Mike Huckabee’s Plan to Sink the GOP Ship

November 24th, 2008 by Steve

As I’ve been stating for some time, if the Republican Party doesn’t start making some changes before too long, the Libertarian Party or some new political entity will be the ones creating ballot access rules making it hard for people like Tax Hike Mike to get on the presidential ballot.

In May, Huckabee gave us this gem:

The greatest threat to classic Republicanism is not liberalism; it’s this new brand of libertarianism, which is social liberalism and economic conservatism, but it’s a heartless, callous, soulless type of economic conservatism because it says “look, we want to cut taxes and eliminate government.

Then there was this interview with Glenn Reynolds and Dr. Helen, which is described at Wizbang in this manner:

After introducing Huckabee and showing his new book, Helen asks the first question. “You attack libertarians as worse than liberals. Are we that bad?”

After demurring that he surely doesn’t mean either of the hosts, naturally, Huck’s partial response should be an eye opener, not an applause gatherer.

“There’s this sort of growing, I guess branch or whatever, within the Republican party who don’t want to hear anything about some of the, say, traditional values issues. They say we shouldn’t be talking about those, we only want to talk about cutting taxes and reducing government.But the truth is we can’t reduce government and cut taxes without also understanding that a lot of the cost of government is directly related to the breakdown of family and individual responsibility.

So if we, um, you know, just say we are going to arbitrarily cut things, how many police do we take off the streets, how many people do we let out of prison beds?”

Now Time is revealing some tidbits from the Huckster’s new book, where he appears to think that libertarians are the antichrist:

In a chapter titled “Faux-Cons: Worse than Liberalism,” Huckabee identifies what he calls the “real threat” to the Republican Party: “libertarianism masked as conservatism.” He is not so much concerned with the libertarian candidate Ron Paul’s Republican supporters as he is with a strain of mainstream fiscal-conservative thought that demands ideological purity, seeing any tax increase as apostasy and leaving little room for government-driven solutions to people’s problems. “I don’t take issue with what they believe, but the smugness with which they believe it,” writes Huckabee, who raised some taxes as governor and cut deals with his state’s Democratic legislature. “Faux-Cons aren’t interested in spirited or thoughtful debate, because such an endeavor requires accountability for the logical conclusion of their argument.” Among his targets is the Club for Growth, a group that tarred Huckabee as insufficiently conservative in the primaries and ran television ads with funding from one of Huckabee’s longtime Arkansas political foes, Jackson T. Stephens Jr.

Jon Henke has a pretty good take on Huckabee and his role in killing any potential winning coalition in the GOP:

We libertarians had a social conservative Governor and Presidential candidate call us the “real threat” and “smug”, and brazenly misrepresent our views before calling our message un-American.

Social conservatives have to realize that they need the fiscally conservative, socially moderate/tolerant voters if they want to be a part of a winning coalition.  The limited government message won revolutionary victories for Republicans in 1980 and 1994; it is the only viable organizing principle for the current Republican coalition.

Huckabee may believe libertarians are the “real threat”, but his God, Guns and Butter agenda would destroy the Right far more effectively than the libertarian cartoons that exist in Huckabee’s head.

Nick Gillespie noted:

The Huck continues his jihad against libertarians, those strange and horrible creatures who dislike government intrusion into private matters but support low, low taxes. This is an interesting performance, as Huckabee can’t find a single good thing to say about libertarians but worries over their lack of Big Tentedness.

Dave Weigel: “Subtext: ‘Go to hell, Mitt Romney. No, not the one you believe in. The one I  believe in.’”

Kathryn Muratore: “Apparently, he takes aim at everybody except McCain in his new book. Oh, and he thinks libertarians are destroying the GOP.”

Preacher Mike’s disdain for supporters small government is no surprise to an Alabamian like me. It wasn’t that long ago that my Republican governor tried to raise taxes in the name of Jesus. Huckabee even lifted Riley’s campaign theme of “Let’s Do the Right Thing” in the title of his book.

However, something about Huckabee scares me much more than his big-government aspirations.  As Henke noted: “Huckabee makes little distinction between religion and politics.”  This is what scares the hell out of me — the hell I  believe in.

According to his Wikipedia page:

At 21, Huckabee was a staffer for James Robison, a television evangelist.[10] Robison commented, “His convictions shape his character and his character will shape his policies. His whole life has been shaped by moral absolutes.”[10] Huckabee has stated, “Politics are totally directed by worldview. That’s why when people say, ‘We ought to separate politics from religion,’ I say to separate the two is absolutely impossible”.[17] Huckabee believes in Biblical inerrancy.[10]  [snip]

Huckabee also stated “I do not necessarily buy into the traditional Darwinian theory, personally.” In his endorsement of anti-evolution film Expelled,[173] he describes evolution as “dogma.”[174][175][176][177]

After a long day of locking people in prison for selling little baggies of marijuana or spending trillions of dollars on social and education programs with as bad a track record as the war on drugs, imagine a tuckered Huckabee retiring for the evening with a glass of warm milk (oops, I meant Jesus Juice) and the latest Revelations-thriller by Timothy LaHaye.

After falling into a blissful slumber (dreaming of forced religious conversions, no doubt), Huckabee gets that fateful three a.m. phone call.

After consulting with God, Huckabee calls SecDef Gary Bauer and relays the following: “The man upstairs has just ordered a nuclear strike on Babylon.”

“Which Babylon,” a sleepy but increasingly excited Bauer responds. “New Babylon, Old Babylon, or just plain Babylon?”

“God wasn’t clear on that, so in order to make sure His plan is fulfilled, we’ll simply nuke every Babylon which has sinners in it.  Just like Sodom and Gomorrah.”

In Do the Right Thing: Inside the Movement That’s Bringing Common Sense Back to America, Huckabee finds evil in trying to downsize the size and scope of government but finds that doing his brand of “the right thing” is blessed — consequences be damned, of course.

Reverend Mike may have shed a few pounds, but his extra-heavy religious baggage will be certain to sink the GOP ship.

Posted in Wasteful Spending, Bad Republicans, Libertarian Movement




10 Responses to “Mike Huckabee’s Plan to Sink the GOP Ship”

  1. Paul wrote on 11/24/08 at 9:07 pm :

    Mike Huckabee is an embarrassment to politics.

  2. Red Phillips wrote on 11/24/08 at 9:33 pm :

    There is much wrong with Huckabee’s policies, but the criticisms of him need to be directed at policy and not ad hominem. I was no fan of Huckabee, but he did have good enemies. A lot of his critics were elitist, urban, anti-Christian bigots. The reason the anti-Huckabee hysteria was out of all proportion was related to the fact that he was a Southerner and a serious Christian.

    It is not wise for Huckabee to pick a fight with libertarians by name, but he is right that there can be no small government freedom without a virtuous populace. So the supporters of the former are foolish if they treat those concerned about the latter as equal enemies to those who oppose the former.

  3. Steve wrote on 11/24/08 at 10:37 pm :

    Red,

    Living in the south in a state where the Governor tried to raise taxes in the name of Jesus, perhaps I’m a bit sensitive to these issues.

    After all, Huckabee would never try to raise taxes in the name of Jesus, would he?

  4. Huckabe attacks libertarians on behalf of socons — FR33 AGENTS wrote on 11/24/08 at 11:43 pm :

    […] Stephen Gordon has the details on Mike Huckabe dissing libertarians. […]

  5. David Anderson wrote on 11/25/08 at 12:08 am :

    Huckabee speaks with an eloquence that is matched by no living politician. He is absolutely correct that libertarianism is based on a negative answer to the question “am I my brother’s keeper”. After that answer, there is nothing left for the libertarians to say. They can stay in their self-centered little corner.

  6. Former Republican wrote on 11/25/08 at 12:22 am :

    Dave Anderson:

    Surely you jest. I’d sugggest you read a book or two by Rand.

  7. Pat Barringer wrote on 11/25/08 at 8:37 am :

    Dave Anderson:

    The question that libertarians respond negatively to is not “Am I my brother’s keeper?” it’s “Do I think the government should take care of my brother for me?”

    If you want to see a real example of someone taking care of their brother why not look at Ron Paul. He’s a staunch libertarian, and in his carrer as a ob-gyn he often provided low cost or free medical care for those who could not afford it. That’s taking care of your brother, not letting the government take more and more money in taxes for broken programs that contribute to our country’s decline.

  8. Red Phillips wrote on 11/25/08 at 10:21 am :

    Steve, as someone from Alabama, you need to tell the anti-theist/rabid secularist cosmos to get out a little. Get outside the Beltway, NYC, etc. and see what life is like and how people think in rural America and particularly the South. Many of them don’t have a clue. They have no idea why Huckabee appeals to some people. They think everyone is just like their Beltway buddies.

  9. David Anderson wrote on 11/26/08 at 12:34 am :

    I think it would be wonderful if Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul decided they have complementary philosophies. It is not clear why they seem to have an aversion to each other. I have presumed that it is on differing philosophies, and not on personality, because they both appear to be decent human beings to me.

  10. Mike G wrote on 12/4/08 at 1:31 am :

    “Branch within the Republican Party”? THATS a slap in the face….

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