A friend of mine asked for my thoughts on this article about Huckabee (and to a much lesser extent, Giuliani). I’ve been meaning to post on both of these candidates for a while (I even have the Huckabee post saved in my drafts, just haven’t gotten anywhere with it), so I figured now is as good a time as any… The article I reference is a short one and helpful for some of the context of my e-mail. My e-mail was as follows:
[Start of e-mail]Of course George Will sees Huckabee’s transgressions from party doctrine as more offensive than Giuliani’s. Will, who I for the most part like, is still a Northeast Republican, in that he is fiscally conservative but not socially conservative, same as Giuliani. His assertion that abortion is a “recent Republican stance” is rather odd to say the least. And while gay marriage may be an actual recent stance it’s only because it’s become an issue recently. I think if you asked Republicans of 20 years ago what they thought about gay marriage they would have answered the same. It’s a recent stance because the issue is recent; the principles used to arrive at that stance have remained consistent.
That being said, I find Huckabee and Giuliani almost equally objectionable. I think they both would destroy the Republican coalition for the upcoming election, if not well into the future. Conservatism is three core principles: Strong National Security, Sound Fiscal Policy (e.g. Limited Government, Low Taxes, etc) and Social Conservatism (Value of life, Family Issues, etc.). A candidate who disregards one of these three pillars as irrelevant is not a candidate for me, which is why I have trouble with either of the two. Unfortunately, we see more and more an attitude that Religion=Big Government and Fiscal Conservatism divorced from moral values. Admittedly, if your view of politics and proper governance is all that informs your worldview, you will divorce yourself from religion and moral values because those are primarily private matters and matters for churches and individuals. Conversely, if you don’t recognize that there’s a difference between what you as an individual or you as a church should do and what the government should do, you will start seeing roles for the government to fill where they have no business.
My problems with Huckabee stem primarily from the latter. He is a “Compassionate Conservative”… I, however, am not compassionate. Somehow the fact that I have given well over $1000 in the last few months privately to people that I knew needed help, without wishing the government would help them and pushing for further social programs, that all makes me uncompassionate. The fact that I think if you want to do something unhealthy and die (be fat, smoke, etc.) you should be able to without government unduly restricting your ability to do so; this too makes me uncompassionate. Governor Huckabee has confused his responsibility as an individual (and in his opinion, the responsibility of the church) with the responsibility of the Government. The two are not similar. In fact, I would argue the two are almost diametric opposites. What the church and individual should do, in most cases the government should not do. What the government should do, in most cases the individual and church can not do. I understand the realities of this day and age. Yanking public welfare and social programs is not practical. However, expanding them in the name of compassion is foolish and dangerous. This is who Mike Huckabee is and I can’t support that. Setting social policy aside (and the necessary high taxes which must attend to it), Huckabee’s a nut job on foreign policy. He’s worthless on immigration. His understanding of the world and the war on terror is frighteningly similar to the Left’s. His statements about Bush’s “arrogant bunker mentality” are wrong and disrespectful.
Personally, I find Huckabee to be manipulative and divisive. His “innocent question” about Mormons believing Jesus and Satan are brothers is as retarded as asking if you support gay marriage because you believe you’re married to Christ (CLARIFYING ASIDE: Eph. 5:25-27 and other passages portray the church as the “Bride of Christ”. As members of the church, one could argue we are “married” to Christ. Mental gymnastics to be sure, but no more than required and no more disingenuous than Gov. Huckabee’s “question.). He has attempted at every turn to prove that “he’s the real Christian” and his politicizing of his faith is getting a little old. All the while, he refuses to release his old sermons and distances himself from it when it’s convenient… (While Romney is running somewhat as a “candidate of Faith” there is a major difference between his campaign and Huckabee’s in the role that they have placed their faith in, which I may detail in a later post.)
I have my own set of problems with Giuliani… His personal life is, shall we say, distasteful. I still believe “Character Counts” and so have a problem with him solely on this issue. His stance on abortion is certainly not mine; however he has stated that he is a strict constructionist of the constitution and would appoint likeminded judges. The Court is likely the only way abortion will be overturned and I don’t think we can hope for better than strict constructionists. I’m not totally informed on his stance on gay marriage, but my understanding is that he supports some weak form of civil union but that it’s an issue best left up to the states, which is not that dissimilar from say Fred Thompson’s position. His record on the 2nd Amendment is a serious issue for me. While he says he’s changed his ways from his time as Mayor, I’d like to see more evidence of that… [End of e-mail]
While I have fairly equal distaste for either candidacy, I see Huckabee as a larger danger, personally. For one, his nomination appears far more likely than Giuliani’s at this point. Second, I see Huckabee’s policies as, in some ways, more dangerous than Giuliani’s. Giuliani is at least honest with his positions, something I’m not sure we’re fully getting from Huckabee. Giuliani probably would be the run away leader right now had he come out in the beginning of the campaign and said he’d had a “Come to Jesus Moment” and revised his position on abortion. Even hedging around it would have earned him a number of friends. But he was and has been completely honest and for that I applaud him. As I said in the previous paragraph, possibly Giuliani’s most dangerous issue in my mind is that of the 2nd Amendment, but I don’t think even he would or could appreciably affect that issue on a national level. So, while I support neither candidate these are the reasons why I reserved most of my ire for Governor Huckabee.
No comments:
Post a Comment