How did we get here? VI: I Hate Huckabee

When we talk about the Tea Party wave and the increasing radicalization of the Republican party, it is always in terms of this being a new thing, and the members of the party are relatively young and new on the scene, but it is important to remember that this isn't the case, the extremism we are seeing these days has been percolating for many decades and crazed racists are not exactly unusual in American politics, we elected Andrew Jackson for goodness sake!

Today's candidate has been in politics for twenty three years, almost a quarter of a century, and he is by no means the oldest or most experienced politician on this list, hell Donald Trump is seventy!

Meet Mike Huckabee.

Position: Governor of Arkansas(retired)

Announcement Date: May 5, 2015

Withdrew: Feb 1, 2016

Accomplishments: Wrote a crapload of books I guess? Has an easy name to make fun of.
  
Family pets allowed?: Fuck no!

Huckabee is an old school religious conservative who made his way into power relatively honestly and without the hate filled appeals that we saw during the primary campaign, his tenure as Arkansas' governor was remarkably successful at least from an economic standpoint, and he enjoyed a great deal of support from the African-American community thanks to his apparently honestly held support for racial equality, indeed he might be the only notable Republican who paid attention to the after action reports on the 2008 and 2012 campaigns with regards to race, fairly consistently showing moderation in policies relating to the Black community. He is also perhaps the most moderate of the field with regards to immigration policy, while he supports increased border security, he does not advocate mass deportations, instead his policy includes registration and voluntary deportation.
Yes I realize that is pretty terrible and unworkable, but think of the competition here.

Anyhow, the good stuff ends there, a Southern Baptist, he like most religious Republicans has a belief system completely incompatible with personal freedom and one that has very little to do with biblical morality and more to do with a disregard for science and human rights. He has spoken for and been supported by Kevin Swanson, a conservative radio host who advocates the death of homosexuals, he is anti abortion in all cases except for life of the mother, he is a creationist and specifically denies evolution and global warming, within hours of the Sandy Hook shooting he was blaming a lack of God in the classrooms, and so on and so forth.

Basically he is the perfect representative of the evangelical population that the Reagan era brought into the the fold and gave power to, the influence of the "Moral Majority" on politics is directly responsible for him and those like him being influential political figures.

I realize that some of what I said implies a level of respect and that I think he holds his beliefs honestly, this couldn't be farther from the truth, I don't respect him in the slightest, his generation is directly responsible for the shit we are in now with regards to domestic politics, and while I don't doubt he is religious of some sort, I strongly believe it comes second to enriching himself, he has not done too poorly for himself what with his talk shows, books, and speaking fees. He is wealthy and privileged, able to use his power to insulate himself from the consequences of the policies and ideas he advocates for, he will never have to worry about being poor, and he will never have to worry about being unable to get an abortion, if a family member gets in a family way and doesn't want to be, you can be sure he will arrange for a solution.
While I often decry the Tea Party for being incompetent racists who somehow managed to gain control of half of the political process, it is important to remember that people like Huckabee are were the precursors to them, and made it possible for the situation to devolve to this state by allowing them to take the power they did. Huckabee is horrible to be sure, but the movement he and those like him allowed to gain power will be the legacy he is known for down the line. And history will not judge them kindly.

To be fair though, history will forget Huckabee entirely, a politician with no unique notions or powerful manner of speaking, he faded into the pack during the primaries and never distinguished himself from the dozen other people who shared his policy ideas, such as they are, he has the dubious distinction of being the first candidate who made it to the start of the primaries themselves to drop out, and that is it, he changed nothing and helped no one really, when he dies ten or twenty years down the line, no one will remember or mourn, or even celebrate.