Does Mike Huckabee Have a Messiah Complex?
Mike Huckabee has fired a telling shot in the fight for the Republican Party’s 2012 presidential nomination. The failed 2008 candidate turned Fox News man sent out a statement blasting another potential contender, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, for suggesting the GOP call a “truce” on social issues like same-sex marriage. Hyperbolic conservative Huckabee won’t hear of such a thing, and declared that he’s here to deliver us from evil. And make some campaign money in the process.
Daniels’ comment came last week, during an interview with The Weekly Standard, in which the 61-year old Republican observed that the next President would have such a cornucopia of problems, like a tattered economy, that certain political issues may need to be put on the back burner. “[The next President] would have to call a truce on the so-called social issues. We’re going to just have to agree to get along for a little while,” contended Daniels.
The right wing was none-too-pleased: Tony Perkins from Family Research Council released a statement calling Daniels’ assertion “astonishing.”
“Regardless of what the Establishment believes, fiscal and social conservatism have never been mutually exclusive,” wrote Perkins, using the “E-Word” quite pointedly. “Thank goodness the Founding Fathers were not timid in their leadership; they understood that ‘truce’ was nothing more than surrender.” Concerned Women for America also released a critical missive. Now Huckabee too has hopped on the bandwagon, and will use it to his full fundraising potential.
Huckabee’s counter-argument starts traditionally enough. “The issue of life and traditional marriage are not bargaining chips nor are they political issues,” Huckabee wrote to members of his political action committee, HUCKPAC. “They are moral issues. I didn’t get involved in politics just to lower taxes and cut spending though I believe in both and have done it as a Governor. But I want to stay true to the basic premises of our civilization.”
It’s not surprising Huckabee would lash out at his possible rival. The former Arkansas Governor takes his conservatism seriously: his entire 2008 campaign revolved around fetuses and "fruits." In fact, he claimed in 2007 that same-sex marriage would bring us all down to our knees: “There’s never been a civilization that has rewritten what marriage and family means and survived." That's a familiar argument, one that's been deployed in culture wars past. Huckabee’s recent remarks, however, reach new levels of horror.
“For those of us who have labored long and hard in the fight to educate the Democrats, voters, the media and even some Republicans on the importance of strong families, traditional marriage and life to our society, this is absolutely heartbreaking,” bemoaned Huckabee, who concluded his letter by asking for a donation. His comments chill me to the core. Huckabee sounds as if he believes he was put on this planet to save our souls, to “teach” us as if we were a savage land in need of serious colonization. Although I suppose such rhetoric makes sense for a former Baptist minister.
Apparently Huckabee has a Godly pull on politics, because even Daniels’ fellow Hoosier, GOP Rep. Mike Pence, has turned against him, telling CNN's Candy Crowley yesterday, “I believe with all my heart that Republicans need to continue to fight for the sanctity of life and the sanctity of marriage with everything we’ve got in 2010 and in 2012.” Even Daniels himself has started to feel crusader Huckabee’s heat: he came out this weekend to defend his use of the word “truce.”
“I picked the word truce because no one has to change their point of view. No one has to surrender. We might simply try to come together,” said the Governor. “I think it will take that if we're going to address what I believe are the most urgent problems of the country.” The Republican Party — and Huckabee — is going to have to decide what’s more important: the gross domestic product or some “gross” gays.
We know where self-styled Messiah Huckabee and his congregation of social conservatives stand. Hopefully the majority of the Republican Party are a little more pragmatic, and people like Daniels will stick to their guns.
Andrew Belonsky
is a journalist living in New York City.
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