January 7, 2008
When you get a chance, watch this video. Huckabee comes across as personable, intelligent and compassionate. Even knowing what I know about his absurd policy positions and his vindictive streak, I still can’t help but want to like the guy. Of the GOP candidates, Huckabee is the only one who gets the mood of the country, and that alone makes him a dangerous general election opponent. But - assuming we want a functioning two-party system - a Huckabee-led Republican Party might not be a terrible thing.
As it stands, the Republican party consists of two wings: an authoritarian corporatist wing and an authoritarian Christianist wing. Huckabee is a conservative evangelical - no doubt - but I’m not convinced that he has the radically authoritarian tendencies of the old-school Christian Right. The rise of Huckabee and Ron Paul might be indicative of a greater change in conservative politics; namely, the corporatists and Christianists may be replaced by Christian Democrats and right-libertarians. And if that development means a Republican Party actually committed to making government work - on their terms - then, all things considered, it’s a good thing.
