December 02, 2007
Video : Geraldo Hearts Huckabee
Allah asks:
If Huck does take the nomination despite having little money, few major endorsements, and a leftist streak on immigration and spending (“I drink a different kind of Jesus juice”), isn’t it proof that religious conservatives own the party? Ron Paul’s not going to win the nomination but there’s been talk lately of his candidacy as signalling a libertarian resurgence. Much will depend on how that resurgence shakes out on foreign policy but I can see a lot of righties disaffected by a Huckabee nomination tacking towards libertarianism in the aftermath.For my part, I'm not sure who "owns" the party, necessarily, but I think it's fair to say that the Republican grassroots don't appear to be particularly bothered by Huckabee's "Christian left" populism. We've had eight years of this flavor of policy under W, and if things continue along their current path, there's a chance we may be looking at the possiblity of at least four more years of Bush's "compassionate conservative" policy prescriptions under a Huckabee administration. I suspect there are a whole lot of fiscal conservatives and federalists who've been hanging around waiting for the end of the Bush Administration, hoping for the chance to move a fiscal conservative federalist into the White House upon W's exit. If that doesn't happen, and we end up instead with Bush 3.0, I suspect a whole lot of the fiscal conservatives and federalists will be looking around for a new home.
An exodus of fiscal conservatives won't mean an end to the Republican Party, of course, but it will pretty much mean the end of "The Party of Reagan"--i.e., the fusion of laissez faire economic policies with federalist social policy.
By Ragnar Danneskjold, Typical Bitter Gun-Clinger at 05:16 PM |
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