Huckabee the Theocrat

[dianahsieh]

By Diana from NoodleFood,cross-posted by MetaBlog

In his October 2006 his statement on the election, Leonard Peikoff urged voting for Democrats rather than Republicans based on an analysis of their respective driving philosophies. He wrote,

In essence, the Democrats stand for socialism, or at least some ambling steps in its direction; the Republicans stand for religion, particularly evangelical Christianity, and are taking ambitious strides to give it political power.

Socialism--a fad of the last few centuries--has had its day; it has been almost universally rejected for decades. Leftists are no longer the passionate collectivists of the 30s, but usually avowed anti-ideologists, who bewail the futility of all systems. Religion, by contrast--the destroyer of man since time immemorial--is not fading; on the contrary, it is now the only philosophic movement rapidly and righteously rising to take over the government. Given the choice between a rotten, enfeebled, despairing killer, and a rotten, ever stronger, and ambitious killer, it is immoral to vote for the latter, and equally immoral to refrain from voting at all because "both are bad."

He concluded his statement by saying that, "If you hate the Left so much that you feel more comfortable with the Right, you are unwittingly helping to push the U.S. toward disaster, i.e., theocracy, not in 50 years, but, frighteningly, much sooner."

In response, many people denied -- even scoffed at -- the possibility of theocracy in America.

Yet less than a year and half later, Mike Huckabee -- a devout fundamentalist Christian who explicitly promises to make socialist policy based on fundamentalist Christian faith that drives his decisions -- is a serious contender for the Republican nomination for president. As if that's not telling enough, in a prepared speech in Michigan, he said:

I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution. But I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the Living God. And that's what we need to do -- to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view of how we treat each other and how we treat the family."

Here's the video:

Even if Mike Huckabee doesn't win the Republican nomination, more explicit calls to entwine government with Christianity should be expected in 2012.

My point? In less than two years, the natural course of politics in America has proven Dr. Peikoff right about the prospects of theocracy in America, "not in 50 years, but, frighteningly, much sooner." Frankly, I wish the definitive proof offered by Huckabee's candidacy had trickled in rather more slowly.

(As for the much-asked question, "But shouldn't we vote for the better Republicans?", you can find Dr. Peikoff's reply to that and more in his fifth podcast, starting at 2:50.)

http://ObjectivismOnline.com/archives/003197.html

[fletch]

Even if Mike Huckabee doesn't win the Republican nomination, more explicit calls to entwine government with Christianity should be expected in 2012.

Dont count on it. Huckabee's failure to gain the Republican nomination in '08 is a direct result of his explicit call to entwine government with Christianity. The Repulican base would rather choke down McCain than swallow what Huckabee had to offer. He was a niche candidate and nothing more. His strength had more to do with the overall weakness of the Repulican field than anything he, himself was selling. I take the Repulican party's rejection of Huckabee as a positive sign for the future, not a negative one. In fact, it is still possible that Guiliani, despite a roundly criticized primary stratagy, will win the nomination. That could never happen if Peikoff were right about the threat from the Christian hoards.

[softwareNerd]

I don't think you can call Huckabee a niche candidate. Alan Keyes would fall in that category, not Huckabee.

[fletch]

I don't think you can call Huckabee a niche candidate. Alan Keyes would fall in that category, not Huckabee.

Niche might be the wrong word, but nonetheless, Huckabee filled a void. That void was the lack of an authentic, traditional conservative republican in the race. The draft Fred Thompson movement was a direct result of this vacuum. The trouble was, he didnt seem to want the job. Or, at least, he didnt seem to want to work for it. That left Huckabee.