It must have been awkward for Roy Brown last night listening to former presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee, who swept in to help raise funds for Brown's gubernatorial candidacy. Check it out:
It's going to take more than pledges against gay marriage and abortion to woo evangelical voters this election year, former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said Wednesday.
"The issues that drive evangelicals are the commitment to protect human life and sanctity of marriage, but it's no longer just those two issues," Huckabee told The Billings Gazette. "Younger evangelical voters are also concerned about poverty and the environment. I think the candidate that fails to address the broader agenda is going to fail to unify evangelicals."
[snip]
Huckabee's campaign message of Christian environmental stewardship and caring for one's God-given body resonated well with young evangelicals. Evangelical voters today recognize the need for social programs that keep families together, keep children in school and keep adults of out of prison and out of rehab.
A campaign platform that cuts taxes to the extent of undermining the country's social fabric is not going to win evangelicals, Huckabee said. Conversely, evangelical voters are less likely to turn to the government for a cash solution.
Ouch! You know, of course, Brown's environmental policies have consisted solely of how to uproot it to get at the coal; his tax policies, the same robotic cut-cut-cut, trickle-down monotone we've heard from the GOP for decades, completely ignoring infrastructure needs. Only I would hazard to guess that evangelical Christians, like the rest of us, hunt; have children who breathe mercury-polluted air, need health care; and value schools and transportation.
Brown's candidacy, and the tack of the state Republican party, is also woefully out-of-step with the nation's Republicans. After all, the GOP's top three presidential candidates consisted of:
-- A Senator who made his reputation for "straight talk" opposing Bush's tax cuts
-- A Representative who's against the Iraq War, the Patriot Act, warrantless wiretapping, and torture
-- A Governor who raised taxes and increased spending in his state, and advocated using government to aid the poor
This election is shaping up to promise some drastic change in the way this country thinks about foreign policy, the economy, government's role, and government's accountability. Apparently, someone forgot to tell Roy Brown, whose paleo-campaign is straight out of 1994. |
