Posted under Conservatism & Election 2008 & Mike Huckabee
Good stuff here. I think all this talk of Huckabee’s populism is mostly a projection onto him from an establishment that is in meltdown because he doesn’t mouth the right rhetoric. I am not sure how Huckabee is really all that populist in reality. Just promising new spending projects is not really all that populist anymore. You could argue that budget cutting (at least the rhetoric) is the real populist position these days. And how can one be a populist and be soft on immigration. Opposition to the cultural and economic effects of immigration is an essential element of populism, is it not.Â
Last week, National Review Online blogger Lisa Schiffren, a Giuliani backer, laid into Mr. Huckabee with a screed pithily summarized by Mr. Douthat as, “Go back to Dogpatch, you stupid hillbilly.”
Alas for the GOP and for the old guard religious-right leadership, the view from Dogpatch these days is looking up for the populist Huckabee. Could it be that cultural and religious conservatives are fed up with being treated like useful idiots by the Republican establishment?
Religious conservatives have been treated like useful idiots. Let’s hope they wake up to that. But Huckabee is not the right vehicle.
roho on 20 Dec 2007 at 11:08 pm #
I agree that “Huckabilly” is not the answer, but when the Elitist treat the “Silent Majority” like bastard step-children, there is a price to pay in a democracy!……………Huck’s all messed up, but Americans have figured out that NEOCONS are more messed up than Adolph Hitler!(With the blessings of the Likud party)………………………………America has figured out that the “Draft Dodger Brains” of Harvard and Yale are idiots!…………….And they are seeking anyone that understands life as a middleclass American…………..If they do their homework, they will find their answers in RON PAUL!
RonL on 21 Dec 2007 at 6:38 pm #
I would argue most Huckabee supporters like his style not message. They don’t know his positions and seem to assume that because Huckabee is a religious populist (although a waffler when called to defend his positions by the media), they think that all attacks on him are anti-religious.
They are willing to support Jimmy Carter redux because of religiousity.
Byron York and Ross Douthat have written about this foolishness.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1942538/posts
My response is
“Huckenfreudeâ€? How about “Huckenfraudâ€, the delusional belief that Huckabee is a conservative and all criticism of him is anti-Christian bigotry.