Friday, January 04, 2008

Thoughts on Mike Huckabee's Win in Iowa

Let’s talk about the Republican winner, Mike Huckabee. I like Mike Huckabee, I really do. He strikes me as an honest guy that couldn’t help but be true to his beliefs. Unfortunately I don’t share a lot of his beliefs. There’s also such a thing as being too nice a guy. I think a good leader needs a healthy dose of evil, deviousness and larceny in his soul to be successful.

I also have doubts about the way Huckabee arrives at decisions.

How about we try to learn from our mistakes? The single biggest problem with the Bush Administration has been its refusal to accept facts which clashed with its pre-conceived notions or wishful thinking.

I have this fear that this may be a characteristic that Bush and Huckabee share. I’m having a hard time accepting as a candidate for President someone who hasn’t figured out that the science of evolution is a lot more likely to represent reality than the metaphor of Genesis.

As a side note, I might also point out that the political organizing done in Iowa by Christian pastors on behalf of Huckabee comes perilously close to violating the rules which allow churches to maintain their tax exempt status. Pastors and their Christian congregations can do anything they want as individuals but when tax exempt pulpits are used to endorse political candidates (as has been reported as occurring in Iowa recently on behalf of Huckabee) then the separation of church and state is undermined. If these reports are true, since clearly Huckabee went along with these activities, what does that say about his commitment to the separation of church and state?

Personally I’m sick and tired of Evangelical Christianity constantly attempting to force its so-called morality (opposition to a woman’s right to choose and gay marriage), its opinions (teach creationism alongside evolution) and its artifacts (displays of the Ten Commandments) onto the country in general and me in particular. Evangelical Christians appear to believe this is a Christian country and should be brought into line with biblical principles (see Pew Forum survey on Religion & the Law) but the rest of us don’t.

The bottom line is I don’t trust Huckabee not to treat the Presidency as the First Pastorship. He’s too far on the right wing (just as Hillary Clinton is too far on the left wing) and would be a polarizing agent just as Clinton would be a polarizing agent.

Neither Huckabee nor Clinton can heal the damage of the last years. If either of those two is elected we’ll see the Blue States become more blue or the Red States become more red in reaction and that’s not going to solve anything.

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