The many appeals of Mike Huckabee
From the time I first started supporting Mike Huckabee, there were some people who probably thought I was off my rocker. They hadn’t heard of Mike Huckabee and had not been exposed to his brand of politics. One of the things Huckabee supporters heard was that he was only a candidate for Christians. Here on this blog, I had to counter the comments that were made to this effect and tried to let my readers know that Huckabee’s Christianity was only icing on the cake for me. His ideas and stances on the issues, along with his ability to articulate them were the main reasons I started to support him. Watching him in action only made that support grow stronger. I took solace in knowing they would come to appreciate him, as I have, if they would just take some time to get to know him. His appeals were and still are very many, even after he has dropped out of the race.
I have alluded to this in a previous article, but think back for just a moment, to the Florida debate. This debate took place during the time the economic stimulus package was being debated in Congress and the debate moderators couldn’t pass up the opportunity to ask the candidates what they thought about it. Huckabee was the only one who was bold enough to call it what it was, a economic and political stunt. He also had the audacity to bring up an idea that would really stimulate the American economy and help rebuild our infrastructure at the same time.
Huckabee was on The Morning Joe, Wednesday morning and was asked about Barack Obama’s speech and the controversy leading up to the speech. Again, Huckabee had the audacity to talk in terms that has astonished the liberals and has probably dismayed the conservatives. He refused to use the talking points they would have chosen and instead, talked about the real issues behind the controversy. I have yet to see a politician who is able to grasp the real issue in a situation like Mike Huckabee.
When any other conservative politician would be talking about how Reverend Wright was a hate monger, Huckabee went straight to the heart of the issue. The media headlines have been along the lines of “Huckabee supports Obama’s pastor”. That really isn’t what he did. He plainly said he did not agree with the harsh statements made by Reverend Wright, but also that we might need to consider where the black community has came from and all of the racism they have had to endure throughout the years. While he condemned the statements, he also realized that this was just part of a larger issue, one that has divided our country far too long. He also pointed out that you can not hold Barack Obama responsible for everything Reverend Wright or anyone else close to him might have said. Huckabee has already fought that fight.
For me, that is the main appeal of Mike Huckabee. He has said throughout his campaign, it is time for our country to get past the liberal/conservative, left/right, Democrat/Republican rhetoric that has manipulated the way our country is governed for so long. He calls it vertical politics and that is why he was able to govern Arkansas so well during his tenure. He saw the problems and found solutions. It didn’t matter if it was a Democrat or Republican solution. He doesn’t care about that kind of thing. He just wants to get the problems taken care of and he realizes that dividing our country along these lines is not going to get the job done.
Just imagine, if you will, Congress and the President, working together to find a solution to our country’s homeless problem. Imagine them working together to repair our country’s crumbling infrastructure. Imagine them working together to overhaul our current tax system. Let’s not forget healthcare. Do you suppose they could find a solution to the healthcare crisis if they put their minds to it and worked together? I think they could, but they seem to be more interested in making sure their party or movement gets one up on the other guys than in making the hard choices and solving the problems. That is one thing that sets Mike Huckabee so far apart from the other candidates who have ran in this campaign and it is just part of his appeal to the ordinary people of this country.
One last thing about Mike Huckabee is this. He is a man who keeps his word. The more I watch him and see how he conducts himself, the more I realize he does not spout words just to hear himself talk and to tell us what we want to hear. If he says something, you can take it to the bank. We have had enough of politicians who are willing to say anything to win an election. We want someone whom we can trust, someone who understands where we are had and where we have came from. No matter if it is 2008 or 2012, we feel we have found that someone in Mike Huckabee.
That’s my take!
Larry
I absolutely agree!! Mike has the guts to speak the truth on issues and is a man of his word.
You’ve probably passed over this site: http://www.alternet.org/ . It’s a generally left-leaning site. And speaking of the road less travelled vs. following popular clamor, today, they posted an article that asked the question, “Are Evangelical Voters Abandoning the Republican Establishment?”
It spoke of an evangelical pastor who had supported Huckabee and discussed the widely published idea, illustrated in this pastor, that younger evangelicals are basically expanding their concerns to what have been traditionally “progressive” concerns like poverty and global warming.
I of course, supported Huckabee from before his announcement until today, after his concession of the race. And, I fully agree with Huckabee’s acknowledgment of the legitimacy and necessity of expressing concerns about the broad concerns of Americans, rather than merely the narrow concerns of a few, usually “anti-something constituencies.
However, focusing specifically on global warming, the obviously well-meaning pastor expressed his travel down the broad road of pop-dogma in expressing the mass-culture doctrine that “there is no scientific debate about global warming,” and we should get on with doing something about it.
I hope that most evangelicals are not so stewed in a pop-culture education, that they are unable to distinguish the details of an argument from the volume of the cultural clamor.
I hope most noticed that Huckabee would side-step the bull of popular debate. When asked about the specific matter of global-warming for instance, Huckabee would drop back to affirm the general and quite legitimate need to respect the integrity and the beauty of the environment.
We should work to keep the environment clean and beautiful on general principles such as what Huckabee typically referred to in the Boy Scout standard of leaving the campsite in as good or better condition than how you found it. Huckabee cited the Christian perspective that human beings are the stewards of the earth.
That is perfect and I greatly applaud it. But it in no way obligates me to embrace the provincial story that human emmissions of CO2 are threatening a disaster in terms of global hospitability to the human race or even life in general. Among the myths of secularist religion, I have called anthropogenic global-warming the apocalypse of secularism.
I hope evangelicals will not be cowed to embrace other pop-culture dogma like evolution. They so far remain firm about abortion, but I fear their shallow acquaintance with the facts.
I share Huckabee’s priority that we not be bogged down in in a yes-no shouting match but work together on positive things we can agree on. But, I can’t and don’t want to ignore the facts when they contradict pop-culture hysteria.
I say the same thing that I said to the agitated Huckabee critics (unfortunately more “conservative” than liberal): Calm down, step back and look at the facts instead of the noisy clamor. I know that many think that the loud and broad public din about anthropogenic global-warming can’t be wrong. Just as passive and studiously lethargic secularists are persuaded that evolution is a “fact” and skeptics are ignorant and narrow-minded fideists.
But, this article was heart-breaking. I agree that Huckabee has larger prioritiesthan to slog around in the details of such debates, and frankly I don’t know what Huckabee’s detailed beliefs would be or even if he spends a lot of time worrying about them. But somewhere, evangelicals need to also develop forums that articulate a thoroughgoing discussion of objective facts and Christian worldview. A primary presumption of this study should be that these two interests are not in conflict, but cooperation.
I like Mike! I believe he is the best of the Republican and Democratic parties in one candidate, i.e. good government.
I just posted an article from Charisma that they did on Mike. It was 9 pages long! I was so excited!
You are right, Larry, Mike is hands down the most articulate, most logical, and most reasoned candidate. I, too, saw the Morning Joe interview. I am always amazed how the media can get it so wrong when it comes to Mike.
I have been watching the Decade of Duty videos and I find myself thinking, “This is what he would have been like as President.”
BTW, I posted a daletoon (cartoon) of Mike on my funny bone link on my blog. Wouldn’t it be great if Mike won the election by all of us writing him in?! That is what the cartoon is about. Can you imagine the media then!
LOL! I would love to be a fly on the wall!
The Decade of Duty videos really reminds me what our government would look like if we had people in it that were not playing politics but instead were doing what was best for America.
In the Decade of Duty videos, Mike says that over and over. “What is best for Arkansas and its people in this situation.” THAT is what is missing more politics and our government today.
Another great article, Larry!
Remaining Steadfast,
Dominique
Thanks for a great article! Mike has a compassionate heart, common sense, and could bring much needed change to our country! We need this man as president!
Great article! I appreciate honesty. Eventhough I don’t agree with Obama on the issues, he did a terrific job with his speech the other day. Only people who want to play politics as usual would say otherwise. That’s what attracted me to support and to contribute to Huckabee. He and Obama are honest politicians. I agreed with Huckabee on his stand on the issues. If he is not on the ticket I think the republicans would loose many of his supporters.