Pander-Fest 2008 reaches South Carolina

January 18, 2008

In previous election cycles, South Carolina’s Republican presidential primary has been dominated by the right’s 3 Gs: God, Gays, and Guns. This year, at least over the last few months, has been relatively substantive, at least by the right’s standards, with considerable debate over immigration policy and the economy.

But the Republican base is still the Republican base, South Carolina is still South Carolina, and with the GOP primary coming tomorrow, the temptation for culture-war pandering is apparently a little too strong.

“You don’t like people from outside the state coming in and telling you what to do with your flag,” Mr. Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas, told supporters in Myrtle Beach, according to The Associated Press.

“In fact,” he said, “if somebody came to Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag, we’d tell them what to do with the pole; that’s what we’d do.” […]

And a radio advertisement paid for by an independent group used the flag issue to attack Mr. McCain, of Arizona, and praise Mr. Huckabee. “John McCain assaults our values,” it said. “Mike Huckabee understands the value of heritage.”

First, I can appreciate the fact that McCain is vulnerable on the issue. Before the 2000 campaign, McCain didn’t support the Confederate flag. Before the South Carolina primary, he switched, endorsing the flag. After the primary, he switched back, saying his pre-primary position was an “act of political cowardice.” If Huckabee wants to point that out, it’s certainly fair game, but that clearly wasn’t the message yesterday.

Second, Huckabee certainly has a unique approach to federalism. On the one hand, the federal government should have minimal input on state laws. On the other, Huckabee wants to redo the Constitution to bring it in line with “God’s standards,” limiting states’ rights on marriage equality and reproductive rights.

And third, in the 21st century, do we still need to use a Civil War battle flag as red meat for far-right Republicans?

Huckabee’s not the only one headlining Pander-Fest 2008.

On the stump in South Carolina, Fred Thompson is sounding more and more like rival Mike Huckabee in the run-up to Saturday’s Republican primary. While Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor — and ordained Southern Baptist minister — embraces his Christian faith on the campaign trail, Thompson hasn’t made much mention of God or faith in his regular repertoire.

Yet last night at a campaign stop at the Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College in Orangeburg, S.C., Thompson wove in Christian themes as he discussed his commitment to conservative principles.

Talking about his decision to run for office, Thompson recounted how he and his wife, Jeri, “got to talking about what kind of country these kids are going to grow up in, what kind of a world the kids are going to grow up in, and how many people have a real opportunity to do something about it? And I said ‘By George, we have an opportunity to do something about it,'” the former Tennessee senator told the crowd of roughly 100 in attendance. “Now it’s in the hands of the Lord and the South Carolina folks, and I can’t think of better hands for it to be in.”

He also spoke of how the Declaration of Independence got it right that “our basic rights come from God and not from anyone else,” which received a warm round of applause from the crowd. He also praised the Constitution as a document “based upon the wisdom of the ages and the scriptures.” […]

On Tuesday, at another campaign stop, Thompson was asked if he would continue funding President Bush’s programs to combat global AIDS. “Christ didn’t tell us to go to the government and pass a bill to get some of these social problems dealt with. He told us to do it,” Thompson said to applause, according to CBS News. “The government has its role, but we need to keep firmly in mind the role of the government, and the role of us as individuals and as Christians on the other.”

In September, Thompson conceded that he doesn’t attend church services, and isn’t usually comfortable talking about religion publicly.

But that was before he staked his campaign on success in South Carolina, and realized he’s losing. Now those principles have been conveniently tossed aside. How terribly predictable.

heard interviews with a bunch of s.c. repub voters on npr yesterday afternoon and this morning. sweet jeebuz, we shoulda let them secede!

  • I’d just as soon lay off the Old Huckster ………..that is until after he wins the GOP nomination.

    There is plenty of fun to be had with multiple choice mitt and phred and the other clowns.

  • I support Huckabee because he is the only person who will support my right to fry squirrels in popcorn poppers and eat them.

    YEEEEEEEEEEE HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW

  • I have said, facetiously, that the worst president we ever had was Abraham Lincoln. If he had simply let the South secede they’d have quickly turned into banana republics and the rest of the United States could’ve leaped to the forefront among modern industrial nations.

    I simply do not understand why the Confederacy continues to have so much influence over the rest of us. I regard snake handlers, Elmer Gantrys, TeeVee preachers and healers, the Dukes of Hazzard as laughable.

    I see no reason to feel deferential to Confederates (as opposed to southerners, many of whom I genuinely enjoy). What’s so noble about a lynch mob? About Jim Crow? About NASCAR and knuckle-dragging?

    The Confederate flag should be held in disdain. It should be a object of shame, like the Nazi flag in Europe, nothing to be proud of. And certainly nothing for those who seek national office to pay reverence to.

    Whenever you see a Confederate flag, re-read the lyrics to “Strange Fruit“.

  • Hear, hear, Ed! Very nicely put.

    I also took comedic note of the fact that Thompson used the expression “By George!” Guess that shows you he’s not distancing himself from the current occupant of the White House after all!

  • Yes in the south they say its just my heritage. That is true. It is their racist heritage. My brother in law will not bring it up anymore because he will be told it is a racist heritage.

  • dnA, you just gave me my first good laugh of the day. Thanks!

    We should all remember that this election is for South Carolina Republican voters. God, guns, gays, the Confederate Flag – these are all the greatest issues of the day to those folks. Pandering to their ways of thinking sounds silly to me, but I learned long ago that I don’t inhabit the same planet as many of my Republican friends and neighbors.

    Huck has the right chops to appeal to this crowd. And SC’s unreformed Rebels have a long memory for people who once dissed the Confederate flag.

    (There is a dilapidated mobile home along the highway about two miles from my house. The yard is strewn with trash and junk, and there are four or five mean-looking dogs laying around. They have attached a large piece of plywood to two trees so that it faces the highway, and posted a huge Confederate flag on the plywood. The picture says it all.)

  • Gad – what is this – the 1960’s? Next he is going to be using the phrase “outside agitators.” Sadly this message will play well all over the south. The South Rides Again.

  • Being an overweight person myself, I was personally impressed by Governor Huckabee’s weight loss feat: managing to lose over 100lb in one year, and perhaps more importantly to keep it off, requires a huge amount of personal discipline. Anyone who’s tried to lose more than 50lb, and keep it off, can testify to how much discipline and determination is needed to do that. I read an interesting article about Huckabee here – where his diet is summarized. Basically it has to do with a radical and permanent lifestyle change. Go Huckabee!

  • I forgot when I posted above that few Americans read anymore. There’s a very good YouTube clip of Billie Holiday singing “Strange Fruit“.

    I think the Democrats (are you listening, John Edwards?) should take advantage of the opportunities given us by Huckleberry, Granpa Thompson and all the other Confederates in the GOP. At every opportunity distinguish between Southerners (nobody can help where they’re born after all) and Confederates (those who take pride in a decadent society which from its beginning till long past economic value is ultimately based on admiration for slavery).

    Talk about, preach against, ridicule the Southern Confederate Strategy until the GOP chokes on it.

  • “Christ didn’t tell us to go to the government and pass a bill to get some of these social problems dealt with. He told us to do it,”

    He also told you that virtually every single rich person like yourself will go to hell. He told rich people like you that if they wanted to be his followers they had to give all their money to the poor. And yet there’s Fred, telling people with much less money than he has to give their money to the poor.

    I find it fascinating how rich Republicans always hide behind a savior they disagree with so vehemently, to protect themselves from the rank and file, who do a far better job of doing what they profess to believe. Gotta keep those sheep happy on their way to the slaughterhouse.

  • “In fact,” he said, “if somebody came to Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag, we’d tell them what to do with the pole; that’s what we’d do.” […]

    Jeez again with the anal fixation.

  • “we’d tell them what to do with the pole”

    Would that be legal under our new Christian Constitution? More perversion from the Kink-o-bee.

  • ***Would that be legal under our new Christian Constitution?***

    Probably. Anyone who dared to disagree would be labeled a Philistine. And you know just how much these knuckledragging babble-beasts love talking about “smiting Philistines.”

    Remember—pHuckabee’s brand of “christianity” isn’t Christian at all; it’s a mishmash of OT hatreds, compounded by a Pharisee/Sadducee mentality, and propelled by the dominionist philosophy of conquering the world for God (that is, those who claim to be the voice of God for their own power-hungry reasons) via armed might.

  • Let’s just remember what South Carolina is: the home of the Barbadian Pirates who introduced “southernism” (white supremacy, racial genocide toward the Indians, the pirate’s world view that “if I want what you’ve got I’ll take it”), and the seat of southern treason. So of course you’d have those who want to lead the Party of Southern Treason waving the traitors’ flag.

    My abolitionist great-great-great grandfather who helped found the Republican Party in Pennsylvania as the party of freedom for all is spinning in his grave to see The Enemy take it over.

  • Ed (#10) said: At every opportunity distinguish between Southerners (nobody can help where they’re born after all) and Confederates (those who take pride in a decadent society which from its beginning till long past economic value is ultimately based on admiration for slavery).

    Thanks Ed – that is the distinction I have meant but not said explicitly before – it’s a good way to put it and a policy I shall put to use.

  • Before the South Carolina primary, he switched, endorsing the flag. After the primary, he switched back, saying his pre-primary position was an “act of political cowardice.”

    What a disgrace. So now we’re all supposed to say “Oh my God, he’s so humble.” Give me a break- the apology is just as much of an act as the switch to endorsing the flag was.

    This guy would endorse or un-endorse anything so long as he felt it would move his piece a little farther down the gameboard.

  • ah yes, “faith-based” charity, the last refuge of the greedy anti-tax scoundrel.

    how, exactly, are we as “individuals and Christians” supposed to replace the government’s role in combating the global AIDS crisis? these are supposed to be business savvy folks? how is it more efficient to spend part of the revenue on further fundraising, on coordinating highly diverse donors, determining the appropriate needs? and even were that possible, and even if it added up to anything close to the millions in US aid, how would thees random individuals and Christians make logistical arrangements? Get permission to deliver the cash, medicine or other goods and services inside another sovereign (and, in much of Africa, often unstable) nation? Would this collection of private citizens be able to leverage discounts on the drugs from Big Pharma?

    Republican = someone who talks without thinking, or believes someone who does.

    The anti-government “philosophy” (whether of the Republican or Libertarian stripe)is a sham that preys on the uneducated for the deregulatory enrichment of the immorally greedy.

  • Talking about his decision to run for office, Thompson recounted how he and his wife, Jeri, “got to talking about what kind of country these kids are going to grow up in, what kind of a world the kids are going to grow up in, and how many people have a real opportunity to do something about it? And I said ‘By George, we have an opportunity to do something about it,’” the former Tennessee senator told the crowd of roughly 100 in attendance. “Now it’s in the hands of the Lord and the South Carolina folks, and I can’t think of better hands for it to be in.”

    “Mah wife, Jeri, was dressed up all cute in her li’l French maid outfit, ticklin’ me outta mah nap with that feathuh dustuh’v hers, the li’l darlin’, while “Law’n’Orduh” wuz on the hotel room TV. Once we calmed down, we held hands’n’ prayed, ‘n then we remembered th’kids ‘n’ started thinkin’ ’bout whut kinda world we wannid them t’grow up’n, and… whut wuz ah sayin’?”

  • Andrea #9 – there is some debate whether Huckabee had gastric bypass to achieve the weight loss. If true, it would certainly impact book sales for him, although diet & exercise have been the formula for weight loss since weight gain was invented. However, I can’t imagine it would cost him votes either way. I wish you luck in your weight loss endeavors!

  • “Rigdon… made a new translation of the Bible, in which prophecies of the coming of Joseph Smith and the nature of The Book of Mormon are inserted in the 50th chapter of Genesis and the 20th chapter of Isaiah respectively…. the church was “persecuted”… on the 25th of March 1832 Smith and Rigdon were tarred and feathered at Hiram….In 1836 the Kirtland Safety Society Bank was organized (in accordance with a “revelation” to Smith)…. In March 1837 Rigdon and Smith, the secretary and treasurer, were charged with violating the state law against unchartered banks, and they were convicted in October…. In November the “bank” suspended payments and… Smith and Rigdon left the state for Missouri…. [After a] determined attempt to depose Smith… there was organized… a band… bound to secrecy under penalty of death, and formed to punish all who opposed the Church and its supreme head. Numerous crimes and outrages were attributed to them…. On the 4th of July 1838 Rigdon preached his “salt sermon” … urging his hearers to wage “a war of extermination” on those who disturbed them…. and necessitated the calling out of the state militia…. Smith and Rigdon with others were arrested and imprisoned on a charge of treason, murder, and felony… In 1842 Smith was charged with instigating and attempt… to assassinate ex-Governor L. W. Boggs of Missouri…. There seems to have been no secret about Smith’s cohabiting with other women…. he had a revelation expressly establishing and approving polygamy.” (The Encyclopedia Britannica, Thirteenth Edition, London, vol. 18, pp. 843-844, 1926)

    http://popularapostasy.blogspot.com/2008/01/tar-and-feathers.html

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