Yes, the former presidential candidate from Arizona made an important contribution to common sense when he was discussing his candidacy. Today he wouldn’t be considered a very good Republican because of his firm belief in our Constitution, which states that there will be no religious test for office. Today it is impossible—absolutely—for a Republican candidate to be considered for any office unless he or she parades evangelical Christianity as part of his or her campaign.
This does not bode well for Mitt Romney, who is a Mormon. Even though the same is true of Harry Reid from Nevada, the West is more comfortable with the LDS church than the country as a whole. Romney has always struck me as a decent sort of man, and I don’t like the idea that he would be ruled out of bounds for his religion. But that is the state of the Republican Party today. They have pandered to the Religulous Right to the extent that evangelicals now think that they own the GOP. For now, I suppose they do.
But Barry Goldwater wasn’t having any. The article that I drew upon for some of the out-of-bounds statements about religion went into Goldwater’s attitude as a necessary corrective for the current attitude of Republican candidates:
“During [Ronald] Reagan's presidency, the man often viewed as his conservative prototype -- Barry Goldwater -- offered a stunning critique of the increasing role religion was playing in American politics. Despite the shared political ideals of the two men, the 1964 Republican presidential nominee appeared to differentiate himself dramatically from Reagan's religious electoral model.
"’I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across the country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in the A, B, C, and D. Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral belief to me? And I'm even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. And the religious factions will go on imposing their will on others unless the decent people connected with them recognize that religion has no place in public policy.’
“Goldwater's sentiment helps demonstrate how substantially God talk in presidential campaigns has changed since the era of Kennedy and Goldwater. Today's era of confessional politics stands in stark opposition to the ideals JFK espoused five decades ago.”
That’s a bracing statement, and one that would never be heard today, even from a Democrat. What a thought: religion has no place in public policy. If you watched The Reverend Mike Huckabee, former Baptist pastor and public watchdog of American morality, as he imploded this week, you would wonder what planet Goldwater was from. Planet Tucson? No, not really.
It’s nice to see Huckabee reinforce the harsh words I have been writing about him. Sometimes I am simply appalled at the conduct of public figures, and Huckabee’s continuous lying and moralizing were a disgusting spectacle this week.
After making a detailed statement describing President Obama mendaciously as having grown up in Kenya—which country he repeated twice in the conversation—Huckabee was called on the statement, which is untrue. His response: oh sorry, I misspoke. I meant Indonesia.
After that, he made comments trying to link the President to a madrasa school instead of the schools that he actually went to. And this after he also linked Obama’s family to the Mau Mau uprising that took place in Kenya—not Indonesia. I suppose if you don’t really know the difference between Africa and Southeast Asia, it doesn’t make much difference. So he was referring to the Mau Maus in Indonesia all along, don’t you understand now?
The consensus of opinion this week among commentators was that Huckabee was simply pandering to the worst of America’s hate and bigotry. He was rebuked in today’s Tucson newspapers by George Will, who alluded to weirdness that is coming out among Republicans, especially those who appear to have Presidential ambitions. In a cutting summarization, he said that people who behave like fools in public won’t be entrusted with the management of a lemonade stand—forget about the Presidency.
But you can’t keep Huckabee down (believe me, I wish you could). He believes that you need to know his take on modern life so that he can set you straight if you happen to be feeling compassion for the sick or elderly, the gay or unwed mothers.
Yes, unwed mothers. Huckabee made this classic and genuine “misstatement” regarding Natalie Portman, an actress who just won the Academy Award:
"Most single moms are very poor, uneducated, can't get a job, and if it weren't for government assistance, their kids would be starving to death and never have health care. And that's the story that we're not seeing, and it's unfortunate that we glorify and glamorize the idea of out-of-children wedlock."
I think God is trying to tell Huckabee something, and I hope that he continues to tie up his tongue until he sees his apostasy and makes an apology to the Baptist Church for disgracing them.
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