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This Is How You Attack Huckabee |
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Some will wring their hands over the new Huckabee ad and how the public mention of Jesus threatens our separation of church and state.
But religious expressions aren’t necessarily a bad thing. I personally take inspiration from the public activism of religious figures like Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. We cannot object to Huckabee’s messaging strictly on the grounds that it is “divisive,” because Martin and Malcolm’s messages divided America as well.
Rather, we must fight - and win - the battle of ideas by attacking Huckabee at his core. How do we do that? By proving that he has no credibility either as a Christian leader or as a politician.
Many Americans are Christians who try to live their lives according to the example set by Jesus Christ. On the surface, Huckabee might seem reassuring to Christians: a preacher, a family man, a good guy. His ad evokes the fuzzy feelings of Christmas and family. His soft tone of voice might remind us of our own fathers, leading us to believe that Huckabee could protect, teach, and help us.
But if religious values are taught in the home, then we can judge self-proclaimed religious leaders by their own conduct, and the conduct of their families. The fact is, Huckabee failed miserably as a father.
As Mike Huckabee gains in the polls, the former Arkansas governor is finding that his record in office is getting more scrutiny. One issue likely to get attention is his handling of a sensitive family matter: allegations that one of his sons was involved in the hanging of a stray dog at a Boy Scout camp in 1998. The incident led to the dismissal of David Huckabee, then 17, from his job as a counselor at Camp Pioneer in Hatfield, Ark. It also prompted the local prosecuting attorney— bombarded with complaints generated by a national animal-rights group—to write a letter to the Arkansas state police seeking help investigating whether David and another teenager had violated state animal-cruelty laws. The state police never granted the request, and no charges were ever filed.
If a man cannot teach his son not to harm - indeed, torture - helpless animals, his fatherhood must be questioned. If, moreover, he uses his political power to obstruct the fulfillment of justice and shield his delinquent children, teaching the lesson that the powerful can trample on the less fortunate without consequence, he is neither a good father nor a leader with integrity.
With the image of Huckabee as our new father-figure shattered, we can see what he is really trying to do: distract us from Bush’s failures. Bush is the elephant in the Republicans’ room, and though all of the candidates wish we would forget about Bush’s pathetic record as president, Huckabee seems to be the most successful at lulling us into amnesia. In the soft warmth of Huckabee’s living room, we could almost forget that the Republican Party under George Bush has utterly failed our country, betraying its Constitution, bankrupting our treasury, and stubbornly committing our young men and women to the occupation of a foreign country that posed no threat to the United States. But Republicans are still Republicans, Bush is still president, and America will not accept Huckabee’s invitation to hide under a rock with him and pretend the last seven years did not happen.
What Huckabee is really inviting us to share is his willful ignorance. The day after the release of the National Intelligence Estimate report which revealed that Iran has no nuclear program and suggested that Bush had again been lying to the American people, Huckabee not only did not know what the report said, but deferred to Bush’s opinions on Iran. This gives us a frightening idea of what a Huckabee presidency would look like.
If Mike Huckabee does not understand the world outside of his living room, he will be forced to rely on advisers who operate behind closed doors and are not accountable to the American public. This policy is the same one that led to many disastrous and deeply unpopular foreign policy decisions under George Bush. Huckabee, despite his sweet talk, cannot offer anything different or better than Bush.
The growing mountain of scandals that surrounds Huckabee tells voters that he has neither been an effective leader nor a genuine Christian. If Americans want to feel warm and fuzzy inside while closing their eyes to all the challenges that confront our country, they should vote for Mike Huckabee. But if they want leadership that is qualified to solve problems and respond to Americans’ real needs, they must look elsewhere.
Huckabee will spend a ton of money to air his ad in Iowa. He will wish the nation a Merry Christmas, which we of course wish for him and his family as well. But what he will not tell us is anything about his positions, his ideas, his substance, his leadership. In other words, the ad is noteworthy only in terms of what it lacks: any reference to real political thought, which is what our country so desperately needs right now and what Huckabee seems so determined to avoid.
I fully agree with your comment about faith being acceptable speech in the political arena and I’ve seen nothing of Huckabee that would lead me to think he’s misusing his faith in his campaign.
As for the personal, family attack - boy, you would go for the jugular. I guess all is far in love and politics, but if we were to judge the competency of our leaders on the character of their children, we would be in sad shape.
It is going for the jugular. But Huckabee wants to be a Christian leader? He will be held to the highest standard. I know the Gospels quite well - and I’m sick of fraudulent “Christian” leaders who make a mockery of Christ’s example in their personal and public lives.
I’m in agreement with you, Alex. I would say that occasionally a child slips through even the best parents’ hands and exhibits atrocious behavior that does not at all reflect their parents’ beliefs. However, I do think that you can generally judge the real character of a parent by how their child turns out. After all, parenthood is generally long-term behavior modeling. Kids usually learn far more by what their parent does, as opposed to what the parent says.
Harming animals usually indicates much deeper issues, which can be traced back to how the individual was raised. My partner is a psychologist (PhD) and would tell you that usually only disturbed children exhibit such behavior; I think the lack of empathy shown is a real indicator of some serious problems. People with sociopathic tendencies are usually the ones torturing or killing animals, but in any case, this usually stems from deep issues within the person’s development.
It is, perhaps, “going for the jugular”, but Republicans never seem to shy away from finding and taking advantage of an opponent’s Achilles heel. Time and time again, it’s been obvious that taking dirty attacks, rolling over, and not “playing on the same level” doesn’t work. Smearing someone is very successful and it appears that the only way to fight fire is with fire.