Huckabee the Flip-Flopper
To say that Mike Huckabee doesn’t have a steadfast governing philosophy is understatement. This article offers sufficient proof of Huckabee’s ‘flexibility’ in his attempt to be all things to all people.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee yesterday continued to move to the right on immigration during this year’s presidential campaign, signing a pledge to enforce immigration laws and to make all illegal aliens go home.
The pledge, offered by immigration control advocacy group Numbers USA, commits Mr. Huckabee to oppose a new path to citizenship for current illegal aliens and to cut the number of illegal aliens already in the country through attrition by law enforcement, something Mr. Huckabee said he will achieve through his nine-point immigration plan.
“Some would say it’s a tough plan. It is, but it’s also fair and reasonable,” Mr. Huckabee said.
It’s also the opposite of Huckabee’s policy before the presidential spotlight got shined on him. It’s obvious that he’s pandering now after getting slammed for wanting to give illegal immigrants in-state tuition. This happened just a day after his flip-flop on signing a federal ban on smoking.
In other words, he’s saying whatever he thinks will gain him a few extra votes. That isn’t that dissimilar from John McCain’s approach. It doesn’t much courage to be all things to all people. It takes steadfastness to stand for the same underlying principles year after year, decade after decade.
Fred’s done that because he understands Goldwater’s and Reagan’s thinking. Fred knows that keeping taxes low means that families have financial freedom. Fred knows that securing our borders limits the possibility of terrorists getting into the country. Fred understands that keeping as much of the decisionmaking as close to the people as possible isn’t just constitutionally mandated. It’s also the smartest type of governance ever devised by man.
Mike Huckabee either doesn’t understand about that or he doesn’t care about that. I’v seen scant proof that John McCain cares about that type of thinking either. Here’s why that matters.
Today, McCain’s appeal to liberals is to adopt their liberal positions. In 1984, Reagan’s appeal to Reagan Democrats was based on them adopting his conservative beliefs. Let’s put it in contemporary terms.
John McCain abandoned the GOP to craft tax increase legislation. That’s what his Global Warming initiative is. Does anyone think that Mike Huckabee, the populist, wouldn’t sign onto that if he thought it meant a few votes?
Mike Huckabee and John McCain essentially said that our sovereignty wasn’t important when they just accepted the broken borders as acceptable. At least, that was their position until they saw how outraged people were with Shamnesty. Then they reversed course.
Here’s why Shamnesty is a stain on our nation:
Illegal immigrants have had a huge impact on education and health care costs, shifting those costs onto taxpayers. Asking people to work hard, play by the rules and subsidize others isn’t grounded in individual liberty. That’s the principle of enslavement upon which modern liberalism is founded.
We can’t afford to vote for Huckabee because he’s a flip-flopping liberal. The only differences between him and Sen. McCain is that McCain’s unswervingly liberal.
Technorati Tags: Flip-Flopper, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, Shamnesty, Immigration, Liberals, Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater, Libertarianism, Conservatism, Fred Thompson, Sovereignty, Election 2008
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog