You are probably more familiar with the Inauguration Address of George Wallace as Governor of Alabama on January 14, 1963 than you realize. Wallace, standing astride the spot at the State Capitol in Montgomery on which Jefferson Davis stood as he was sworn into the Confederate presidency, uttered these words:
"In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."
The speech was laced with platitudes about God, faith, the Almighty, the Ten Commandments, various conspiracy theories, including something involving the dreaded Afro-Asian bloc, and, of course, commies, progressives and liberals. Wallace's speech, as you might have guessed was a forerunner for just about any you might hear on Fox News today.
The speech is actually very short, only about forty-five paragraphs long, and yet Wallace managed to mention the word "God" twenty-three times. In the paragraphs in which he forgetfully omitted the name of his creator, he was wont to use words like "spiritual" (3 times), "Christ" (1x), "faith" (4x), "ungodly" or "ungodliness" (3x), the "Almighty" (1x) and phrase like "the Ten Commandmants" (1x). In other words, Wallace sought to use God and his religion as the bulwark of his defense for racial segregation.
Mike Huckabee, also a former Governor for a Southern state, is an ordained Baptist minister and professed Evangelical. Huckabee's credentials were on display immediately as he was asked if the Republican Party might accept Gay Marriage. His response:
"They might. And if they do, they’re going to lose a large part of their base because evangelicals will take a walk.”
As you can see, Huckabee's bona fides vis-à-vis his relationship with the Creator appear so unquestioned and unshakeable, he didn't mention God even once in
his little speech. Rather, Huckabee went directly to the threat. In his case, it was the threat that his evangelicals would walk out of the GOP.
Like Mike Huckabee in his lengthy response to an interviewer's question, George Wallace, in his inaugural address, also issued a threat. It went a little something like this:
"Let us send this message back to Washington ... that from this day we are standing up ... that we intend to take the offensive and carry our fight for freedom across the nation ...."
Another obvious similarity between Wallace's and Huckabee's latest is the fact that both thought it necessary to heap derision on Washington, D.C. as a form of logical fallacy, an argumentum ad populum. Mike Huckabee derided a hypothetical Washington Post Poll, while George Wallace chided the Washington, D.C. school district.
Both Wallace and Huckabee had to have an enemy besides the generic "Washington," and although Wallace found a litany of enemies far and wide, Huckabee selected a fellow Republican, Rob Portman, who had just come out in favor of Gay Marriage equality. Portman had changed his position on Gay Marriage as a result of finding out that his son was gay.
George Wallace also had to deal with pesky polls in his day. In August 1957, a Gallup Poll asked this question of a random sampling of Southerners: "Do you think the day will ever come in the South when whites and Negroes will be going to the same schools, eating in the same restaurants, and generally sharing the same public accommodations?" Forty-Five percent of the respondents answered "Yes." As you can see, that poll was taken nearly six years before the inauguration of George Wallace. Only six months after Wallace took office, the same polling company asked the same question of another random sampling of Southerners. This time, the percentage of people who said "Yes" was eighty-three (83%).
Likewise, national polling on the issue of Gay Marriage has seen change. CNN recently reported that "[t]he number of Americans who support same-sex marriage has risen ... from 40% in 2007 to 53% today." The percentage appears to be rising faster than new microchips can track.
Wallace blamed the "pseudo-liberal spokesmen and some Harvard advocates" for that day's perceived sentiment for desegregation. Today, Mike Huckabee's employer, Fox News, has revealed that the polls are wrong, skewed, and that they shouldn't be trusted.
This has been a very brief sketch comparing two iconic bigots. I would like to hear from those of you who have studied this subject in any depth. Thanks!