Posted on 04/22/2014 5:26:46 AM PDT by xzins
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee warned if the Republican Party ignores social issues in the upcoming national elections, then evangelical voters will simply stay home.
The evangelical vote in America has been a key ingredient in deciding who becomes the Republican nominee for president. Polling bears that out.
Yet the social issues near and dear to the hearts of evangelicals are under attack within Republican circles.
A few years ago, former Gov. Mitch Daniels, R-Ind., wanted to declare a truce on the hot button social issues.
"All I was saying was we are going to need to unify all kinds of people. Freedom is going to need every friend it can get," he argued.
That's the line by some within the GOP who say that the only way the party can get more votes and win elections is by staying away from controversial social issues like abortion and gay marriage.
But Huckabee, who's considering running for president in 2016, told CBN News that ditching these issues may cost the GOP evangelical votes.
"It leaves them at home. They just don't go vote, which they didn't do very strongly in 2012. There were fewer evangelical voters who voted for Romney than McCain. If 10 percent more evangelicals had voted for Romney, Romney would be president right now," Huckabee said.
Nevertheless, many in the Republican Party appear intent on phasing out social issues.
Just this past week, the Nevada Republican Party stripped out all language pertaining to abortion and marriage.
And after President Barack Obama won re-election in 2012, a Republican National Committee document concluded the following: "When it comes to social issues, the party must in fact and deed be inclusive and welcoming."
But Huckabee suggested the GOP might want to rethink that strategy.
"This notion of 'don't mention those issues because you might offend the voters who are leaning left,' you better worry about who are you going to leave at home, cool off, and completely chill out the voters who just will say, 'Well, I really don't have anyone to carry the issues that matter for me,'" Huckabee warned.
Huckabee insists that social conservative candidates will need to stand firmly for their values and convince the party that issues like marriage and abortion are an important part of the total equation.
"I think it's a mistake to think that younger voters are going to make their entire election decisions on a candidate's position on same-sex marriage," Huckabee predicted.
"If a candidate can articulate the reason he's for traditional biblical marriage is because of his biblical viewpoint, then will they hold that against them anymore than they would hold it against a Muslim who won't eat pork or drink liquor? If they do, then the problem is bigger than what the position is; it's why they hold the position," he added.
If a republican candidate cannot articulate why we should protect the life of a poor, innocent baby, then that guy is totally disqualified in my mind.
And if a candidate cannot see the damage to the individual and to the culture caused by homosexual behavior, then he simply isn't well read.
And if he can't see the need for self-defense with the BLM putting snipers on the hillsides surrounding normal American citizens, then they're closet big-government charlatans.
And if they can't bow their heads and ask God's blessing on America, then they do not have a grasp on reality.
I will NOT vote for a wishy-washy, baby killing, disease spreading, slavery advocating atheist.
I don’t care for Huckabee’s pro-amnesty position, but he is right about life, marriage, family, and self-defense.
If a republican candidate cannot articulate why we should protect the life of a poor, innocent baby, then that guy is totally disqualified in my mind.
And if a candidate cannot see the damage to the individual and to the culture caused by homosexual behavior, then he simply isn’t well read.
And if he can’t see the need for self-defense with the BLM putting snipers on the hillsides surrounding normal American citizens, then they’re closet big-government charlatans.
And if they can’t bow their heads and ask God’s blessing on America, then they do not have a grasp on reality.
I will NOT vote for a wishy-washy, baby killing, disease spreading, slavery advocating atheist.
It speaks volumes that one of the less inspiring, modestly conservative possibilities of past years has to admonish the post 2012 GOP about core principles.
Problem is too many “Christians” are voting for dimocrats who support abortion and homosexual marriage.
You are correct. There are a lot of lamps going out in America.
>evangelical voters will simply stay home
That worked really well for “Senator Akin” and “President Romney”. If you like getting President Obamas, you can keep getting President Obamas.
?????
Does that fat goober think that illegals given amnesty will vote for a GOP candidate who supports those issues over a lib Dem who offers them free stuff like birth control, preschool, minium wage,...and supports gay marriage and birth control mandates?
He cant be as stupid as he acts.
That is why I don't watch Huckster .
Blame Romney, not the people who stayed home.
It was Romney who chose to run to the left. It was HIS strategy that he could give social conservatives the finger but still get them to vote for him.
Did his “strategy” gain him any liberal votes? Hispanic votes? Nope and Nope.
But it lost the people who he told to get lost. And those people would have put him over the top.
Blame the general; not the private.
Just because he’s wrong about amnesty doesn’t mean he isn’t right about life, natural marriage, self-defense, and God.
I won’t vote for a wishy-washy or a candidate who rejects my core beliefs.
No compromise.
Romney lost because of it. The next guy better choose a little more wisely.
I rarely agree with Huck’s political outlooks, but he is dead on here. As I responded at the time to Mitch Daniel’s comments. If ‘we’ call a truce, is the opposition also calling a truce or are they continuing to push forward? Watch the advancement of the gay agenda the past two years to realize how well that strategy would work.
What our side has to do is stick to the correct principles and do a much better job advancing them...and stop letting the opposition define then. Our side is horrible on that last part on issues across the board.
We essentially had won the marriage debate and sat on our butts while the left repackaged the discussion with the H8 campaign. They changed it from a logical debate to an emotional one very quickly and now we sit in a losing position. The NRA and gun owners have the model, we need to use it on other issues and stay on the offensive and never stop selling. The left uses every tool at their disposal...Hollywood, education, political organizations and media...24/7. We have to act accordingly.
It was an observation, not an indictment.
Romney had many different reasons to lose
but if a few Huckabee like goobers decided that having Obama second term was no big deal, after Obama came out and made gay marriage a major 2012 campaign issue, and he gay-if-fied the military, and after he mandated abortion drugs on employers, they they reaped what they sewed.
I am sure getting Obama re-elected boosted Huckabees ratings, suckers.
Everyone should vote their conscience , or not vote it, but I wouldn't brag about helping Obama get a second term.
The unstated assumption is that there were just as many evangelicals in 2012 as there were in 2008. What if the problem wasn't that they didn't come out to vote, but that there were fewer evangelicals overall?
Blame Romney. It was HIS strategy.
It was a dumb strategy.
It miserably failed.
Romney voters need to get over Mitt. He blew it.
you obviously don’t understand who Todd Akin was and what the real story was there….
How much confidence to I have in random sampling surveys? A fair amount.
They are the surveys that detailed the votes that Romney threw away.
Anecdotally, I know of those who didn’t vote. With each one it was gay issues and pro-life issues. The standard comment: no better than a liberal.
>Just because he’s wrong about amnesty doesn’t mean he isn’t right about life, natural marriage, self-defense, and God.
>No compromise.
Allowing tens of millions of criminal illegals stay here with full rights and to milk Uncle Sam’s teat is treason, not compromise.
Illegals are a bigger detriment to America than anything other than messing with the 2nd Amendment.
>you obviously don’t understand who Todd Akin was and what the real story was there….
I understand what he said about rape and incest, and I know 99.99% of women ain’t voting for someone that would require them to have a rapists child.
Voter fraud had more to do with mitts loss then any other issues.
If social conservatives want to stay home, they are hurting themselves. They are helping Liberals win. This election is to me about social issues but reducing Federal Government. I don't care if my neighbor is living with a member of the same sex raising kids (they are and they are wonderful moms with polite kids).
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