Rumor has it that former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee hopes to be seriously considered for the VP slot on John McCain’s ticket. The reasoning, the conventional wisdom suggests, is that Huckabee is very strong with the GOP’s religious right base, which McCain a) is unpopular with; and b) will need in several competitive states.<\/p>\n
But like any party, the Republican Party is comprised of factions. Huckabee may help represent one, but he’s decided to trash<\/a> another.<\/p>\n In an interview yesterday, Huckabee described his concerns about the state of the GOP. As he sees it, Democrats are moving to the “center,” while Republicans “are becoming libertarians.” As the former governor sees it, that’s a recipe for defeat.<\/p>\n “Republicans need to be Republicans. The greatest threat to classic Republicanism is not liberalism; it’s this new brand of libertarianism, which is social liberalism and economic conservatism, but it’s a heartless, callous, soulless type of economic conservatism because it says, ‘Look, we want to cut taxes and eliminate government. If it means that elderly people don’t get their Medicare drugs, so be it. If it means little kids go without education and healthcare, so be it.’ Well, that might be a quote pure economic conservative message, but it’s not an American message. It doesn’t fly. People aren’t going to buy that, because that’s not the way we are as a people. That’s not historic Republicanism. Historic Republicanism does not hate government; it’s just there to be as little of it as there can be. But they also recognize that government has to be paid for.<\/p>\n ‘If you have a breakdown in the social structure of a community, it’s going to result in a more costly government … police on the streets, prison beds, court costs, alcohol abuse centers, domestic violence shelters, all are very expensive. What’s the answer to that? Cut them out? Well, the libertarians say, ‘Yes, we shouldn’t be funding that stuff.’ But what you’ve done then is exacerbate a serious problem in your community. You can take the cops off the streets and just quit funding prison beds. Are your neighborhoods safer? Is it a better place to live? The net result is you have now a bigger problem than you had before.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I see. So, Mike Huckabee is disliked by the anti-immigration crowd, the Norquist anti-tax crowd, and the hawks and neocons who can’t take him seriously on national security issues.<\/p>\n But now Huckabee also wants to make sure he really<\/i> offends the libertarian wing of the party. First, there\u2019s nothing \u201cnew\u201d about libertarianism, although it appears someone\u2019s just alerted Mike Huckabee to the phenomenon. Second, this business of the \u201cun-Americanism\u201d of libertarianism is ahistorical, although not particularly surprising coming from a Know Nothing demagogue like Mike Huckabee. Someday, advertising one\u2019s own ignorance about the world won\u2019t be considered a mark in one\u2019s favor by conservatives. Until then, Mike Huckabee.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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\nNot surprisingly, Huckabee’s remarks yesterday were not well received in some circles. Justin Logan at the Cato Institute (a leading libertarian think tank) wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n