Huckabee speaks out against alienating social conservatives. Quite a dilemma for the GOP
Mike Huckabee isn't happy about the talk that the GOP should be more open to the American people to expand their party by diminishing the views of social conservatives:
In an interview with the California newspaper The Visalia Times-Delta, Huckabee said the GOP would only further decline in influence should it alienate social conservatives — largely considered the most energetic and loyal faction of the party.
"Throw the social conservatives the pro-life, pro-family people overboard and the Republican party will be as irrelevant as the Whigs," he said in reference to the American political party that largely disbanded in the mid 1800s. "They'll basically be a party of gray-haired old men sitting around the country club puffing cigars, sipping brandy and wondering whatever happened to the country. That will be the end of the party," he said in the interview published Thursday
What he's saying is a big problem for Republicans. To be a more inclusive party they would have to try and entice Latino voters over, but since the extremists want to round up Latinos and are so opposed to anything that will handle our immigration problems, that's a "no go."
If they want to appear more moderate in the gay rights arena, then they will alienate the religious-right bloc that has been a significant part of their base for year now, and has enjoyed enormous influence within the GOP ever since Bush took office (and Rove used them to win in 2004), so that's a "no go.".
The Washington Monthly has more:
But Huckabee's point isn't wrong. If the religious-right crowd no longer feels welcome or valued in the Republican Party, and the GOP is left with a country-club base, it's not likely to do well in national elections. It might as well be "the end of the party."
On the other hand, if the Republican Party takes the culture warriors seriously, and signals to the rest of the country that the GOP is dominated by far-right activists who are principally concerned with gays, abortion, Terri Schiavo, and state-sponsored religion, the party will remain stuck where it is now. And that's not a good place to be.
It's quite a conundrum. Good luck to the whole gang.
I wouldn't write off the Republican Party, folks, because that's a very dangerous proposition. They play word games and handle the media better than most, so if they are given an inch they will take a mile. Here's the Luntz memo on health care:
GOP wordsmith Frank Luntz has authored a new messaging memo defining the Republican rhetoric on health care reform (READ FULL MEMO HERE). The memo is titled “The Language of Health Care 2009″ and it lays out the argument for “stopping the Washington takeover” of health care.” But if fully implemented it may very well stop health care reform:
This document is based on polling results and Instant Response dial sessions conducted in April 2009. It captures not just what Americans want to see but exactly what they want to hear. The Words That Work boxes that follow are already being used by a few Congressional and Senatorial Republicans. From today forward, they should be used by everyone.
Luntz warns that “if the dynamic becomes ‘President Obama is on the side of reform and Republicans are against it,’ then the battle is lost and every word in this document is useless.’” The trouble is, it already is useless. Because rather than challenging the tenets of American reform proposals, Luntz establishes a straw man argument against a non-existent health plan.
Buried amongst the usual rhetoric about government-run health care is Luntz’s predictable contradiction: he instructs Republicans to “be vocally and passionately on the side of REFORM” but then urges GOP lawmakers to misrepresent and obstruct any real chance of passing comprehensive legislation.
“Humanize your approach,” but argue that health care reform “will result in delayed and potentially even denied treatment, procedures and/or medications.” “Acknowledge the crisis” but ask your constituents “would you rather… ‘pay the costs you pay today for the quality of care you currently receive,’ OR ‘Pay less for your care, but potentially have to wait weeks for tests and months for treatments you need.”
The games have begun and the Democratic Party needs to get with it fast or they will turn Americans against good and effective health-care reform forever.
Since Rush Limbaugh constantly rips any "moderate Republican" and even whips conservatives that he likes if he perceives them straying even slightly, even for a minute -- I'd say a new party is brewing. And to me it looks like Newt Gingrich wants to lead the new revolt for Republicans.
I so dub them "The Twigs." It'll be made up of social conservatives, dittoheads and teabaggers.
That's right Huckster. Gotta keep them religious nuts from going over to the democrats, or greens, or socialist party.....?????
News flash for ya' Mikey, "we don't want them!" They're all yours.
ENJOY!
Rush Limbaugh is what a smart person thinks a stupid bigot sounds like.
They aren't anywhere near conservative enough.
They should wear hairshirts and don sackcloth robes belted with a piece of twine.
Bibles must be carried and self bashing on the head several times a day with the Word of God will keep them pure.
Huckabee's son will teach the faithful how to crucify dogs as an act of devotion.
All members of The Party will carry the sacred tools: Magic X-Ray Specs for the finding of witches. An emory board with which to question aforesaid witches. Duct tape.
A bicycle pump and a goose. A Holy Loofa. Oxycontin. And a manatee mask.
Go Republicans!
Mick @ 16:42, you are truly brilliant and funny as hell!
your life might be more boring than you think...
I know mine is.
@_@
Boring can be fun!
;)
Oh well, if they take the Republican party further down into the abyss with them, that's a good thing? Maybe? Anyone?
I've never seen change without a fire
The Democratic Party is anything but liberal anymore - so they would be the new Conservative party.
Greens or Socialists or a coalition could form a new liberal/left party.
Anything that would keep the hard-right extremists out of power!
I've never seen change without a fire
They really are becoming a center-right party and have been doing so for almost 30 years.
Jesus, the Republicans are clueless....
They are out of power BECAUSE they shifted to the radical right!!!
But hey...whenever I hear right wingers proclaiming the Republicans should head further to the right, I AGREE- because this will keep them out of power.....
The 'social concervatives' are basically the bigots- what else could they be?
Even before Katrina, I think the Republicans lost their influence on middle America when the Terry Schiavo thing came up. John Boehner crying fake tears in a Congress that was willing to stay up until midnight to will a woman out of a coma, but couldn't be bothered to get body armor to soldiers - that's the image that killed Bush's second term.
..who were Democrats and who spoke out against the war...
Rush Limbaugh insisted such soliders weren't 'real' soldiers.
As if that draft dodging flabass would know what a soldier really is...
so much for the right supporting the troops
And it wasn't even a coma, it was brain death.
http://www.jafafahots.com
Someone opened with this:
"Do you believe what's going on with Schiavo?"
I knew that he meant that her was trying to kill her(his Republican credentials were solid)
So I piped up,"I know! Can you believe that people are trying to interfere with a marriage? They want to take away a man's right to make decisions about his own wife's health care?"
I was met with silence.
In those terms they had to consider that someone might take away their right to see to their own family. But they still wanted to interfere with others.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
If the GOP isn't careful, Mullah Huckabee will take his loyal followers and hide out in caves in the Osark Bora region.
im just wondering if ultra conservatives are looking toward the future of a new party? i see it as possible that all ppl who encircle the middle may form a party....the ppl who gravitate toward the left may form a party and ppl - like cheney, newt, huckster, cantor etc...will form a party for the far right....anyone else see this as a future possibility? i dont see it as such a bad idea actually...
I doubt it - they're just screaming idealogues.
It would work in a country that was governed by a coalition of parties, but in these United States, pluralities select the President, and the agenda and leadership in Congress.
Unless I misunderstand the rules.
For a party that's always (ludicrously) claiming to be a "big tent," they sure do limit the ideas allowed in that big tent.......
I thought that the big tent was Limbaugh's drawers.
Can they afford to give up the bigots, religulous zealots, social Luddites and neo nazis?
Who'd be left?
I don't think Leader Rush is going to like this. Not one little bit.
how? Co-option.
Already the media is circling round points of division - Krugman approves of the health industry proposal. That will peel off some centrists and placate some bluedogs. Watch - more proposals will come out of the industry, and in 3 months, national health will be a dead issue.
OF course, the health ins. industry will simply "download" the costs and trim benefits further, resulting in even worse healthcare for the average American and even more degraded service.
But, the "compromise" will have been reached, and hands will shake and the plutocrats will continue to own your body, for profit. And the Republicans will be so busy with their own internal feuds, and the dems will be so scared of pissing off the dimbulb american centre that they will cheerfully sacrifice the necessary for the convenient.
Heard it here first, from little miss Tweakerbelle.
Now, where's my crack...
It's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.
-George Carlin
sitting on it?
the RIGHT's strategy has turned them away from being "conservative". they used wedge/social issues to
divide and conquer. this has allowed them to do their NATION building with big government which is against the conservative philosophy. the (r) are in a catch-22 position. evangelicals are pre-occupied
with abortion and same sex marriage. evangelicals will rally in strength for these issues. in doing so they will support other issues by the side that chants anti-abortion and anti-same sex marriage. the (r) is a party of hypocritical thinking. it's NOT really a party about freedom and individualism. it's about NATION
building,big goverment and big spending. they want to get back to the conservative basics now that
obama has to fix the mess BUSH left us.
Of course the Huckster doesn't want to alienate or piss off the radical talibangelicas. They are his (only) base and his only hope of making a national presence. Of course, in this case, "national" means among illiterate Southern Rednecks (and FWIW, that's my roots).
please, somebody shove (metaphorically) a big fat HMO cigar up Frank Luntz ' ass and light the wrong end
ka-plooey
your name's Lebowski, Lebowski... and your wife is Bunny
Rethugs aren't good at 'handling' the media. In my mind, they are the media. Is there any other reason for giving greater play to the ideas and rhetoric of 20%'ers, especially since every idea and talking point has already been shown to be a lie.
the pro-Gooper tawking heads like Tweety, Celizzard, Ana Marie Wonette twist with regret at their fave partay's self inflicted plight.
All that remains of the Republican Party is the Reich-Wing and Religous-Right, holding steady at 18/21%. Those middle of the road Republicans with any brains shifted back to the centre and if that holds the Repukes will be stuck with only their shit-house rat crazy base.
Just look at the rabid response from the Reich regarding the comments re: Limpballs made by Sykes. There is just no end to their bile in their defence of poor, poor, Limpballs. The bastard makes worse remarks every f*&^$ day, day in, day out; but let someone finally call him out, and they go into fits. I hope the Repukes continue to play to their moronic base and we will never hear from them again.
I read a post a few days back discussing the fact that if Huckabee wants the Republicans to do all they can to hold on to social conservatives, then all they will have at the end of the day are social conservatives. Link below.
http://progressnotcongress.org/blog/?p=840
...already control the party.
"He who has the power to destroy a thing, controls that thing."
Through Limburger and Huckabee and Hannity and Crybaby the supposedly Christian elements of the Republican Party already have power to expell members who are apostate.
Republicans willing to proclaim their conservative purity are forgiven for being unfaithful, gay, criminal, unwed mothers/fathers, torturers or traitors.
But disagreement with these zealots is tantamount to blasphemy. And punishible with a primary challenge from a faithful adherent.
The foot soldiers of conservatism are church-going, simple people who want slogans that sound good and certaintees that sound like principles. As long as the Republican Party gives lip srtvice to stopping abortions (they never did) or preventing gay marriage they have the pawns they need to defeat the initiatives that would benefit these foot soldiers the most.
They need the base of Christians to prevent Christian ideals from prevailing.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
And that there is the most ironic thing.
Speaking of Christian ideals and values, I recall something in the Bible forbidding ursury, so where the hell were all the Christian Social Conservatives, while banks were prison-raping the country and jacking up interest rates before our very eyes?
I mean let me get this straight, it's more important to go all out to prevent the gay people from getting married (which would have little to no impact on their everyday life) than to prevent Wall Street from ripping people off with decidedly un-Christian business practices? Yeah sure makes a lot of sence.
This is one of my pet peeves.
The Bible is very firm about usury. Also, about divorce.
I think that you'll find that "Political" Christians ignore these as they hit too close to home.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Huck Huck there, here a Huck there a Shuck everywhere a Buck Buck
I simply call him Fuckabee and get it over with... :P
I've never seen change without a fire
In order to gain the political power they've enjoyed for more than a decade, Republican moderates and fiscal conservatives made a pact with the devil (faux Christians, bigots and misanthropes) to achieve the numbers they needed to defeat Democrats. They made a strategic decision to manipulate and exploit the ignorance, fears and hatreds of dysfunctional and vulnerable voters in order to win elections rather than lose them by being intellectually and morally honest.
Today, those who conspired with the devil are caught between wanting to disassociate themselves with and or casting out the devil they empowered and the karmic reality that they don't have the numbers to hold on to or regain power without continuing to accept and "advocate" the immoral values, hypocrisies and corruptions that are dividing and destroying their party.
The survival of today's shrinking Republican Party has become so dependent on extremism that they have no significant power left WITH or WITHOUT the support of America's increasingly pernicious lunatic fringe.
The idiom "caught between the devil and the deep blue sea" is certainly appropriate as Republicans are facing the dilemma of choosing between two equally undesirable alternatives that both result in Republican impotence in mainstream American politics. They are suffering the consequences of their treachery.
Their irresponsible propping up of George W. Bush cost them their credibility, and their disgraceful and shameless licking of Rush Limbaugh's storm trooper boots is costing them their viability.
Well written and reasoned.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
I wonder why the wingers are more upset about Wanda Sykes' jokes about Limburger than anything else?
Does he run the Party or is he their Messiah?
He gets more obeisance from the Republicans than Jesus does.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Huckabee's going to take his squirrel popper and go home.
The interview Huckabee gave was for the newspaper in the town where I was born... Most people in Tulare County, and the Central Valley are social conservatives. There were a lot of Huckabee fans among the church folk in the area. And people wonder why I'd like to leave. :S
I've never seen change without a fire
In other words Huckabee is saying ... keep the fake religious fanatics, hate mongers, and war loving hypocrites in the party or risk not having a party.
Fact is the GOP is not an actual party in the first place ... it's a front operation for a criminal enterprise set up to keep the rich in power and to extort labor and monies form the working class.
THe real GOP is a vast sting operation operating outside the law in the disguise of a political party. They need the crazies in our society to continue their criminal activities.
I wish I could say it was only the GOP however there are several Democrats who are also faking out the American people by voting to enrich the mega corporations and banks also.
Throw the social conservatives the pro-life, pro-family people overboard and the Republican party will be as irrelevant as the Whigs
The Republican Party as it is needs to die. The most extreme of the scattered remnants would form the Church of Rush Limbaugh of Latter-Day Republicans, while the more moderate remnants would form a new and hopefully far more moderate Republican Party. And if those who follow the Book of Rush actually form the larger party, then at the point what we call "convservatism" in this country, needs to die.
Cheney on one end Rush on the other and and assorted bunch of chickenhawks, christofascists, loons, teabaggers, xenophobes, homophobes, racists, bigots and hate mongers n between.
The Rushthugliklan party has no where to go but down, praise jesus!
But *with* them on board, the Republican party is as irrelevant as the Whigs.
All that seems to give the Republican party any life-force is hate-radio and FoxNew hate-mongers now, creating a terrible rift among Americans, and the haters will flock to the Republican party, a very dangerous movement to America and to American politics.
Watching 'em try to find a solid place to come back from, sort of like watching a horse do long division.
I hope Cheney , Limbaugh and the far right lunatics just keep doing what they are doing . As popular as he is I am glad Cheney is out there shooting his mouth off .
"We gotta stop them queers from marrying" is no doubt the main philosophy of the radical right....
I don't trust Huckabee as far as I could throw him, even after he lost all the weight. And I've never liked Wal-mart either, but now there's another reason to hate us some Arkansas GOPers:
http://knowthyneighbor.blogs.com/home/2009/04...
A one, Mike Duke of 16 Pinnacle Drive, Rogers, Arkansas with the birthdate of 12/07/49 appears on a petition sheet for the Anti-Gay Arkansas Adoption and Foster Ban or Act 1.
Thanks to the notation of a commenter, Concerned Arkansas Citizen, on the KnowThyNeighbor blog this was brought to our attention. Mike Duke became acting CEO of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. on February 1, 2009 though he was with Wal-Mart since 1995.
Know thy neighbor is right!
Don't be good merely to be better than others.
Every now and then, I can stomach a few minutes of Huckabee's Fox show. The more I watch him, the more I cannot stand him. He makes me sick with his religiosity about him.
Even though the Repugs are in trouble, until the day I die, I will always fear a comeback by the likes of Huckabee, Palin, and other religious nuts who want to tell me how to live because of their religious beliefs.
Last year our friends 12yo grandson asked his grandfather (a life long Republican), "Why is it that James Dobson will not allow a Catholic, Mormon or Jew to run for a Republican President?" OH MY GOD! When a 12yo can see that the GOP is owned and controlled by the baptist evangelicals its no wonder young people and free thinking Republicans are abandoning the party. That being said, Huckabee is correct, because all that is left in the 21% GOP is the Baptist, evangelicals, red necks and the country club set (which are the ones elected). So, an attempt to move the party to the center in order to attract independents and bring back defected Repubpicans in order to win a national election they would then loose the entire baptist movement - moderate to get new blood and votes and losse the baptist. Hang onto the baptist and loose the independents. The Gop is toast other than a regional party. Thus, as we have known for some times the Republican Party is a Denominational, Theocratic, political movement whos motives are to pass laws that implement/impose their particular theological beliefs (into law) and force them on the entire nation.
Only 5 states have more republicans registered than democrates and 2 of them are really close. When a 12yo can see the hypocrisy of the GOP Theocratic movement, no wonder young people will not embrass the GOP hypocrisy and dogma, just as they are now rejecting their parents religions because of the hypocrisy the see. Huckabee is correct!
I can't help but laugh. The Big Money Boy Reptilians forced out the Libertarians in 1971 in favor of a marriage of convenience with the wild-eyed, frizzy-haired, Bible-thumping Crazy Lady, because said Crazy Lady had a huge extended family who could always be manipulated a la Machiavelli and his advice on 'auxiliaries'.
Now, the Big Money Boyz have gotten all they want (the humongous transfer of wealth that occurred the past 20+ years), except one thing: a divorce from the Crazy Lady they've always held at arms length, for fear the craziness might rub off, or their spouse might take a butcher knife to them for insufficient piety.
Oh, the irony of it all.
Reslugs should just crawl in a hole where they belong.
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