Ron Paul Attacks Mike Huckabee
At the bottom of this post is a video of Ron Paul criticizing Mike Huckabee over the latter’s last Christmas ad. What’s most interesting about this clip isn’t that Paul repeats the words of Sinclair Lewis (”when fascism comes to this country it’ll be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross”). Instead what’s interesting is that we see a true clash between two voting blocs, two groups that are part of the conservative alliance that has brought the GOP to power.
On the one hand we have the religion right, personified by Mike Huckabee. To many of these voters, life is all about religion, thus so is politics. They’re conservative in many ways, but their conservatism is based on a (protestant) Christianity, hence the name Christian conservatives. On the other hand we’ve got libertarian conservatives and libertarians as personified by Congressman Ron Paul. Their conservatism is based on a small government philosophy combined with a ‘live and let live’ approach. They tend to believe that people are free to express their faith, but they don’t want to mix religion and politics.
These two sides are now clashing with each other. They were part of the GOP for decades, they were part of a major alliance, but now - for the first time - both groups truly have their own candidate. One of the candidates is doing great in the polls - thus has a chance of winning the nomination - the other is a great fundraiser which could very well result in a great many votes.
In other words, they’re lined up against each other. James Joyner spent some time to this clash earlier today in a post in which he compares Huckabee to Harriet Miers. The comparison is accurate, at least in so far that powerful conservative groups rebel and actively go after a fellow Republican. As James notes, however, “[t]he opposition to Miers was that she seemed to have been picked for her loyalty to President Bush rather than her legal mind, whereas the reaction to Huckabee is much more multifaceted.”
The question then is who will win this internal battle? It’s not only a battle between the two groups already mentioned, there are also traditional conservatives, for instance, who panic at the very idea of Huckabee being the nominee, but who also oppose Paul strongly (calling him crazy and all that). This means that the groups that formed the conservative alliance are no alliance any longer. At least not at this point in time. Will the nominee, whomever he will be, be able to reunite the party?
Here’s the video for you to watch. Note that Paul explicitly said that he doesn’t think that the comparison is accurate, but that the ad reminded him of what Lewis said. Note also that he didn’t attack Huckabee by calling him a fascist, but that he, instead, said that religion shouldn’t be used like this and that he would never shoot a video like it.
Video comes through Hot Air.
I thought that word was too insulting, so we are supposed to use mentally handicapped or differently able, or whatever. If that’s the case, then why cant we use retarded as a general insult? Is it just totally banned from our vocabulary now?
"If that’s the case, then why cant we use retarded as a general insult? Is it just totally banned from our vocabulary now?"
I dunno. I mean, there are so many words one can use for Goldberg and his ilk one might as well stay away from the gray areas.
Fair enough
Dr. Paul did not attack Mr. Huckabee. He was simply commenting on the use of substanceless symbolish.
Respectfully yours,
Alex Peak
Ron Paul was answering the question about the cross in the advertisement and the use of this "symbol" and as such was reiterating the warning of Sinclair Lewis. He was not attacking Huckabee. He lets the viewer draw his own conclusion in the context of Sinclair Lewis’s quote . Anything more is extrapolation!
Whatever else one might think of Paul, he has one of the most impressive records of integrity of any of the candidates running. He is scrupulously honest — he votes against every pay raise, returns part of his salary ever year and refuses to participate in Congressional pensions and has never taken a single government-paid junket.
h/t to G.Greenwald
sashal: I agree- those votes and actions are extremely praiseworthy and exceedingly rare.
Not quite accurate. He returns part of his budget every year - not his salary. Which IMO - is better anyway.
Huckabee will continue to feed the military industrial complex and does not have an Iraq withdrawal timetable.
I think men like Huckabee are especially dangerous because they pretend to know what God wants and pretend they have a red-telephone link to God.
I find most invocations of God in politics offensive because :
- The God of the old testament has no form and is not characterizable.
- The God in the new testament is shown to be more loving and accepting through Jesus, his **only** son. Accepting Christ and his teachings is one thing, but God has a short list of proxies on earth, and that would be Christ. As in, not the Pope, not the King/Queen of England, not the President, not a Pastor/Reverend/Priest/Monk/Preacher/etc, not Mike Huckabee.
This is astonishing. It seems like even some of Dr. Paul’s most fervent supporters don’t really understand him yet. He would have said the same thing if it costed him the election. Dr. PAUL TELLS THE TRUTH AS HE SEES IT. No "political" dancing around the issue or saying nothing while sounding good. He’s NOT going to let some little jack-booted Fox hooligan force him to make religious quotes in a political context. THAT was what the question was all about - to try to force Dr. Paul away from his principles and his position on Church and State. Next time you want to see what COURAGE looks like, you just google Ron Paul.
Ron Paul haters will stoop to pretty low levels to try to discredit the man. Keep on doing it, the more you hate the more you awake people to vote for Ron Paul. Americans are not stupid, they now know propaganda when they see it.