On Tuesday, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee finally gave up on his bid to win the GOP presidential nomination. Let us be among the first to say good riddance.
Huckabee’s long-shot campaign should be remembered for what it was at its core: an unprecedented and dangerous implementation of “the God strategy.” Again and again, Huckabee showed he was willing, even eager, to use religious faith as a political weapon.
Early in the campaign, Huckabee mobilized supporters in Iowa by running an ad touting himself as a “Christian leader” and saying “faith doesn’t just influence me, it really defines me.” The implied contrast to Mitt Romney, a Mormon, was hardly subtle.
Then, as he gained ground on Romney, Huckabee ducked and dodged when reporters asked if he thought Mormonism was a religion or a cult. He eventually affirmed in a New York Times story that Mormonism was indeed a religion—the one that “believe[s] that Jesus and the devil are brothers,” right? Huckabee apologized to Romney for the remark, but the desired damage was done.
So distasteful were Huckabee’s tactics that several prominent commentators, even some within the conservative fold, voiced criticism. Peggy Noonan questioned whether Ronald Reagan could survive the de facto religious test being imposed on candidates, and Charles Krauthammer correctly labeled Huckabee’s “exploitation of religious differences for political gain” as “un-American.”
Perhaps Huckabee just couldn’t help himself; maybe he truly believed that he was an agent of God. When he finally gained ground in the polls, after struggling for the first several months of the campaign, he suggested his rise was due to divine intervention:
“There’s only one explanation for it, and it’s not a human one. It’s the same power that helped a little boy with two fish and five loaves feed a crowd of five thousand people.”
Even as his hopes of winning the nomination dimmed, Huckabee kept the faith. In February he toldthe Conservative Political Action Conference that he would continue his campaign, saying: “I didn’t major in math, I majored in miracles, and I still believe in them.”
There is an uncomfortable and all too familiar arrogance in a politician who believes that God is on his side. In a world where millions are denied sovereignty, where poverty and disease are widespread, where people regularly kill each other because of their differing religious views, one would like to think that God has more important things to worry about than getting out the Huckabee vote.
Huckabee’s insistence on making his run for the presidency a faith-based crusade was all the more disquieting because of its implications for policy. In January, Huckabee called for the U.S. Constitution to be changed to conform to his own religious views:
“[Some of my opponents] do not want to change the Constitution, but I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God, and that’s what we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards.”
Altering the Constitution based on one narrow interpretation of the Bible is, of course, exactly what the Founding Fathers sought to avoid.
And, after all of this—after doing absolutely everything possible to make religion the centerpiece of his campaign—Huckabee still had the gall to criticize those few journalists who actually scrutinized what his religious views might mean to his presidency. In February, he had this to say to the Christian Science Monitor:
“There has been an attempt to ghettoize me for a very small part of my biography. The last time I was in the pulpit was 1991.”
Last in the pulpit in 1991; last in a political campaign in 2008. God willing, it will stay that way—for the good of faith and the good of the American experiment in democracy.
www.thegodstrategy.com
David Domke is Professor of Communication and Head of Journalism at the University of Washington. Kevin Coe is a doctoral candidate in Speech Communication at the University of Illinois. They are authors of The God Strategy: How Religion Became a (more...)
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Mike Huckabee was regarded by fellow Republican governors as a compulsive tax increaser and spender. He increased the Arkansas tax burden by 47 percent, boosting the levies on gasoline and cigarettes.The Arkansas Leader.com editorialized that Mike Huckabee raised more taxes in 10 years in office than Bill Clinton did in his 12 years.The National Education Association endorses any candidate who raises taxes and opposes school choice – thus they endorse Mike Huckabee. Huckabee “broadly repudiates core Republican policies such as free trade, low taxes, the essential legitimacy of America’s corporate entities and the market system allocating wealth and opportunity,” according toGeorge Will.The Arkansas Ethics Commission held proceedings 20 times on the former governor. During his tenure, Huckabee accepted 314 gifts valued overall at more than $150,000, according to documents filed with the Arkansas secretary of state's office. (He accepted 187 gifts in his first three years as governor but was not required to report their value.) When he left office, he ordered all hard drives destroyed.He didn’t want any incriminating evidence to be viewed by his successors. Two months after taking office, Huckabee stunned the state by saying he questioned rapist Wayne DuMond's guilt and that it was his intention to free the rapist,DuMond murdered a women in Illinois after Huckabee set him free Huckabee battled conservatives within his own party who were pushing for stricter state-level immigration measures, such as:. -proof of legal status when applying for state services that aren’t federally mandated -proof of citizenship when registering to vote- Huckabee failed in his effort to make children of illegal immigrants eligible for state-funded scholarships and in-state tuition to Arkansas colleges. He joined the Democratic chorus in indicting President Bush for his "arrogant bunker mentality."Is he in the right party?Huck’s use of the “Christian Leader” title and the Cross in his ads and his attempt to denigrate Mitt Romney’s religion is a thinly-veiled attempt to impose a religious test in violation of Article Six of the ConstitutionThe Huckster was the keynote speaker at a 1998 anti-Mormon conference in Salt Lake City.And he says he knows nothing about Mormons?And the "Christian Leader" doesn't want to release his sermons?He led the Arkansas Baptists liberal congregations in a dispute with the conservative Southern Baptist Conference.
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Bot (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 8 comments) on Thursday, Mar 6, 2008 at 10:51:43 AM
Those of us who value religious freedom are glad Huckabee is a former candidate. However, it would be foolhardy to assume that this is the last we will hear of him or others like him.
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Kenneth Barr (10 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 107 comments) on Thursday, Mar 6, 2008 at 2:24:36 PM
A major speech from Huckabee at the Rethuglican convention.
A major position in the McCain Administration (Head of Office of Faith-based Giving?).
Perhaps even a position in the Clinton Administration as she attempts to pander to the right-wing, religious nutjobs. After all, anything to "capture that ellusive center."
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Charlie L (2 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 747 comments [2 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Mar 6, 2008 at 5:22:32 PM
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