I live in Georgia. Suburban Georgia. It's worse than you think. Lately though, friends have been asking (whispering - conspiratorially) that they just may be willing to vote Democratic this year and who do I like (I suspect many of them simply will not vote in November, but I allow the possibility). At first it was jaw-dropping - I have long been the subject of largely good-natured ribbing (email, tennis practice, at the grocery store, you name it) because of the big capital D that would come after my name if I ran for political office. But now that this phenomenon is becoming more commonplace, I need your help.
None of my friends, that I've talked to so far anyway, claim to have voted for Huck. As a matter of demographics they are all higher income, college educated, Christians, and painfully white. The majority of my friends that I have talked to/emailed claim to be duly ashamed at their state choice (they prefer McCain or Romney almost evenly if they had to pick a GOP candidate, which they'd rather not). They asked me what I thought of Huckabee. I did some quick research and emailed the snippets below to them.
Disclaimer: I was an Edwards supporter, but voted for Obama yesterday. I still see Clinton as a corporate-minded politician. I'm voting for the Democratic nominee no matter who it is. Flame away if you must, but you're missing the point. Anyway, on to the email and the explanation of why I need your help.
• Huckabee on evolution: Huckabee said he wants
"schools to acknowledge that there are views that are different than evolution."
No word as of yet if that includes the Flying Spaghetti Monster?
• Huckabee on gays
o AIDS victims should be placed in quarantine camps:
"If the federal government is truly serious about doing something with the AIDS virus, we need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague."
o gay marriage means the end of civilization – seriously:
"There’s never been a civilization that has rewritten what marriage and family means and survived."
• Huck on higher education:
there’s nary a mention of his plans for higher education should he be elected president.
• Huck on health care:
Huckabee's plan is not a "plan" like most Americans would hope for but a series of objectives that Huckabee intends to change .... He is emphasizing to try and limit health care that is offered by employers and instead having consumers deal with getting health care themselves in the private sector. ...
• Huck on the Iraq war:
"[W]e have always declared war until victory. ... I am focused on winning. Withdrawal would have serious strategic consequences for us and horrific humanitarian consequences for the Iraqis."
• Huckabee on capital punishment:
"Interestingly enough, if there was ever an occasion for someone to have argued against the death penalty, I think Jesus could have done so on the cross and said, 'This is an unjust punishment and I deserve clemency.' "
... Uh ... Therefore, since Jesus didn’t specifically object to state-sponsored capital punishment, it MUST be okay. Fine, He did bitch a little about it ("My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"), but that’s not a wholesale indictment on the system. Consequently, Huckabee fried him some criminals in his time as governor. Praise Jesus. NOTE that Jesus did not specifically object to oil company subsidies, the infield fly rule, and the emergence of Paris Hilton as a cultural icon and you can pretty much lay the blame for every societal ill at the feet of Jesus and his steadfast refusal to object - in writing. Amen.
• Huck on the Right to Life: For the unborn, yes. For Iraqis (see above), convicted criminals (see above), or the poor and/or the sick (see above) – not so much.
• Huck on Illegal Immigration: C’mon in!
(Remember, I'm trying to convince GOP supporters to vote Democratic)
• Huck on Stem Cell Research:
Huckabee praised President Bush for blocking federal funding for research that destroys embryos, saying he rightfully stood up to pressure to cave. "The president was right," said Huckabee, ... "He was bold and he was courageous."
• and from the same article as above, Huck on abortion:
"If abortion isn’t wrong then nothing is wrong."
Do you have any more to add? For educational purposes only, of course.