SubscribeThey were polite to us. They were more than happy for us to come to the rallies and stand in lines for hours to cheer on the candidates.... But when they got elected, behind closed doors, they would laugh at us and speak with scorn and derision that we were, as one article I think once said "the easily led." So there's been almost this sort of, it's okay if you guys get a seat on the bus, but don't ever think about telling us where the bus is going to go.
Republicans have won the votes of downscale evangelicals for years by arguing that Democrats condescend to them and sneer at them behind their backs. Well, how do you think they're going to respond if East-coast conservative elites start doing the same thing--but in full public view?Will the evangelicals get to drive, or will wheels fall off the bus?
“Mike Huckabee's insurrectionist presidential campaign is defying the determination of the Republican establishment to restrict the selection of the party's nominee to pre-approved candidates.
At the same time that the ordained Baptist minister has surged to the forefront of the field not only in Iowa but in South Carolina and Florida, powerful conservative players -- from Bob Novak to the National Review to the Wall Street Journal -- are voicing outrage.
‘A comprehensive apostasy against core Republican beliefs,’ fumed George Will, so infuriated that on December 20 the normally impeccable stylist used the same phrase twice in one paragraph: ‘Huckabee's radical candidacy,’ Will continued, ‘broadly repudiates core Republican policies such as free trade, low taxes, the essential legitimacy of America's corporate entities and the market system allocating wealth and opportunity.’
Huckabee is capitalizing on his role as a revolutionary, reveling in the success of his populist appeal to Christian and evangelical voters, many of whom see themselves as victimized by the privileged classes on both sides of the aisle.
On the December 19 Today Show, Huckabee was asked to respond to a National Review column titled ‘Huckacide’ in which editor Rich Lowry argued that a Huckabee ‘nomination would represent an act of suicide by his party.’
Why such hostility from the venerable conservative publication?
‘Because they don't control me,’ Huckabee shot back. ‘I'm not one of theirs. I'm not one of those guys that just owe my soul to the people on Wall Street. I'm not a wholly owned subsidiary.’
Huckabee then took exception to the treatment of Christian conservatives by the GOP mainstream: ‘There's a sense in which all these years the evangelicals have been treated very kindly by the Republican Party. They wanted us to be a part of it. And then one day one of us actually runs and they say, `Oh, my gosh, now they're serious.' They don't want to just show up and vote, they actually would want to be a part of the discussion.’
Huckabee not only lacks endorsements from Republican Party principals, but also from the most prominent leaders of the traditional Christian and social issues sector of the party.” [more...]
Huckabee:
"The Wall Street to Washington axis--this corridor of power--is absolutely frantically against me. But out there in America, the reason that we're number one in the polls is because I'm the guy who doesn't have some off-shore mailbox and bank account in the Caymans hiding my money. I'm the guy who worked my way up through it. And there are a whole lot of people in America who believe that the president ought to be a servant of the people, and ought not to be elected to the ruling class."
Close to 20% of IBM's Employees Are Now In India.
IBM Sees India As Its Global Hub by 2010.
I think many Christians (at least, many whom I know) are realizing that the extraordinary political activism from pulpits and congregations has had--to say the least--deleterious effects on the faith itself.Those are the crocodile tears of the narcissist who stabs his coworkers in the back, yet doesn't manage to get the promotion after all. He isn't seeing the error of his ways -- he's just annoyed that the machiavellian maneuvering didn't pay off. Don't make excuses for them, don't comfort them, don't coddle them. It sucks to be them, and they made it that way. Leaving them disenfranchised as a group is for the best.
Romney Should Not Be The Next President
"If you were building a Republican presidential candidate from a kit, imagine what pieces you might use: an athletic build, ramrod posture, Reaganesque hair, a charismatic speaking style and a crisp dark suit. You'd add a beautiful wife and family, a wildly successful business career and just enough executive government experience. You'd pour in some old GOP bromides - spending cuts and lower taxes - plus some new positions for 2008: anti-immigrant rhetoric and a focus on faith.
Add it all up and you get Mitt Romney, a disquieting figure who sure looks like the next president and most surely must be stopped.
...When New Hampshire partisans are asked to defend the state's first-in-the-nation primary, we talk about our ability to see the candidates up close, ask tough questions and see through the baloney. If a candidate is a phony, we assure ourselves and the rest of the world, we'll know it.
Mitt Romney is such a candidate. New Hampshire Republicans and independents must vote no."
Paint with a broad brush, much?Yes, very broad. I spent most of my life in the Evangelical world, advocating the causes, going door to door for the candidates, helping raise the money, praying for the bills and the elections, publishing "alerts" and generally being a good little soldier. I look back on that time in my life and, frankly, it doesn't make me embarrassed. It makes me sick. I worked hard to help build a movement that has done more damage to our country, to the lives of individuals who live in it and serve it, than any other I can think of in decades.
I cannot return judgment with more judgment, so, verb, when you say: "Leaving them disenfranchised as a group is for the best", I must disagree very strongly: to leave them disenfranchised is to perpetuate a divided, feuding society, and that is not how I want to live.The're perfectly welcome to leave the group in question.
"A year ago, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney gathered his campaign team for the first time at his suburban Boston home. There were PowerPoint presentations, and Ann Romney made sandwiches. 'It was like the first day of school,' said one senior-level participant.
It was then that Romney put in motion his strategy to become president: Win Iowa and New Hampshire by wooing fiscal and social conservatives, and use that momentum to overwhelm the competition in the primaries that followed. But with less than two weeks before Iowans vote, that strategy is in danger of unraveling because former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee has seized the conservative mantle and has emerged as the front-runner. His sudden rise in the past month -- sparked by passionate support from the same Christian conservatives Romney has been unable to win over -- has raised questions about Romney's strategy."
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posted by never used baby shoes at 10:43 AM on December 22, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]