Friday, January 04, 2008

The Huckabee Mirror



Kos has a post which compares those who support Mike Huckabee for president with the progressive gate-crashers:

One thing that's fascinating about the Huckabee victory in Iowa is that the movement that propelled him to victory -- his Evangelical base -- is truly a cousin to our very own people-powered movement.

Think about it -- these are people that have been taken for granted by the Republican establishment, exploited and overworked, only to receive crumbs and empty rhetoric in return. Sick of being marginalized except when needed (election time), they have taken matters into their own hands and -- without money or "professional" organization, propelled their candidate (one of their own) to victory.

I think the Evangelists have received more than just crumbs, though, including lots of funding through various Faith Based Initiatives, and lots of important posts in all the parts of the government which the social conservatives wish to use to change the society. But it's certainly true that the Republican Party hasn't given them the things they really, really want, such as a total ban on abortion, because then the voting carrot wouldn't pull the Evangelists to the polls any longer. It's a tricky thing to keep the Evangelists on the outrage edge, and that may have finally failed.

Kos is right that both parties would prefer to ignore certain segments of their core supporters. Where the Huckabee comparison fails, though, is in what those segments desire from their respective parties. As far as I can tell, the Evangelists would like to change the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to reflect a theocracy, whereas the gate-crashers tend to want to preserve the First Amendment and the other amendments which are on the way to the garbage chute right now. It's sort of sarcastic that the conservative stance is taken by the progressives and the radical stance by the conservatives.