Huckabee Finally Settles His Campaign Scores
(By Michael Scherer, Time) - Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is not the sort of politician who likes to bite his tongue. But that's just what he has found himself doing over eight months since he ended his surprising and colorful presidential campaign.
What does he think is wrong with the Republican Party? What does he think of his former primary rivals? What is the best direction for the conservative movement? To each question, he answered only in broad strokes, refusing to get too specific or pointed. He was writing a book, he would say. It will come out after the election. He will "name names." Just wait and see.
On Tuesday, that book will arrive on store shelves, and in terms of payback, it will not disappoint. At once a memoir of his campaign, a treatise on the ills of the Republican Party and a blueprint for his own political future, 'Do The Right Thing: Inside the Movement That's Bringing Common Sense Back to America' is filled with sharp words for his fellow Republicans who frustrated his bid for the party's nomination. ...
... 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 a governor and cut other 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.
What does he think is wrong with the Republican Party? What does he think of his former primary rivals? What is the best direction for the conservative movement? To each question, he answered only in broad strokes, refusing to get too specific or pointed. He was writing a book, he would say. It will come out after the election. He will "name names." Just wait and see.
On Tuesday, that book will arrive on store shelves, and in terms of payback, it will not disappoint. At once a memoir of his campaign, a treatise on the ills of the Republican Party and a blueprint for his own political future, 'Do The Right Thing: Inside the Movement That's Bringing Common Sense Back to America' is filled with sharp words for his fellow Republicans who frustrated his bid for the party's nomination. ...
... 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 a governor and cut other 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.
posted by BP News Bureau | 12:36 PM
2 Comments:
When you first encounter one of these cases of a distinct disengagement from reality, you might be tempted to think that it is part of a con. Huckabee can't possibly be so stupid as to believe any of this nonsense he spouts, so it must be some kind of political marketing gimmick. Right? Right?
It turns out it's not so much a case of stupidity or even con artistry. It's a case of arrogance in the extreme. People like Huckabee (or McCain or any other of dozens of RINOs) are so convinced of their own political imperative, they feel quite free to redefine the ideological landscape in their own terms.
But consider for a moment, the case presented by Hayek, years and years ago. In truth, Huckabee actually does represent conservatism. By definition, conservatism is a political ideology that would seek to preserve the status quo. The current status quo consists of big, nanny government, redistributionism, socialism, and corporatism. Anyone who calls themselves a conservative could reasonably be expected to support all of these.
So the political landscape in the US now consists of left and lefter. That seems odd, considering that American most often identify with aspects of classic 18th century liberalism, also known as libertarianism.
What I find interesting is that the two most well-known religious politicians (Huckabee & Jimmy Carter) happen to also be two of the most bitterest. Both Huckabee and Carter are bitter individuals, and they will be bitter until the day they die.
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