What would a Mike Huckabee candidacy look like? Here’s a hint.
If he does, he’ll join a burgeoning field of hopeful G.O.P. candidates, with at least three or four brandishing fairly serious conservative credentials. He called divisions among social or fiscal conservatives “horizontal thinking,’’ contending that most Americans think vertically beyond such labels. In his book, he writes, “I’m a conservative, pro-life, pro-family evangelical who believes in God, lower taxes, less government, personal empowerment, personal ownerhip and personal responsibility.… I have a simple philosophy – we need to take God more seriously and ourselves less seriously.” [emphasis added]
1 Response to “Huckabee’s Simple Philosophy”
Something to say?
And that differs from the social or fiscal conservative model how? It loses the social or fiscal preface to conservatism. Or rather, it roles both prefaces together into a rebranding of “conservative” as a social-fiscal conservative hybrid. Not exactly rocket science; Huckabee is simply trying to build the same bridges between conservative factions as George W. Bush did in his first campaign.
Separate from any candidates promising a continuation of the current Bush agenda (read: John McCain), there will likely be an opening for a Republican candidate to run focused on bringing together religious and business factions with promises to assuage both groups’ concerns. That’s what Bush did in 2000 and short of the massive wars waged during his presidency (which cloud other agenda planks) will be what defines his legacy. These lower-order parts of Bush’s presidency remain what the politically powerful segments of his base will be looking for in the next Republican nominee.
Left by Matt Browner Hamlin
January 14, 2007 at 3:38am