The Huckabee Disappointment

Like a lot of liberals, I find Mike Huckabee to be an intriguing figure. He seems, from his rhetoric, like an interesting politician; the kind of guy who would like to give the notion of "compassionate conservatism" a real try -- very traditionalist positions on "cultural" issues, combined with a dose of pragmatism on the economic front and some effort at showing a real concern for the least among us. A kind of right-populism, perhaps, but with less of the hard-edged anger and racial demagoguery that suggests. The trouble is that, as Ed Kilgore points out, Huckabee doesn't really bring the beef. He "likes to talk about economic inequality" but his only proposal in this area is "a highly regressive national sales tax."

Similarly, during the debate he got a question about unions and delivered a reply about how a revival of interest in unionism was a natural response to runaway inequality. But he didn't really say whether or not he thought that was a good thing and people should join unions. He noted that Arkansas is a right to work state, and appeared to endorse hard-right anti-union orthodoxy to the effect that it would be good to take such policies nationwide. Certainly he didn't come out in favor of pro-unionization measures like EFCA.

Comments

But he didn't really say whether or not he thought that was a good thing and people should join unions.

Gosh, I wonder why that might be?

Posted by pseudonymous in nc | October 10, 2007 3:53 PM

Actually, I find Huckabee to be one of the more dangerous Republicans. He talks compassion, but on virtually every issue, his policy is hard on the poor and unfortunate.

Also, there's not much gas in his tank. The much ballyhooed straw poll where he came in 2nd was due in large measure to the "Fair Tax" crowd. I'd say Brownback has more solid credentials with the religious conservatives.

True, Huckabee presents a friendly face, but lurking below are conservative economics and religious fundamentalism.

Posted by Quiddity | October 10, 2007 3:57 PM

Well put, Matt. The idea that Huckabee is a populist or progressive is less about him, and more about how frighteningly corporate his fellow Republicans are.

Posted by SDM | October 10, 2007 3:58 PM

Huckabee does not deserve our respect for any reason whatsoever, except maybe that he's not an out-and-out racist. And he hasn't cheated on his wife.

Posted by Wurd | October 10, 2007 4:03 PM

I see Huckabee as a borderline competent person who I nonetheless disagree with on almost everything. In other words, he looks pretty good relative to Bush, Giuliani, and McCain. If the GOP somehow nominates him, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

Posted by strannix | October 10, 2007 4:07 PM

Matt, you might like him less if after a few years and a few SCOTUS appointments you find yourself smuggling your 14 year old daughter into Canada for an abortion.

Posted by steve duncan | October 10, 2007 4:08 PM

Dude, just because he's not batshit insane, does not mean that he is not a Republican.

Posted by Matthew Saroff | October 10, 2007 4:11 PM

You know, most liberals don't realize that not all devout Christians or—much moreso—that not all Evangelicals are both culturally conservative and uncompasionate, hate-filled bigots.

I realize that a lot of liberals are aware that out there there's some brand of progressive and/or truly compassionate and loving Christianity. But very few liberals seem to be aware that there are varieties of truly compassionate Evangelism and/or even progressive Evangelism. But the former is far more common than most realize, and the latter do actually exist even though they account for a small percentage of Evangelicals.

And my point is that a truly compassionate devout Christian that epitomizes the loving, care for the weak, side of Christianity would have appeal for almost all varieties of Christians, with the only exception being the “core” that the GOP has hitched its wagons to and which are really about vilification and hate. But there's far more Christians than people think that aren't so hateful as they are loving, or at least that they would find such a candidate quite appealing.

The Democrats, quite rightly, aren't going to turn into religion-identified party anytime soon. But the GOP is flirting with imminent destruction because they've been pandering to, and captured by, a small core of very hateful and intolerant people. If they found candidates that were moderately culturally conservative and, yes, that would still include being anti-abortion, but were pretty aggressively in favor of public programs and values that epitomize the better side of Christianity, they'd find a much, much larger base of appeal. It'd save the party.

So, best we not tell them this bit of wisdom.

Posted by Keith M Ellis | October 10, 2007 4:19 PM

He self-consciously embiggened his eyes for that photograph. (Some PR guy directing his pose. Trying to make him look less like a maskless Beagle Boy.) Or else he's on a serious dose of something energizing. From Arkansas? Not easy to tell for sure.

(Why, yes, I am feeling combative today. Thanks for asking.)

Posted by Jeffrey Davus | October 10, 2007 4:22 PM

"a highly regressive national sales tax."

The "Fair Tax" Huckabee and others advocate includes a consumption allowance/"prebate" (the equivalent of a large deduction) that would make the tax progressive for the poor. It would also replace the regressive payroll taxes. From the site:

"The prebate makes the FairTax progressive. To ensure no American pays tax on necessities, the FairTax Plan provides a prepaid, monthly rebate (prebate) for every registered household to cover the consumption tax spent on necessities up to the federal poverty level. This, along with several other features, is how the FairTax completely untaxes the poor, lowers the tax burden on most, while making the overall rate progressive. However, the FairTax is progressive based on lifestyle/spending choices, rather than simply punishing those taxpayers who are successful. Do you see how much freer life is with the FairTax instead of the income tax? "

Posted by Fred | October 10, 2007 4:25 PM

Keith: speaking as a born-again Christian of some 37 years, I'm aware that such people as you describe exist. But those compassionate evangelicals have done almost nothing, AFAICT, to convince anyone that Pat Robertson and James Dobson don't speak for them. Consequently, I'm kinda dubious that they're all that numerous.

With respect to Matt's post, it sounds like Huckabee's the new Lindsay Graham - a Southern Republican who sounds just moderate enough on occasion to impress the Broderbund. But as with Graham, there's no action behind the moderate words. It's all a tease, just like "compassionate conservatism" was with a certain Presidential candidate a coupla cycles back.

Posted by low-tech cyclist | October 10, 2007 4:26 PM

"Matt, you might like him less if after a few years and a few SCOTUS appointments you find yourself smuggling your 14 year old daughter into Canada for an abortion."

What? Abortion is still legal? How can that be after 8 years of pro-life Reagan, 4 years of pro-life Bush 41 and 7 years of pro-life Bush 43?

Posted by Fred | October 10, 2007 4:30 PM

Check out DT Max's article in the New Republic about Huckabee. It details how Huckabee has flip-flopped on economic policy and fallen in line with the supply-side fundamentalism that dominates the national GOP. Here's the relevant graph:

'In March 2007, Huckabee gave a different kind of speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (cpac) at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Northwest D.C. "A fiscal conservative is a person who truly understands that it's not a problem in the federal government that our taxes are too low," he said to the crowd of cpac activists. "It's a problem that our spending is too high and out of control. And let me further end some speculation. I plan later today to deliver to Grover Norquist a signed pledge that I will be supporting a no-tax pledge as president of the United States, that we will not raise the marginal taxes on income in this country."'

Posted by Matt D | October 10, 2007 4:33 PM

Actually, MattY might want to take a closer look at Huck. He actually care so much about the "least among us" that he's willing to work with Mexico to help them out. Just like an actual Democrat would.

Posted by TLB | October 10, 2007 4:45 PM

I like Huckabee. I have since about 2002 when I had to do a file on Arkansas. Sure, he's a Republican and as a Democrat I disagree with him on more issues than I have time to list, but he's competant and honest.

I wouldn't vote for him, but I like him. His heart and mind are in the right place. His plan to expand health care coverage for Arkansas' kids was great policy that garnered bipartisan support.

Posted by willie | October 10, 2007 4:55 PM

It seems like Huckabee would be the ideal candidate if the GOP was interested in a running back-to-the-roots style principled and losing campaign. He would keep the biblethumpers in the fold and he would inspire all sorts of "maybe he's not so bad for a winger" pieces from the Broderbelt and he'd allow the GOP to claim they've cleansed the party from its Bush-era decadence and drift and even thrown some new ideas into the mix.

I would never vote for the guy for all the reasons people mentioned above, but I do respect the way he frames the pro-life question as a life-long moral position, not as the cult of the embryo. (And I'm a virulent pro-choicer--I just appreciate that a pro-lifer is tacitly admitting that many of his fellow pro-lifers aren't really pro-child.)

In any case, he might pull off a surprise second or third in Iowa, but he'll never make it down the stretch, because I think Republican primary voters really really want to win.

Posted by Philly | October 10, 2007 5:07 PM

Immediately after the Bush post-Petraeus speech, Huckabee, speaking on MSNBC, told Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann that the war in Iraq was "a theological struggle." He repeated this statement at the very next Republican debate, so it wasn't a simple slip on his part.

Huckabee comes across as not bat-shit insane, but for a man who is trying to become the President of the United State to confirm to all the radical jihadists that might want to do us harm that "yes, indeed, you are quite right. This is a theological struggle we are having with you," really is bat-shit insane. I don't care how comforting his tone of voice is.

Posted by swellsman | October 10, 2007 5:38 PM

"You know, most liberals don't realize that not all devout Christians or—much moreso—that not all Evangelicals are both culturally conservative and uncompasionate, hate-filled bigots." What? Evangelicals come in flavors? Who knew?

I see Huckabee as the most dangerous of the GOP field because he is charming, but he's still a Christianist who has no problem imposing his religious bigotry on the country as a whole.

Posted by Houston Bridges | October 10, 2007 6:10 PM

Fred,

I'm not an expert, but I think the Fair Tax is probably still more regressive than the current income tax if it ends the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Also, it's only sort of progressive if the rebate only goes up to the poverty level. That presumably means it would hit the middle class in full but the lower class only in part.

Posted by bob | October 10, 2007 6:59 PM

I've met Huckabee. He's a good listener and an incredibly decent man. He appeals to a lot of centrists because he carries Bush's yokel charm without the divisive ugliness.

I don't see much danger in Huckabee impeding religious freedom in this country - he seemed to respect religious differences. His problem is that he can't really be truthful as a national candidate because he's beholden to a base in AK that doesn't believe he's Christianist _enough_, and would prefer to hear hotter rhetoric from him. Meanwhile he has to make hay with the national religious right because no other GOP candidate seems to be able to. It's the type of diluted, mixed-message campaign that might work in a shallower field, but in this climate the winner will have to say "I'm more for X than the 9 guys I'm sharing the stage with."

Posted by Scott | October 10, 2007 7:11 PM

swellsman:

I'd bet that Huckabee was talking about Sunni-Shiite violence....which is (partially) a "theological struggle."

Posted by Nathan | October 10, 2007 7:32 PM

"I'm not an expert, but I think the Fair Tax is probably still more regressive than the current income tax if it ends the Earned Income Tax Credit."

Taking into account the EITC, the current system is progressive to the point where those in the bottom two income quintiles have slightly negative income tax rates, but only the bottom quintile has a negative tax rate over all (i.e., the amount they are receiving from the EITC and other transfer payments exceeds their income and payroll tax liabilities). So the poor wouldn't seem to be worse off with the Fair Tax than with the current system: they'd pay no taxes on anything they earned, and they'd get checks every month to offset the sales taxes they paid on necessities. And they'd get to keep 100% of every extra dollar they earned and saved.

Also, there's nothing stopping a Fair Tax-funded government from deciding to spend additional money on the poor, e.g., increasing WIC or welfare or whatever.

I'm not convinced yet, but so far I haven't seen any glaring problems with the Fair Tax, and lots of potential benefits (e.g., making U.S. exports more competitive, encouraging foreign companies to set up shop here, etc.).

Posted by Fred | October 10, 2007 8:39 PM

Hey Nathan, I don't suppose you happened to score a 177 on the LSAT?

If you did, well done and so forth.

yours faithfully...

Posted by vg | October 10, 2007 9:32 PM

I'm very sympathetic to Huckabee because he opened a very poor state to tens of thousands of Katrina refugees, and didn't think twice about the expense, or the fact that most of them were black. Looking at how he interacted with them, you'd think they were his own family. Frankly, I'd deal away some Democratic positions to the Christian Right if they led with genuinely Christian inclinations, as Huckabee does. Fortunately, though, the Republican primary isn't the general election--put another way, we're not in a one-party state, Rove's efforts notwithstanding--and we can have both the policies and the decency. But as extremely conservative, God-driven Republicans go, Huckabee is very admirable.

Posted by Rich | October 11, 2007 12:33 PM