A Thousand Rewordings

Over the past month, Mike Huckabee has evinced his reliance on popular support and grassroots activism, implicitly challenging the notion that political nobility should arbitrate the semifinal set of presidential candidates. The conventional odds are against him, since spending every waking moment for the next year in Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina winning over a potential voter per minute would net him less than five percent of the vote in the primaries of those states. (Census State Populations) Convincing the probable primary voters of those states could yield him the nomination, though there is no sure way to know who those voters are. While Mike Huckabee continues to spend time courting individual voters, increasingly he depends on these voters, not merely to attract their friends and family, but to be exceptionally effective at doing so, since other campaigns partake of this phenomenon as well. So far, I have not been exceptionally effective at popularizing Mike Huckabee, in part because I have never promoted a political candidate before, and I suspect many who find him particularly appealing are in the same situation. So far, my difficulties lie in accurately portraying the parts of Huckabee's story that can inspire both me and those I know, and my amateur depictions leave them skeptical that he deserves their trust, compelling me to reword and rephrase and restate. Recently, I have realized that perhaps the best way to introduce them to Huckabee is to verify that they also value certain mores, assert that Huckabee is eminently qualified to uphold those mores, and show them videos of Huckabee in the spotlight. Certainly I could learn to articulate his allure and his record, but until I do, Mike Huckabee's personable, sincere, and charismatic demeanor and his considered, forthright, and intentional words are a better testament than I. Perhaps other members of Team Huckabee will likewise conclude that the painting itself is worth more to the viewer than the plaque describing it.

Podia Perspective

Despite his persuasive charisma at the podium of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, Mike Huckabee has a long and trying cross-examination and written and oral argument ahead. His indisputable appeal to the common-sense voter, and in particular to social conservatives, does not overrule the skepticism and criticism and accusation from fiscal conservatives and carping columnists. As a proponent of thrifty government and introspective critique, I believe the same qualities that entice Mike Huckabee's supporters could not only sell well among wealthy donors from the Club for Growth, but also persuade detractors of his good intentions, if only he could convincingly address the unsettled issues of justice, mercy, and jurisdiction. Based on his prescription of prevention for health care and his promotion of adherence to the Golden Rule and his reticence to judge immodestly, I surmise that Mike Huckabee favors modifying behavior over exacting payment, penalizing infractions over condemning transgressors, and reserving judgment over assuming authority. These positions are both more nuanced and more effective than simplistic policies that propose exacting payment without modifying behavior (inducing poverty) or modifying behavior without exacting payment (neglecting justice) or condemning transgressors without penalizing infractions (burdening penitentiaries) or penalizing infractions without condemning transgressors (empowering sociopaths) or assuming authority over reserving judgment (yielding corruption) or reserving judgment over assuming authority (abetting fraud). Deft handling of these issues, as well as particular cases, will only help Mike Huckabee incline the electoral jury up to his ridgeline vantage point overlooking the predicaments, where both perspectives are beheld at the same time.

Up Standing

Seldom do the great tragedies of the modern day weigh upon the national conscience, but this past week witnessed an awakening to the unbridled evil among us and within us. While dueling political worldviews haughtily condemn the breach of decency or feign solidarity with the victims of society, mothers grieve and struggle to cope with the murder of their children, and we can barely empathize. The grief is schizophrenic, variously masquerading as aggressive rage towards the hands that murdered, ... paralyzing numbness to the pain of reality, ... depressing apathy to the prospect of hope, ... crushing guilt from the endless what-ifs, ... ethereal attachment to the child snatched away, ... and overwhelming despair from the impossibility of peace. These mothers of students at Virginia Tech and of partially-birthed aborted children have spent this past week unable to forget and hard-pressed to forgive. The tragedy is that we do not disavow the culture of self-gratification that causes, not forestalls, and aggravates, not alleviates, the soul-searching suffering of these mothers. Like Norma McCorvey, we must come to our senses, oppose the culture we formerly ignored or supported, and support others who do the same. Nine years before becoming a presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee opposed this culture in his book Kids Who Kill: Confronting Our Culture of Violence:

Violence, infidelity, mayhem, perversity, gore, betrayal, lust, and disrespect have all been sanctified in music, television, movies and video games as necessary complements of a culture of self-fulfillment, self-absorption and self-realization. As we refuse to stand for morality, we easily fall into serving immorality.

Will you stand for morality?