Dispatches From Planet Huckabee
In a "partial, summarized transcript" at the Huffington Post, America's life coach explains libertarianism to the masses:
Republicans need to be Republicans. The greatest threat to classic Republicanism is not liberalism; it's this new brand of libertarianism, which is social liberalism and economic conservatism, but it's a heartless, callous, soulless type of economic conservatism because it says "look, we want to cut taxes and eliminate government. If it means that elderly people don't get their Medicare drugs, so be it. If it means little kids go without education and healthcare, so be it." Well, that might be a quote pure economic conservative message, but it's not an American message. It doesn't fly. People aren't going to buy that, because that's not the way we are as a people. That's not historic Republicanism. Historic Republicanism does not hate government; it's just there to be as little of it as there can be."
And libertarians want there to be as little of it as there…can't be? Fascinating! If "Republicans need to be Republicans," and Mike Huckabee is one to be emulated, shall we define Republican as pro-national smoking ban, pro-total war on obesity, pro-creationism, pro-squirrel frying? Sounds good to me, and no less coherent than the current platform.
The soulless Justin Logan responds here. My take on Mike Huckabee in Politics magazine is here.