“Sincerity is everything. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”
Huckabee doesn’t tell it like it is...
It’s hard to say when we will see
A Lib more glib than Huckabee.
~snip~
By now, these facts are well known. Fiscal conservatives have spilled gallons of ink decrying his record, and for good reason. Yet the social conservatives who support him should be concerned as well, for Huckabee undermines the GOP’s longstanding unity between its traditional and economic wings, a coalition built to serve the goals of social as well fiscal conservatives
~snip~
The way I see it the 4 main groups of people who vote for Rats and Pubbies respectively can be broken down like this.
A: People who want to control social/value issues based on traditional religious values but readily blame big business for problems- Pubbie (social conservatives)
B: People who mostly care about free business - Pubbie (libertarian wing)
C: People who equate social issues with economic issues and think the government is always the solution RAT (communist wing)
D: People who generally believe in free business but want the government out of their bedrooms RAT/Independent (Reagan Democrats & Swing voters)
It seems that these could form 4 separate parties and that an alliance via a truce on the religious front could lead to A & C joining forces. That would be truly dangerous for America.
But, the strongest and most American force would actually be between C & D. It is also where the majority - at least based on polls and (personal) observation - appears to lie. Most people want the government out of the bedroom and out of the boardroom. About a quarter want it more intensely in either one.
So why are these groups - who don’t appear to belong together, actually together?
Yes he is. If he wins it will tear the party apart.
He and his Hucksterettes forget that the word Conservative requires no modifier, to be one you are both fiscally and socially like minded.
Excellent article. I was in almost 100% agreement. The one area I disagreed with was this: “Thus, he has worked to make his small-minded populism a credit by pitting his socially conservative supporters against the GOP’s business wing. One of his favorite lines is that he represents the interests of “Main Street, not Wall Street.” But this assumes that the interests of the two are not in alignment, that somehow, one group can only gain at the expense of the other - never mind that the jobs and livelihoods of America’s workers and small towns are tied inexorably with the larger economy. It’s a dark form of class warfare shrewdly masked by his sunny chatter.”
I do think there is a difference in the economic interests of “main street” and “Wall Street.” You see it clearly in areas like immigration. Wall Street benefits from the cheap labor of the illegals. Wall Street levels of wealth also benefit from the dirt cheap servant class since they have houses large enough to accomodate the maid and the nanny and yards large enough to use the gardening service. Wall Street also benefits from offering services and products for sale to these illegals (witness the huge number of mortgages issued to them etc.). Main Street is who pays the price for the illegals. They are close to their neighborhoods in the cities, while the rich are in the suburbs or gated communities or doorman buildings. Main Street sends their children to school with the illegals children; Wall Street sends their children to private schools.
Being a Baptist Preacher does not make him Conservative. Huckabee's record as governor sucks.
Like Huckabee, Jimmy Carter ran as a “Christian” and voters honestly believed he would advance Christian values. But his presidency greatly harmed the agenda of social conservatives.
Huckabee is the same threat Carter was.
As did the GOP. If anyone running has any thought of turning back that tide, it might be Fred Thompson.
But, do the American sheeple want any part of it? More and more of today's "conservatives" have socialist leanings.