(Thanks to David Flanders for the tip….)
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says he will leave the GOP if Republicans abandon their ardent opposition to gay marriage and abortion. Appearing on the American Family Association’s radio show this week, Huckabee was discussing gay marriage and said: “If the Republicans want to lose guys like me — and a whole bunch of still God-fearing Bible-believing people — go ahead and just abdicate on this issue, and why you’re at it, go ahead and say abortion doesn’t matter, either.”…. “Because at that point, you lose me,” Huckabee said. “I’m gone. I’ll become an independent. I’ll start finding people that have guts to stand. I’m tired of this.”
I’m not certain I really care what Mike Huckabee has to say. About anything. How someone so ostensibly intelligent and seemingly likable (at least when interviewed on The Daily Show) could be so publicly hateful and self-righteous is difficult to comprehend. Then again, that’s something for him to reconcile with his flavor of Imaginary Friend. That he could see fit to threaten the Republican Party- that bastion of tolerance, open arms, and unconditional acceptance- with his exit if it doesn’t become more hateful is laughable. Yet that’s exactly what Huckabee is doing.
It’s clear that Huckabee is ill at ease with the growing acceptance of same-sex marriage. I could point out that his opinion and $1.50 might get him a six-pack of Grain Belt at a Minneapolis 7-Eleven, but insult the man? His opinion matters not all to GOP leadership or the legal entities involved in resolving this issue. He’s free to voice his views on what he sees as the unmitigated evil and moral decay represented by the idea of two dudes (or chicks) getting all gay-married. Unfortunately for him, at this point he’s spitting into the cultural wind…and all I can do is take comfort in some well-deserved Schadenfreude. It’s just SO hard to be a hater these days….
I haven’t even mentioned Huckabee’s frustration over abortion rights. To his way of thinking, government should not only dictate who and how an individual can love, it should regulate the workings of a woman’s uterus. Because Lord knows da wimminz are too emotionally fragile and high-strung to be trusted with those kinds of decisions. The ONLY people deserving of being entrusted with such momentous decisions are socially conservative White Christian males…a club in which Huckabee is proud to claim membership. How convenient….
He’s certainly free to promise to leave the GOP…a prospect which I doubt leaves the party’s leadership trembling in fear. Hell, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus may well hold the door, carry his bags, call for a taxi, pay his airfare, and kiss Huckabee goodbye. Good riddance, eh?
Mike Huckabee has nothing to offer America but hatred, bigotry, homophobia, self-righteousness, and misogyny…which pretty much makes him like most of the GOP, except less circumspect and diplomatic. The fact that he’s arrogant enough to thinks he has the moral standing to give Republicans an ultimatum is kinda cute.
That whooshing sound you’ve been hearing is the sound of history rushing past Huckabee and his fellow haters. If he wants to leave the GOP and become even less relevant than he already is…well, how ‘bout I hold the door for you, Mike??
