At the beginning of the interview Glenn Beck did with Mike Huckabee on Friday night, they got down to what is going to be the real nut of the problem the GOP faces in the coming year. It’s a problem that has been creeping up on it for years. Many of us have gritted our teeth and voted GOP anyway, hoping it would get turned around, hoping for the flow to reverse. Enough of us thought that voting for Bush, even though he never was a conservative (”that little acorn didn’t fall far from the tree” is how my sweetie puts it), was the right thing to do. Perhaps there would be enough others elected with conservative values and principles that we could keep the government in check and hold the Republic steady? It’s gotta be better than the alternative… that was the thought anyway Am I right?
And now we’re having it again. Every time I hear Sean Hannity touting Rudy I want to hurl. I’ve turned him off a lot in the last month or so. And Mitt? Tell me again why he’s the best? I see big Northeastern liberals (and I’ll stop there, in the interest of being nice and getting to the point). Listen to this exchange between Huckabee and Beck
..BECK: I have never heard this country like it is now. I have never heard people call me up, normal people. I went to Texas. In a 24-hour period I think I had five — five or six guys coming up to me, normal, suit, dressed like you, and say, “When do we have to grab our guns and take our country back?” In a 24-hour period. I`ve lived in Texas for a while. Never heard that.
People are — are living on the edge, and they don`t — they don`t trust.
Now, let`s start with just the GOP.
HUCKABEE: Right.
BECK: I`m a recovering alcoholic, Governor. I mean, I know if you can`t point to a place in your life where you say, “That is the point to where I had to change or it would have been death,” you haven`t changed.
I haven`t heard that pivot point from the GOP. I haven`t heard them stand up and say, “Jesus, forgive me, because boy, did we screw up.”
Where`s their bottom? Why should we trust the GOP?
HUCKABEE: I don`t know that you should trust the GOP. I think the GOP has got a lot of problems. I`m a Republican, want to stay that way. But frankly, far more important to me than the party itself are the principles that made me a Republican.
Ah yes, core principles. Sit down Rudy, you’re done. Your own wives can’t trust you, or your principles. But is there any reason to respect what passes for the GOP right now? Do core principles mean anything to the GOP anymore? I’m not talking about abortion or same sex marriage here, I’m talking about things like individual liberty, smaller and more efficient government, lower taxes and fairer tax laws, leadership, rule of law… you don’t even need to get into cultural or moral issues and beliefs to go after the GOP for going adrift from its base. Over the last many years, we’ve been fed so many promises, and been forced to dance with so many lipsticked pigs, it’s a wonder the GOP has any credibility left at all.
..HUCKABEE: … But the fact is I became a Republican out of conviction.
I believe in the sanctity of life. I believe in lower taxes, more local government. There are some basic things that cause me to say, “Look, I need to be a Republican.” When the Republican Party abandons those principles, they abandon me.
BECK: Where did they — where did they — where did the train go off the tracks?
HUCKABEE: First of all, the spending issue. Second of all, incompetence. They haven`t managed things well. Third, there`s been a complete indifference to corruption.
If you really want to make the American people mad, let them think that you`re going to run on this platform of reform and integrity and honor, and then when you get there, you have just as many problems with corruption as the other guys; you don`t seem to be able to snuff it out or to stand against it very firm; you want to blame everybody else for the problems; you don`t stop the spending.
That about ties it down, doesn’t it… no leadership, abandoning the base, and running off the tracks. Check, Check, and Check. And I believe that this is where we need to take this debate/search for the next candidate. We went straight past what’s wrong with the GOP to we gotta beat Hillary. I don’t think we ought to be talking about beating anyone, I think we need to talk about core beliefs, bedrock principles, and men with leadership and true values. So far, the only person talking about how far off the mark the GOP has gotten is Ron Paul (another RINO, by the way), but this is a discussion that is critical to the future of the country as we know it. Don’t talk to me about “Anyone But Hillary” and “Stop the Hillary Express” because that is simply jingoistic BS. It’s part of why we’re in the mess we’re in. But now we have a truly conservative candidate willing to speak openly about these things. Good character, good credentials, good resume. You’d think the man could get a break, eh? But as long as the process is couched in terms of “It’s the end of the world if Hillary gets elected” I doubt he’ll get a good hearing. Heck with Hillary! And with the “conventional wisdom.
Let’s hear what he says about big government…
BECK: — I mean, both sides are running towards bigger government. We`re practically the Soviet Union.
HUCKABEE: Move those decisions back to the local governments. Look, Thomas Jefferson was right.
BECK: How do you do it? I know he was.
HUCKABEE: He was right.
BECK: But nobody reads this stuff anymore. Nobody knows the Constitution.
HUCKABEE: That`s the problem.
BECK: Exactly right.
HUCKABEE: The Republicans — and look, with all due respect, under this administration we`ve become more Hamiltonian. I almost see the ghost of Alexander Hamilton coming up out of the grave, taking the federal government over.
And I want to say, excuse me, we had this debate 230 years ago. Jefferson won. We have a weak federal system, strong states, not the other way around. What we don`t want in this country is to have an overly centralized federal government where everything has to go and then you have really weak states that have to raise their hand and ask permission.
Well, Jefferson won, but in the meantime we’ve had FDR and a steady stream of big-government pols from both sides doing their best to grow the Federal Government and stuff the states and the people. For all the freedoms we enjoy in this country today, they’re being diminished every day, but Mr Huckabee is the only one I’ve heard talking about it like he cares. Is it any wonder the GOP continues to scratch its head and wonder why the base is so lukewarm?
The interview with Beck was an hour long, and ranged over all sorts of topics, including faith, his upbringing, the fair tax, energy dependence… After Bush just proclaimed Saudi Arabia our ally in the war on terror (yeah, right… look the other way on funding all the radical mosques in North America), it’s refreshing to hear a candidate speak like this
..BECK: …why the heck are we still on foreign oil?
HUCKABEE: Because I think we are tied to the house of Saud, and it`s high time that we take ourselves and untie that rope behind our back, which is an oil-soaked rope. I don`t know what it is. I think it`s — look, the next president ought to say we`re going to be energy independent, self- sustaining by the end of my second term.
BECK: You know what? We`ve heard it before. We keep hearing it — 20 years we`re going to be…
HUCKABEE: No, 20 years is too long, Glenn.
BECK: Since Jimmy Carter they`ve been saying this crap.
HUCKABEE: Actually, you go all the way back to Richard Nixon in 1973, Project Independence started. Jimmy Carter renewed it. Ronald Reagan renewed it. Nobody`s done it. Look, it`s time that we finally decide that this is not just an energy issue; it`s a national security issue.
We need to say to the Saudis, we`re going to care about as much about your oil as we do about your sand, and within 10 years, you can do whatever you want to do with your oil, but we`re not going to need it anymore, because we`re going to find alternative sources of energy that we can sustain. If a country can`t feed itself, if it can`t fuel itself, and if it can`t fight for itself by manufacturing its own weapons of self-defense, it`s not free. It`s outsourced its freedom to whoever provides those three things.
Just like a people who relies on the bogus promises of socialist candidates to provide for all their needs… or am I being too harsh? I don’t think so.
Borders? Judges? Law of the Sea Treaty? They covered it, and I liked what he said. Guns? How about this..
..HUCKABEE: And the Second Amendment is not about hunting. I get so frustrated when some candidates asked about the Second Amendment, they start telling me, “Well, I have a hunting license, and I`m a member of the NRA.” Look, so do I. It`s not about the Second Amendment.
The Second Amendment is about freedom. It`s about protecting ourselves, our families, our property, and ultimately, if necessary — I know this sounds pretty bold — but from our own government, when they get out of control. That`s what it`s all about.
BECK: So you tell me what they should have done after Katrina in New Orleans, when they went door to door to take the guns — you know, Newt Gingrich just said…
HUCKABEE: The Department of Justice should have — instead of supporting that, should have said, “My gosh, you can`t do that.”
BECK: They`re not going to do that. They`re not going to do that, Governor. You know that and I know that.
HUCKABEE: Well, I wouldn`t appoint an attorney general, as president, who didn`t understand what the Second Amendment did, and it gives the rights to individuals, not to geographical locations, not to police entities. It gives that as a fundamental right, just in the same way — if we value the First Amendment, then we have to value the Second. And I don`t understand why more people, particularly in the media, who embrace, love, and herald the First Amendment, don`t realize that, once you start chipping away at any of them, you chip away at all of them.
BECK: So let me go back. You are a citizen, and Newt Gingrich just gave a speech where he said, “I don`t think people are paying attention to their liberties.” He said, “All it`s going to take is one city to be destroyed, and they`ll come and take all your liberties, and we will hand it to the federal government.”
So you tell me. The federal government says, “We`ve got to get all these handguns, we`ve got to get all these guns off the street,” and they come knocking at your door, and they say, “Governor, I`m sorry, I`m here for any gun that you might have.” What do you say?
HUCKABEE: Well, being the first governor in America with a concealed carry permit, they need to understand something: They`re not going to do that, because that is an ultimate violation of my basic constitutional right to protect myself.
And unless I`m a criminal, they have no right to confiscate anything from me, especially — see, they`re not confiscating my firearm. Here`s what we`ve got to understand. They`re confiscating my constitutional rights. And once they take that one away, then they can take away every other right, the right of a fair trial, the right of speech, the right of assembly, the right of worship. It doesn`t stop.
Like I said yesterday, I really enjoyed listening to Huckabee at the FRC Summit, and I enjoyed this interview as well. I’ll be watching the debates tonight to see how he plays against the rest of the pack. But right now, Mike Huckabee says so many of the things I think and believe, and I find him believable when he’s saying them. And THAT is something none of the others have given me yet… someone to vote FOR.
Comments Off
Entries (RSS)