Huckabee as Laibach

Huckabee is the best thing that could happen to the Democrats. He can split the Republicans, rupture the ideological consensus on which the party has relied. How? By taking them at their word.

The Republicans have claimed to be pro-life, family values, Christian. They have claimed that the evangelicals are a crucial element of their governing coalition. Huckabee believes all these claims and takes them seriously. He says, yes! We are evangelical Christians and this means that we have care for life from conception beyond death into eternity!

The cynical Republican establishment rubs its eyes, confused. What do you mean? You can take this values stuff seriously! What about our money? What about our wars?

The sincere, believing Huckabee, by identifying with their words, forces the obscene supplement to the fore--the  Republicans have to distance themselves from their own slogans and claims, their compassion. They try to stain him with the l-word, liberal. But that's a hopeless gesture.

Does this mean that leftists should support Huckabee? Of course not. It means that the Republicans can destroy themselves and that leftists should pursue the hard task of bringing something new into being (a task perhaps made a bit easier by the fact that over 40% of the people in the US claim to want major, substantial change).

Comments

[Joe]

"Does this mean that leftists should support Huckabee?"

It really is fraught. Especially when it comes to FairTax. The way I see it, getting rid of Federal taxes and replacing them with a consumption tax takes us closer to Socialism than all of the Big Government of the last 50+ years. Why? First of all, it has a built-in notion of entitled living expenses, even for those who don't work. However, things get really interesting when conversations like the following start popping up: "So, we get rid of all Federal taxes and only tax people for consuming? Why not tax employers for consuming their employees labour? It's only fair."

A lot of people may not agree with the labour theory of value, but I don't think most of them even can deny that profits come from the employees, and, whether the employer "deserves" it or not, they are consuming this as much as Joe Blow buying something at the store. They're all paying for a service.

[Karlo]

I agree. There's nothing as bad as a true believer with the ranks of the right.

[matt]

he's really an odd bird isn't he, ideologically... also what with the clinton cousin scandal, the losing over 100 pounds, the populist stuff mixed with sheer nuttery. i was happy for racist brainless Libertarian Ron Paul to help split the vote, but frankly he doesn't seem quite up to it.

[Karlo]

I'm quite impressed with the weight loss. As for the Republican candidates, they're all quite an odd bunch. Of course, they represent a odd coalition (the super-wealthy and the people most exploited by them), so I guess we shouldn't be too surprised.

[Dejan]

The sincere, believing Huckabee, by identifying with their words, forces the obscene supplement to the fore--the Republicans have to distance themselves from their own slogans and claims, their compassion. They try to stain him with the l-word, liberal. But that's a hopeless gesture.

Huckabee looks like an emaciated NeoNazi dominant top, one of those highly irritating anal Calvinist types who are always wary of dirt - never quite sure whether they rinsed themselves properly.

[Seb]

And just imagine what'll happen if it comes down to a McCain/Huckabee race. The schism would be so spectacular that you couldn't add enough modifiers to "shit-fit" to describe it.

Also, if we follow Joe's notion of a modified "Fair Tax" to include labour value, might Huckabee actually stand a better chance than any/all Democrats of bringing something TRULY different into being? Assuming, of course, you don't mind the nasty little side effect of living in a theocracy.

[Joe]

I don't exactly endorse Huckabee. Kucinich is at least as much change if not more, and with none of the religious baggage. I just mention it because, in the first place, it's related to what Jodi is talking about. Beyond that, as I've entertained the thought in a different way on my own blog, purely because Huckabee is the most prominent politician right now, with the arguable exception of John Edwards, who is arguing for that kind of economic over-haul.

He doesn't ride on any obvious obscene supplement to his own agenda, but for as much as a Huckabee administration would parallel a Hitler adminstration, it would probably be big and nasty. The only thing I can think of that Americans might in general find suspicious that could fill those shoes are either homosexuals or Muslims.

[Seb]

Let's not forget athiests! Still among the most publicly reviled groups in America (though it's not surprising when people's frame of reference is limited to dogmatic blowhards like Richard Dawkins). I'm also sure intellectuals would get lumped into the piles of bodies too. America has a sneering streak of anti-intellectualism that (though tight-reined compared to, say, the Khmer Rouge or Chinese Cultural Revolution) is ever present & simmering.

Joe, I know you wouldn't actually endorse Huckabee. Just because his tax plan is theoretically tasty, doesn't mean the man isn't scarier than hell.

[redmatter]

Am I alone in not finding his tax plan “theoretically tasty” at all? Put a progressive face on it if you will, but the primary vendors of the Fair Tax are not populist wingnuts like Huckabee, but rather wackjob market fetishists like Neal Boortz and Tom DeLay. Can a consumption tax be made progressive? Sure it can. But so can just about any other tax plan. In the present climate, after Bush tested the waters for such a move in 2004, Huck can put whatever progressive spin on it he wants (and I’ll concede that he probably believes it), but by running a campaign organized around the Fair Tax, he capitalizes on popular sentiment not for helping the poor, but for getting rid of taxes. Given that neither of these is likely to happen, a relatively successful Huck campaign will serve, historically, as evidence that people want to abolish the IRS, not help the poor.

[Jodi]

I think Huckabee's tax plan is completely insane and would be absolutely horrifying for poor people and people on fixed incomes. It seems (although I might be wrong on this) that all sorts of investment income would be exempt--a boon for the stock crowd. The problem isn't the income tax--the problem is the tax cuts for the very wealthy. Huckabee makes Norquist look positively balanced.