Well it looks like Mike Huckabee has finally entered the rarified air of front runner. I’m sure he’s finding that it is actually harder to breathe the higher you rise.
Charles Krauthammer has written a blistering column titled, Huck’s Unholy Dance, which is about Mitt Romney’s speech. Governor Romney gave what I thought was an overall decent speech to defend his faith, both the faith itself and his dependence upon it.
Krauthammer does make the following interesting point:
Just imagine that Huckabee were running one-on-one in Iowa against Joe Lieberman. (It’s a thought experiment. Stay with me.) If he had run the same ad in those circumstances, it would have raised an outcry. The subtext — who’s the Christian in this race? — would have been too obvious to ignore, the appeal to bigotry too clear.
Here is the ad that Krauthammer is criticizing:
Now I don’t know about you, but since when is playing the Christian card bigotry or even an appeal to bigotry? Is it bigotry for a candidate to say, vote for me the only real evangelical in the race? If I choose to vote for someone based on their religion, does that make me a bigot? Better yet, am I expected to be a Christian more than a Patriot? Krauthammer states that Washington described God as the Great Author, but of who does Krauthammer think Washington spoke, some generic God? Quite the contrary, when Washington issued orders to his troops on May 2, 1778, he wrote:
While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest Glory to laud the more distinguished Character of Christian.
It would seem as though Krauthammer has fallen for the “Washington was a deist” myth.
John Jay was a Founding Father, a member of the First and Second Continental Congress, a key force in the Constitution’s ratification, author of Federalist Paper #64, and the first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court appointed by Washington. I am curious as to how Krauthammer would respond to the following statement Jay made on October 12, 1816:
Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.
To follow Krauthammer’s line of reasoning, John Jay was encouraging Christian bigotry by the American voter.
I for one am sick of being described as a bigot because I want a Christian as president. And as for Article VI of the Constitution; the third clause states:
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.
Article VI was written to prevent the government of being involved in any way as a determiner of religious beliefs or practices. It does not prevent voters from choosing a candidate based on his or her religious beliefs.
Just my way of bringing political and moral clarity into the fog of political correctness!
Welcome back!
On the entire set of worries about religion that are being raised I find it interesting that Republicans have forgotten their past… conservatives too, come to that. Not only has the US elected non-Protestants but those who are not Orthodox to high office. Strange that those wanting to retain tradition and the ways of the past seem to have forgotten that very past…
Hi Dave- you know, Diane Sawyer also had a hard time with that ad. When she was interviewing Newt Gingrich about his latest book, She couldn’t get past this ad, and couldn’t get past the the fact that Huckabee was so blatantly Christian. She kept asking Gingrich things like, “but isn’t it harmful for his campaign, what do you think about him saying right there in his ad that he’s a Christian?” Things like that, she, and I imagine the rest of the elite have no problem mentioning spirituality- and maybe even God if He’s made out to be a generic one- but they sure have a hard time swallowing such an inclusive Christ! It’s almost funny- if it weren’t so sad. God Bless you Dave- glad you’re back safe! Carolyn
It is one thing to vote AGAINST someone solely because of their religion, race, or gender, and a totally different matter to vote FOR someone for the same reason. In my opinion, the former is a form of bigotry, while the latter is voting for what you determine to be in your best interest. The obvious example would be if you truly believed that a person’s religious affiliation would make him or her a better office holder. To some, the religious issue is paramount, to others, it is not. Those of us who fall into the latter category should not question the motives of the former, although we have the right to question their judgement. That is the American system, and that is one of the primary reasons that we have primaries and caucuses — to determine, in the opinion of the majority, which of the candidates of our chosen party affiliation would best serve the state or the nation.
Once that decision is made, it is hoped that voters would get out and vote for whichever of the two candidates would best serve their interests, however wide or narrow the gap between the two is.
To abstain from voting in a general election because neither candidate totally satisfies our own perceptions accomplishes abslolutely nothing. It can, in fact, result in more harm than good if enough voters do it. We saw this happen in 2006 over non-religious issues.
The Drum and Cannon
This business of the left liberals attacking spiritual positions of presidential candidates is simply absurd….it’s a despicable slant to try and shadow their politically correct ambitions in favor of the abortion, gay, same sex marriage crowd.
There are plenty of preachers, Morons, atheist, and others serving in government from Congress on down………no one seems to worry about them using their religion to incite America to their knees with hands uplifted…