage or polygamy or marijuana use. I don’t believe that. I don’t believe that the states have the right to redefine something that’s not capable of redefining.”

“For me, when you say the states have the right to define marriage, it’s like saying, well, the states have the right to redefine the chemical equation for water, it can be H3O instead of H2O. Well, the states can’t do that. Why? Because nature dictates what water is, nature dictates what marriage is, and the states don’t have the right to violate what nature has dictated.”

Listen to his speech below:

h/t: Right Wing Watch