When Churchill used the phrase, “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma”, he was talking about a political entity with an unclear political intent – the Soviet Union. He wasn’t being complementary. I’d hate to compare Pastor Huckabee to the Soviet Union, but the quotation did just spring to mind as I posted a translation on Watching America about him.
As indicated in a recent post, I like Huckabee, but until I can resolve the apparent paradox of the “change candidate” whose support base its Bush’s base, my jury has to stay out and I can’t fully trust him.
It seems that I am more bothered than the French paper, Le Monde, whose article, “Huckabee: the Pastor of Compassionate Conservativism” is translated at Watching America. Le Monde identifies all the reasons Huckabee is so loveable and the core contrasts that are his essence.
The guitar is a fundamental element of his strategy. It permits him to reassure those who could never imagine themselves voting for a Baptist from the Bible Belt. A pastor for twelve years, he does not deny that he believes that God created the world in six days and that he would like abortion to be unconstitutional. But he does not appear as an ideologue.
That’s a big “But” and begs more than one huge question – not least, what defines an ideologue?
Perhaps one is not, in fact, an ideologue if one can live among those with whom one disagrees, without trying or needing to change their minds. On that basis, one supposes, a person can have “extreme” views that are neither ideological nor dangerous. That works for me as a logical possibility, but it won’t scratch where it itches until I know that it works for Huckabee as a practical and political one.
Read the Le Monde article here on WatchingAmerica.com
Robin Koerner is a British-born citizen of the USA, who currently serves as Academic Dean of the John Locke Institute. He holds graduate degrees in both Physics and the Philosophy of Science from the University of Cambridge (U.K.). He is also the founder of WatchingAmerica.com, an organization of over 100 volunteers that translates and posts in English views about the USA from all over the world.
Robin may be best known for having coined the term “Blue Republican” to refer to liberals and independents who joined the GOP to support Ron Paul’s bid for the presidency in 2012 (and, in so doing, launching the largest coalition that existed for that candidate).
Robin’s current work as a trainer and a consultant, and his book If You Can Keep It , focus on overcoming distrust and bridging ideological division to improve politics and lives. His current project, Humilitarian, promotes humility and civility as a basis for improved political discourse and outcomes.