Huckabee A Red Tory

The real conservative, Canadian style, in the Republican Presidential race is Mike Huckabee. He is actually a Red Tory, and has potential to come from behind and be the American 'Everyman' the Republicans say they want to lead them.

He is folksy being called Mike not Michael, and not afraid to lay down some mean riffs. The common man of the party of Abraham Lincoln, not Reagan. And heck he is from Arkansas so even Clinton gives him the thumbs up him, Bill, not Hillary.

It also appears that former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee did receive a bounce from his second place finish in Ames. After garnering only 4 percent in the May poll, Huckabee scored 12 percent support in the latest survey, putting him in a race for third place with Giuliani.

Yesterday in the CNBC/MSNBC debate he said something that most pundits missed, while most of the other candidates promoted 'Free Trade' he called for 'Fair Trade'. It passed over all their heads, without a response from them or the pundit questioners.

Fair trade has been actively discussed by exactly two of the GOP Presidential candidates: Huckabee and Hunter*. The other candidates have expressed only free-trade sentiment, with varying degrees of clarity and stridency. Could this issue also be a part of Huck's climb in the polls? Perhaps.

It didn't even come up on Kudlow's show after the debate interview with him. Though Huckabee got support from an unlikely source Kudlow's guest Democrat Robert Reich.

Aside from a few exceptions last night, there really wasn’t much beef.

Sam Brownback did propose an optional flat tax. And Gov. Huckabee is staying with his fair tax/national sales tax. But none of the big four are touting these ideas.

You see Huckabee supports a Fair Tax and Fair Trade, not Free Trade.

• I believe in free trade, but it has to be fair trade.
• Globalization, done right, done fairly, can be the equivalent of a big pay raise by allowing us to buy things more cheaply.

His fair tax is a consumption tax, all other taxes would be eliminated. Thus leveling the playing field for workers with the rich. A plan similar to one I have discussed here. Reich supports Huckabee's Fair Tax idea as well.

Kudlow took him to task over unions as did right wing bloggers. Though Huckabee was not alone, it appeared last night like all the candidates had suddenly discovered Sam Gompers was a libertarian. They were in Michigan, union country on the eve of a pending strike at Chrysler.

Huckabee predicted unions would gain strength in the coming years because of the growing disparity between executive pay and the working class. When people have their pay dramatically cut, they will turn to unions, he said. “That’s when unions are going to come back in roaring form,” Huckabee said.

Later when questioned about this by Kudlow, Huckabee hit back with the line that if the Republicans and CEO's continue to enjoy the spoils of the capitalist boom without sharing it with the rest of America then they will face the largest unionization drive ever. Wow. From a Republican yet.

Huckabee said that ‘unions will become more powerful’ because of wage deflation. Huckabee also promoted the ‘Fair Tax’ because it ‘untaxes productivity’ and ‘levels the playing field” he emphasized that the “The Fair Tax lifts everybody.”

The Fair Tax is a 23% consumption tax proposed to replace the income tax. Huckabee said it would ‘end the underground economy”.


The real problem, Huckabee said, is that American companies have to pay more in taxes on their products than their foreign competitors. That’s why people in the U.S. and Michigan are losing jobs, he said. “This party is going to have to start addressing it or we’re going to get our britches beat next year,” Huckabee said.

Of course he redeemed himself as a Republican by saying he would not tax CEO salary increases, but instead eliminate taxes, especially payroll taxes on the working class. Failure to share the wealth he said, sounding like John Edwards, will lead to further working class unrest and assure the success of unions.

Here’s what the Machinists say:

“Mike Huckabee was the only Republican candidate with the guts to meet with our members and the only one willing to figure out where and how we might work together,” said Buffenbarger. “He is entitled to serious consideration from our members voting in the upcoming Republican primaries.”

Mike Huckbee’s campaign fills out a little what they talked about:

Huckabee spoke before over 700 members of the IAM in Orlando, Florida on Monday about jobs, globalization, health care, and other 21st century domestic issues.

What does that mean? Specifically, on trade, or "fair trade" as Huckabee calls it:

Huckabee also said he believes in fair trade. “Free trade has to be fair trade. We are losing jobs because of an unlevel, unfair trading arena that has to be fixed. Behind the statistics, there are real families, real lives, and real pain. I’m running for President because I don’t want people who have worked loyally for a company for 20 or 30 years to walk in one morning and be handed a pink slip and be told, ‘I’m sorry, but everything you spent your life working for is no longer here.’"

And while Fred Thompson did get chuckles for his zingers last night, given the softballs tossed at him by the Hardball crowd, Huckabee was no slouch in the off the cuff humour department.

Funniest Man: Once again, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee was the most fluid and humorous communicator. He worked in references to the "Jetsons," the "Flintstones," Gomer Pyle and Goober -- excellent stuff for Baby Boom voters.
HUCKABEE – He really is an enjoyable presence up there, a very able politician. If Fred’s not the nominee, Huckabee may have earned himself a spot on the ticket.

Wouldn't the American presidential race be interesting if it was a showdown between a Republican and Democrat from Arkansas.

So far of all the candidates who stand a chance of coming from behind, to take on the four front runners it appears that Huckabee stands the best chance. And as a conservative Christian, he can appeal to the evangelical right as well as to the social progressive compassionate Christians at Sojourners. He is not only pro life, unlike Romney, Giuliani and Thompson, but he is Anti-Poverty. Which is unusual for a Republican.

Huckabee says one of his priorities is to address poverty because it's "consistent with me being pro-life." He calls his desire to fight poverty a "faith position" rather than a political position. He says that it is impossible to address poverty without prioritizing stable homes and families, which he sees as "critical economic issues."

Huckabee is the only Republican politician with substance amongst the leading contenders in this race. The others are hacks.

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A Christian Zionist will be US new ambassador to Israel

(RNS) — Mike Huckabee’s theology about the end times may be unclear, but his views on today’s Israel aren’t.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee takes questions from the media, prior to laying a brick at a new housing complex in the West Bank settlement of Efrat, Aug. 1, 2018. President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate Huckabee as ambassador to Israel. Trump said Tuesday that Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel and his intended nomination comes as Trump has promised to align U.S. foreign policy more closely with Israel’s interests as it wages wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File)

Mark Silk
November 13, 2024
(RNS) — You’ve got to hand it to President-elect Donald Trump.

After cuddling up to Muslims and winning more of their votes than his Democratic rival a week ago, he’s thrown them under the bus with an alacrity remarkable even for him. In a dream come true for Israel’s annexationist right wing, he announced Tuesday (Nov. 12) that his ambassador to Israel will be former Arkansas Gov. and Baptist minister Mike Huckabee.

From the Israeli right: “He’s a great friend to Israel,” said Yishai Fleisher, spokesperson for the Jewish Community of Hebron, on the West Bank. “We’re thrilled to have him.”

From America’s Arab American community: crickets.

It should surprise no one that Trump would send a pro-Israel evangelical Christian to the Jewish state. At the ceremony marking the opening of the American Embassy in Jerusalem in 2018, the clergy speakers comprised one American rabbi and two prominent evangelical ministers: the Rev. Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, and the Rev. John Hagee, pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio and founder of Christians United for Israel.

Huckabee has connections to this crowd. He made an appearance at Hagee’s church in December 2007, when Huckabee was seeking the Republican presidential nomination. That year, Hagee was dealing with the controversy he had stirred up in the evangelical world with “In Defense of Israel,” a book that rejected what’s known as supersessionism, the idea that “Israel has been rejected and replaced by the church to carry out the work once entrusted to Israel,” as Hagee explained in the book.

But Hagee called this notion that “the Jewish people have ceased to be God’s people, and the church is now spiritual Israel” a “misconception … rooted in the theological anti-Semitism that began in the first century.” It was time, he wrote, “for Christians everywhere to recognize that the nation of Israel will never convert to Christianity.”

So much, evidently, for the widespread evangelical belief that come the end times, Jews will return to Israel and many will convert and be saved.


Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee prays for political leaders at an American Renewal Project pastor luncheon in Henderson, N.C., Sept. 24, 2024. (RNS photo/Yonat Shimron)

What Huckabee himself believes about Judaism is not so easy to determine. Reporters covering his impressive 2008 presidential run — which included a victory in the Iowa caucuses — were able to come up with a tape of just one of the innumerable sermons he recorded during his 12 years as a Baptist pastor. In a 2010 New Yorker piece, he hedged on the question of end times Jewish conversion.

In 2008, he did say that “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian” and that the notion of a Palestinian state is used as a “political tool to try and force land away from Israel.” Visiting the West Bank seven years ago, he said, “There is no such thing as a West Bank. It’s Judea and Samaria,” adding that “there’s no such thing as an occupation.”

He’s long been an advocate of a one-state solution (i.e., Israel) and, according to the AP, he recently said, “the title deed was given by God to Abraham and to his heirs.” That would be a reference to the 12th chapter of Genesis, where God says to Abraham, “Unto thy seed will I give this land.” Huckabee calls himself a Zionist.

“President-elect Trump has made an inspiring choice,” Hagee said in a statement from CUFI after Huckabee’s appointment was announced.

Speaking on Israeli Army Radio on Wednesday, Huckabee was asked whether Israeli annexation of the West Bank would be a possibility after Trump takes office in January. “Well, of course,” he answered. “I won’t make the policy, I will carry out the policy of the president.”

That policy is best characterized as Christian Zionist.

In Mike Huckabee, Israel will have a longtime friend and true believer as ambassador

(RNS)—The former Arkansas governor and pastor-turned-Fox News host has been a supporter of Israel since his first visit in the 1970s. He sees the growth of Israel as a sign that biblical prophecies are true.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee takes questions from the media, prior to laying a brick at a new housing complex in the West Bank settlement of Efrat, Aug. 1, 2018. President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate Huckabee as ambassador to Israel. Trump said Tuesday that Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel and his intended nomination comes as Trump has promised to align U.S. foreign policy more closely with Israel’s interests as it wages wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File)

Bob Smietana, Yonat Shimron, and Jack Jenkins
November 14, 2024

(RNS) — Mike Huckabee’s journey to becoming the U.S. ambassador to Israel began 50 years ago.

The former Arkansas governor, presidential candidate and Fox News host first visited Israel with a friend on a tour of the Middle East not long after graduating from high school. “This is a place I’d never been, but I felt at home,” Huckabee said in a podcast interview at the National Religious Broadcasters convention earlier this year, about his experience as a teen.

“I felt an overwhelming spiritual reality of understanding this is the land that God has given to the Jews,” he told Paul Lanier, board chair of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, for the “Nourish Your Biblical Roots” podcast.

Huckabee said he began hosting his own tours of Israel in the 1980s and has visited the country more than 100 times. He’s a longtime supporter of pro-Israel groups like IFCJ — a nonprofit that seeks to strengthen ties between Christians and Jews and does humanitarian work in Israel — and has helped raise money for the group.

Huckabee has also long articulated staunchly pro-Israel political views. As a candidate for president in 2008, Huckabee said he believed there is “no such thing as a Palestinian,” according to CNN. He argued that the very concept of Palestinian identity is “a political tool to try and force land away from Israel.”

When he ran for president again in 2015, he held a fundraiser in one of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law.

In his conversation with Lanier, Huckabee compared the origin of Israel to the founding of the United States, saying both were started by people who moved to a new land to find peace and security. He also said the growth of Israel since 1948 is like biblical prophecies come true.

“I’ve seen Scripture come to life,” he said. “The desert has bloomed before my eyes.”

If confirmed by the Senate, Huckabee may be the first political appointee — as opposed to interim career foreign service officers — to come to the U.S. Embassy in Israel from a group known as Christian Zionists, who back Israel for theological as well as geopolitical reasons. (The current U.S. ambassador is Jack Lew, an American Jew who served as secretary of the Treasury under Barack Obama.)



Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump talks with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee during a roundtable at the Drexelbrook Catering & Event Center, Oct. 29, 2024, in Drexel Hill, Pa. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Many Christian Zionists are millenarianists — they view the creation of the modern state of Israel as a necessary precondition for the second coming of Jesus and the apocalyptic purification of the world in the end times. Israel, along with the occupied territories it captured in 1967, is considered given by God to the biblical patriarch Abraham, who is told in the Book of Genesis, “God will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.”

Huckabee’s own biblical approach to Israel shows up in his habit of referring to the West Bank as “Judea and Samaria” — a way of signaling a belief that the land has always belonged to the Jewish people.

That divine patrimony, believers say, should shape how nations, including the United States, treat Israel and how individual Christians should view the nation. Over the past 30 years, evangelicals, including Southern Baptists like Huckabee, but also growing groups of charismatic nondenominational Christians, have duly formed strong alliances with Israeli leaders and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in particular.

They give more to Israeli causes than Jewish Americans do and have formed strong support groups. With 5 million members, Christians United for Israel, led by San Antonio pastor John Hagee, is thought to be the largest pro-Israel nonprofit in the United States. In 2017, when then-President Donald Trump moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the move was applauded by Christian Zionist supporters, and Hagee spoke at the dedication of the new embassy.

RELATED: What evangelicals say they want from a second Trump term

Mordechai Inbari, a professor of religion at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, said Huckabee’s appointment as U.S. ambassador to Israel would be greeted “with open arms” by the Netanyahu government. “Huckabee belongs to the network of supporters of Netanyahu and his government among evangelicals and is considered to be a strong supporter of Israel,” said Inbari.

Huckabee was pressed by Israeli radio Wednesday (Nov. 13) on whether he believed the Trump administration would support annexation by Israel of the occupied territories, principally the West Bank, but also Gaza. He demurred but made it clear that he sees his job as following the decisions made by the president.

“There’s never been an American president,” he added, “that has been more helpful in securing an understanding of the sovereignty of Israel — from the moving of the embassy, recognition of the Golan Heights, and Jerusalem as the capital, no one has done more than president Trump and I fully expect that will continue,” Huckabee said.

Inbari, for one, didn’t think the new Trump administration would rush to see Israel annex the territories. Trump has shown a desire to expand the Mideast peace deal known as the Abraham Accords, inked in his first administration, to include Saudi Arabia. The accords, signed in 2020, normalized Israeli relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and later Sudan and Morocco.

Israel and Saudi Arabia appeared close to a deal in 2023, but the negotiations were derailed by the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. Saudi Arabia now insists it will only normalize ties with Israel if there is a pathway for a Palestinian state, which the Israeli government currently rejects.

“I think Trump would want peace with Saudi Arabia rather than Israel annexing the West Bank,” said Inbari. “And so I don’t think that this is something that’s going to happen.”

Yael Eckstein, president of the IFCJ, who traveled to Israel with Huckabee earlier this year to deliver humanitarian aid there, said the former governor has the best interests of the United States and Israel at heart and she views his new role as ambassador as a good thing.

“I think it’s wonderful news, not just for Israel, but for America and the entire world,” she said. “Because I think the stronger Israel and America are in their bond and relationship, the stronger the entire world is.”

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee prays for political leaders at an American Renewal Project pastor luncheon in Henderson, N.C., Sept. 24, 2024. (RNS photo/Yonat Shimron)

Luke Moon, executive director of the Philos Project, a pro-Israel group, likewise called Huckabee a good choice. Moon cited Huckabee’s past support for Israel and the fact that as an evangelical, he’s not involved in the internal politics of the American Jewish community.

Moon also said that the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and the war in Gaza — and the campus protests in the U.S. against that war — likely played a role in the 2024 election.

Whether people were voting for Israel or they were opposed to pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses, said Moon, “either way I’ll take it.”

Brent Leatherwood, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said he was encouraged that Huckabee was one of the first ambassadors to be named by Trump.

“That shows that Israel is top of mind for President-elect Trump,” he said. “I think that is a good thing.”

Huckabee: Paul is Dead.

Republican candidate Mike Huckabee seems to have slammed Ron Paul yesterday when he defended his Christian Christmas TV Ad.

"I will confess this: If you play the spot backwards it says, 'Paul is dead. Paul is dead,'"

Was that a subliminal smear against Ron Paul? Since the National Journal Poll found Ron Paul was dead last in national polling for Republican candidates.

"Merry Christmas," Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said simply Tuesday in Houston in response to criticism that his latest campaign commercial mixes too much religion with politics.

Huckabee, here to raise campaign money, said the nation is in serious trouble if it is politically incorrect for him to use his TV spot to remind voters about the religious meaning of this holiday season.

Departing from the standard pitches for the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary two weeks from now, the former Arkansas governor and Southern Baptist minister appears on television screens in some states with the shape of a cross behind him and Silent Night playing in the background.

"Are you about worn out by all the television commercials you've been seeing, mostly about politics? Well, I don't blame you," he says in the commercial. "At this time of year, sometimes it's nice to pull aside from all of that and just remember that what really matters is the celebration of the birth of Christ and being with our family and friends."

Subliminal message?

Some political observers see the ad as appealing directly to evangelical voters and tapping into the religious differences between Huckabee and one of his chief rivals for the GOP presidential nomination, Mitt Romney, a Mormon. Others such as candidate Ron Paul, the Republican congressman from Lake Jackson, said the ad goes overboard.

"It reminds me of what Sinclair Lewis once said. He says, 'when fascism comes to this country, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross,' " Paul, a Protestant, told Fox News. "Now I don't know whether that's a fair assessment or not, but you wonder about using a cross, like he is the only Christian or implying that subtly. So, I don't think I would ever use anything like that."

Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights President Bill Donohue said images of a cross in the commercial are an attempt to send a subliminal message.

"What he's trying to say to the evangelicals in western Iowa (is): 'I'm the real thing,' " Donohue said on the same news network. "You know what? Sell yourself on your issues, not on what your religion is."

Play it backward

Huckabee said Tuesday that he mentioned Jesus Christ in his unscripted commercial because, considering the meaning of the holiday, "I don't know what else to say about Christmas."

Some people are drawing such wild inferences from the commercial, Huckabee joked, that they might believe the ad says "Paul is dead" when played backward. It was a reference to the myth that the hidden news of Beatle Paul McCartney's "death" was revealed in the backward playing of one of the band's songs.

Really I heard Huckabee's quote and he said Paul is Dead, three times with no reference to McCartney. Now he is claiming he was referring to Paul McCartney but was he really?

After all Huckabee has no money and Ron Paul again broke a record for one day fund raising this week; when he raised over $6 million on internet donations. The previous record had been $4 million, raised by Paul a couple of months ago. And Paul was the first Republican candidate to criticize Huckabee's ad. And both are contenders in New Hampshire as I have pointed out.

Both these guys were once the so called second tier candidates in the Republican race. Huckabee now has the support of the evangelical conservative base in the party and Paul has become the most successful fund raiser, beating out all the front runners.

Huckabee is hated by the Republican establishment, who have abandoned their Moral Majority evangelical base that is the Reagan Republicans that Huckabee is shamelessly appealing to. He has little money or organizational staff with which to beat his opponents so he is doing the next best thing, talking to the folks, the base of the party who are alienated by the the current crop of 'liberals' running as Republicans; in this case the two front runners Mitt and Rudy.

This ad will come back to haunt him of course because he forgot that Hanukkah is also being celebrated this time of the year, and that Jesus was a Jew not a Republican.

In both races, Democrats and Republicans, this is not politics as usual, it is about the politics of change. Making this one of the most interesting U.S. Presidential elections in decades.




SEE:

Lieberman Endorses McCain

Huckabee A Red Tory

Republican Presidential Paul-itics

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Winds of Change

The Iowa Caucuses last night showed that the 2008 U.S. Presidential campaign will break the mold of establishment politics. It is after all the fortieth anniversary of the winds of change that blew the establishment apart in 1968. And this Presidential campaign has all the makings of the grass roots rebellion that saw demonstrators take to the streets and activists support Bobby Kennedy in a Power to the People campaign.

Barack Obama has the Kennedy charisma and has captured the new Power to the People campaign. This showed in Iowa, with a massive increase in registered Democratic voters and their showing up at the caucuses, many for the first time. The Democratic Establishment is shaken to its core, for they back Hillary and she came in third. Even her feminist base could not be counted on, for the vast majority of those new voters were older women who supported Obama.

John Edwards whom I predicted would take Iowa, came in second, far ahead of Clinton. His populist message of bashing Wall Street, corporations and the party establishment echoed grass roots sentiments not only in the Democratic Party but in the Republican grass roots. That is why Huckabee won so overwhelmingly. Which I did predict several months ago.

Huckabee gives Kudlow and Co. on CNBC heartburn, they decry his anti-Wall Street message, ironically so does the Conservative establishment Rush Limbaugh was on Fox denouncing Huckabee, as did members of the Christian Coalition leadership. The reason is they are out of touch with their base. The days of the Moral Majority are gone, the vocal power brokers are either discredited like Ralph Reed who was caught up in scandal, or dead like Moral Majority boss Jerry Falwell.

What both Edwards and Huckabee appeal too is blue collar America, main-street. What the establishment appeals to is Wall Street. Sure the investors and bankers and movers and shakers in the marketplace are making money, but to the average American they are facing rising inflation, loss of their homes, increasing debt, lost jobs, frozen wages, lack of medicare, Huckabee and Edwards appealed to these real issues.

Obama does to, in a very personal way, and his message last night was a variation on the old Rastafarian slogan One Love, his statement was about running to unify One People, One America, this goes beyond the two America's Edwards denounces, in providing a more hopeful message. And Huckabee also uses that same language, talking about an inclusive Presidency, one that will not be bi-partisan perse, but anti-partisan. His is a message of hope as well.

The pundits and hacks are scratching their heads this morning, and the powers that be are cringing in their corners wondering how they can rally support behind the establishment candidates; Clinton and Romney. They are out of touch with their base. They are aloof from blue collar/white collar workers in America. This is a working class revolt in both parties.

Sure Republicans are concerned about abortion and gay marriage, but they are also concerned, as Huckabee tells the party bosses, loss of jobs due to globalization, rising interest rates, lack of health care, eduction. Just like their Democratic counterparts do. One listens to Johnny Cash the other listens to Steve Earle, what happened in Ohio last election, where the working class vote, the union vote was mobilized around values issues, abortion and gay marriage, has given way to mobilization around economic bread and butter issues. Fair Trade instead of Free Trade. This is what scares the bejesuzz out of the establishment. It is Pat Buchanan's message eight years later, but delivered by both Democrat and Republican contenders without the jingoistic nativism and isolationist rhetoric.

The pundits were claiming last night that McCain would rise from the dead but in Iowa he ended up tied with a movie star for third place. Sure McCain is a challenger in New Hampshire, but in this he is the establishments fall back candidate. By far the real challenger is Ron Paul. Yes Ron Paul.

His is the under reported story from last night. Until the caucuses his campaign appeared to be internet driven. For instance in a Myspace poll he won overwhelmingly. His messaging and fund raising has all be done on the net. And he showed, as Howard Dean did last round, that the internet is an authentic alternative to corporate fund raising. Paul did what no other Presidential candidate ever did, raise record funds off the internet in one day. Not just once but three times. This is not a mere footnote folks, this is an authentic challenge to the traditional fund raising that has relied on lobbyists and tit for tat promises that Edwards has complained about and McCain tried to change through legislation.

Ron Paul has not been given the credit he is due by the pundit and media establishment. But by coming in fourth with 10% in Iowa he has translated his internet base to a real political force. Now watch him gain even more support as a viable alternative in New Hampshire. Paul appeals directly to the libertarian base that is the New Hampshire voter. Despite the state going Democrat, there is a strong independent base that Paul can and will appeal to. Expect him to come in third there. His libertarian message is appealing to the left and the right, just as a New Left Alliance arose between anarchists of the left and Republican libertarians forty years ago

Winds of change. Expect the unexpected. And look forward to an amazing set of Presidential conventions where the grass-roots will be out in force as delegates, and they will be challenging the party establishments. Democracy never had it so good in the good old U.S.A.

This is after all the Year of the Rat.


SEE:

Huckabee: Paul is Dead.

Lieberman Endorses McCain

Huckabee A Red Tory

Republican Presidential Paul-itics

Gravel and Paul on PBS

Republican Presidential Paul-itics

Ron Paul

Ron Paul and Barry Goldwater

Liberal Republicans

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In Bethlehem, a Christian pastor says a year of protest for Palestinians shows few gains
(RNS) — Asked about Mike Huckabee potentially becoming the U.S. ambassador to Israel, the Rev. Munther Isaac called the prospect 'frightening,' adding, 'Huckabee presents himself, at least, as a man who does not live in reality.'

The Rev. Munther Isaac, pastor of Bethlehem’s Christmas Lutheran Church, addresses a vigil at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2023. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)
Jack Jenkins
December 23, 2024


(RNS) — A year ago, the Rev. Munther Isaac, pastor of Christmas Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, joined other Christian leaders in abruptly canceling Christmas celebrations in the city where the Bible says Jesus was born. It was a bold protest against Israel’s ground assault in Gaza Strip in response to the Hamas-led attack two months prior that killed 1,200 Israelis and resulted in hundreds more being taken hostage.

At the time, Isaac had already emerged as a dynamic figure among Christians sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. In November 2023 he traveled to the U.S. with a delegation of pastors from Bethlehem, bringing a letter urging President Joe Biden and other lawmakers to embrace a cease-fire. He went on to speak at vigils in Washington and preached at the renowned Riverside Church in New York City. Last Christmas his own church built a nativity scene depicting the Baby Jesus atop stone debris evoking the destruction in Gaza, calling it “Christ in the Rubble.”

A year later, Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem are slated to be muted, which Isaac said will further drain a local economy that relies on profits from seasonal tourism. The repeat protest, he said, is a grim assessment of how little the past year’s pro-Palestinian activism has achieved: Despite protests, dramatic legal moves by the United Nations and reports from local health authorities that more than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed, the Israel-Hamas war grinds on.

Isaac outlined his thoughts on the past year in a lengthy interview with RNS, reflecting on his advocacy, the response from Christians and his concerns about the incoming Trump administration. “If I listen to myself and what I was saying 12 months ago, last Christmas, we’re repeating the same thing,” Isaac said. “We’re calling for a cease-fire, which seems like we’re calling for the world to humanize the people of Palestine.”

Isaac said his community is also racked with anxiety over the to which the conflict spreads to the West Bank: Palestinian health officials report that Israeli fire has already killed at least 722 Palestinians in the West Bank since Oct. 7 of last year, and some in Israel’s government, emboldened by the election of Donald Trump in the U.S., have vowed that the country will fully annex the West Bank.

What celebrations do occur in Bethlehem, Isaac said, will focus on prayer and emphasize what he called “a message of hope.” “I’ll be leading prayers,” he said. “We have a special prayer for peace on Dec. 20, a vigil for Gaza … We’re calling it ‘Christ is still in the rubble.’”

An installation of a scene of the Nativity of Christ with a figure symbolizing baby Jesus lying amid the rubble, in reference to Gaza, inside Christmas Lutheran Church in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, Sunday, Dec. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

The pastor said he was inspired by the response of some U.S. Christians, saying that during his August tour he “sensed new grassroots movements are being created in solidarity with the Palestinians.” He pointed to African American Christians as a particularly powerful well of support; in November of last year, a group of Black Christian leaders were among the first to organize a letter urging the Biden administration to back a permanent cease-fire.

“We’ve seen many sit-ins, demonstrations, prayer vigils, church leaders contacting their representatives,” he said. “So I cannot say it has not made an impact.”

Christians elsewhere have expressed support as well. The World Council of Churches — whose general secretary, South African Presbyterian minister the Rev. Jerry Pillay, has likened Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to apartheid — was quick to call for a cease-fire last year. Earlier this month, more than 200 Christian bishops and administrative leaders from around the globe signed a letter calling for the U.S. and all governments to suspend arms sales to Israel.

Pope Francis has also taken “strong positions” that included concern for Palestinians since the outbreak of the war, Isaac said. Although the pastor indicated he believes the pontiff could have done more, he is nonetheless “grateful for the Vatican,” adding, “In Palestine, on the ground, churches have been doing a lot on the humanitarian level, especially in Gaza itself.”

Pope Francis prays in front of a nativity scene crafted in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, as he arrives for a meeting with the donors of the fir tree set up in St. Peter’s Square as a Christmas tree and those who have crafted the life-size nativity scene at the tree’s feet, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Just after Christmas last year, South Africa’s government formally accused Israel of pursuing genocide in Gaza at the International Criminal Court in the Hague, which later issued arrest warrants for both Hamas leaders and Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel has passionately rebuked the genocide charge.

But developments in the past year have also frustrated Isaac, particularly the hardline stance many American evangelical Christians have taken in support of Israel, including former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, whom Trump has nominated to be the U.S. ambassador to Israel. Huckabee, a onetime pastor, has held fundraisers in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which he refers to by the area’s biblical names, Judea and Samaria.

Once claiming there is “no such thing as a Palestinian” and “there’s no such thing as an occupation,” Huckabee has insisted that the concept of Palestinian identity is “a political tool to try and force land away from Israel.”

RELATED: In Chicago, one congregation finds fealty to Israel intolerable

Calling the prospect of Huckabee representing the U.S. in Israel “frightening,” Isaac said, “He lives in an alternative (reality) of his own imagination based on how he understands the biblical text.”

He asked, “When he says there is no occupation, it makes me wonder: Who are the soldiers when I go through the checkpoint every day as I drive my kids to school? The soldiers sometimes pointing their guns at us? Am I imagining? To him, none of that exists. It’s all Judea and Samaria.”

Isaac said Huckabee’s attitude mirrors that of many evangelicals in the U.S., who he said ignore the existence of Palestinian Christians, saying, “To them, the fulfillment of their biblical fantasies is more important than the survival of Christians in the Holy Land.”

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee takes questions from the media prior to laying a brick at a new housing complex in the West Bank settlement of Efrat, Aug. 1, 2018. President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate Huckabee as ambassador to Israel. 

(AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File)

When Trump moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem in 2018, a move publicly opposed by Christians in the region, Isaac said dialogue between local Christians and Trump’s evangelical advisers went poorly. “There was a behind-closed-doors meeting with one of them,” Isaac said, declining to name the religious leader. “He dealt with us with clear condescension.”

Isaac said he plans to publish a new book in the coming year, “Christ in the Rubble: Faith, the Bible and the Genocide in Gaza,” which he said includes criticism of those he says use the Bible to justify the war that has taken so many Palestinian lives. “It’s a call to Christians to re-examine the whole way they have dealt with the reality in Palestine over the year,” he said.

As Christmas approaches, however, Isaac said he will be leaning into prayer, especially as he tries to ready his community for the days ahead. A year removed from the first wartime Christmas, he said, his message remains the necessity of resilience among his fellow Palestinian Christians, hoping to muster a strength that can help “sustain our people to survive.”

“Prayer, right now, is the only time of hope we have,” he said. “It’s the only hopeful thing we can do. We feel powerless, honestly, and when we pray, we have some sort of hope that, ultimately, not just that God will listen, but justice will prevail.”

Sarah Huckabee Sanders says Biden has given into ‘woke mob’ in hardcore culture war speech

State of the Union GOP Response

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders accused President Joe Biden of being a slave to a “woke mob” in the Republican response to the president’s State of the Union address that leaned heavily on social conservatism that has animated much of the GOP.

Ms Sanders, who won her election last year, served as former president Donald Trump’s press secretary and touched on her time in that role during her speech. But for the most part, she said Mr Biden was putting America on poor footing.

She noted how she was the youngest governor in the country while Mr Biden was the oldest president in history, a record previously held by Mr Trump.


“I’m the first woman to lead my state,” she said. “He’s the first man to surrender his presidency to a woke mob that can’t even tell you what a woman is.”

Republicans have frequently pilloried Democrats by asking “what is a woman,” while referencing transgender women as “biological males.”

“Whether Joe Biden believes this madness or is simply too weak to resist it, his administration has been completely hijacked by the radical left,” she said.

“Every day, we are told that we must partake in their rituals, salute their flags, and worship their false idols,” she said. “All while big government colludes with Big Tech to strip away the most American thing there is—your Freedom of speech.”

Ms Huckabee, the daughter of former presidential candidate Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, touted the fact that she banned the teaching of “critical race theory” and the use of the term “Latinx,” a gender neutral term to describe people of Latin American descent that is meant to be inclusive of LGBTQ+ people.

“Americans want common sense from their leaders, but in Washington, the Biden administration is doubling down on crazy,” she said. She accused Mr Biden of wasting the accomplishments of the Trump administration.

“Despite Democrats’ trillions in reckless spending and mountains of debt, we now have the worst border crisis in American history,” she said. Similarly, she criticised Democrats for letting crime run rampant.

““And after years of Democrat attacks on law enforcement and calls to ‘defund the police, violent criminals roam free, while law-abiding families live in fear,” she said, despite the fact that Mr Biden and many other Democrats in Congress do not support defunding the police, though some cities and localities have reallocated money from policing to other services.

She also criticised the president for showing weakness on China, Ukraine and Afghanistan.

“President Biden is unwilling to defend our border, defend our skies, and defend our people. He is unfit to serve as commander in chief,” she said.

Ms Huckabee Sanders was one of two addresses that the GOP gave. Representative Juan Ciscomani, a freshman Republican of Arizona and an immigrant from Mexico, delivered the rebuttal to the State of the Union in Spanish.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders' 'Normal Or Crazy' Challenge Backfires Spectacularly

Wed, February 8, 2023 

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivered the Republican response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night, and it was loaded with the expected right-wing culture-war grievances.

Sanders’ speech included attacks on LGBTQ rights, critical race theory, the “woke mob” and more.

But it also contained one line that probably didn’t get the reaction she was hoping.

“The choice is no longer between right or left,” declared Sanders, former press secretary to Donald Trump. “The choice is between normal and crazy.”

Many agreed ― just not in the way she was likely expecting as they pointed to her party’s own extremists, and in particular the wild behavior of conspiracy theorist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) just minutes earlier during Biden’s speech: