While I agree with Rich Lowry that Mike Huckabee would be a terrible President, this piece was particularly funny:
The GOP’s social conservatism inarguably has been an enormous benefit to the party throughout the past 30 years, winning over conservative Democrats and lower-income voters who otherwise might not find the Republican limited-government message appealing. That said, nominating a Southern Baptist pastor running on his religiosity would be rather overdoing it. Social conservatism has to be part of the Republican message, but it can’t be the message in its entirety.
Someone needs to tell Huckabee. His first TV ads in Iowa touted him as a “Christian leader,” and his target audience of evangelicals has responded. But according to a Pew poll released in early December, only 1 in 7 nonevangelical Republicans support him in Iowa and 1 in 20 nonevangelicals in New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Huckabee has declared that he doesn’t believe in evolution. Even if there are many people in America who agree with him, his position would play into the image of Republicans as the anti-science party. This would tend to push away independents and upper-income Republicans. In short, Huckabee would take a strength of the GOP and, through overplaying it, make it a weakness.
Where the hell has Lowry been the last decade? Let’s review this GOP’s greatest hits:
Terri Schiavo
Marriage Amendments
Stem Cell Bans
Doctoring Scientific reports
Evolution Denial
Global Warming denial
Just Us Sunday
Abstinence Only
Faith-based initiatives
Election year anti-gay ballot initiatives
And so on and so on. The GOP is, quite simply, little more than freakish display of social conservatism. And you can go through the NRo archives and see what they had to say about every one of those issues and others (protip- they were supportive). Rather than trying to run from his creation, Lowry should embrace it- he and his cohort had a good hand in making the GOP what it is today. Enjoy, and quit pretending to be surprised when the villagers race to destroy your monster with pitchforks and torches.
*** Update ***
And yes, the title of this post was inspired by Paul Krugman, who insists on working Talking Heads lyrics (specifically from Once in a Lifetime) into his NY Times editorials. He is at it again today.