Huckabee, not liberal

Mike Huckabee may not be as "conservative" or "right" as parts of the Republican party wants him to be, but as we talked about in class, that part of the GOP is in a steady decline and is grasping for power, threatening to form their own party.

The people classifying him as "liberal" tend to be his political opponents. Mitt Romney, one of the Republican front runners for the presidential nomination, has been one of the biggest critics of Huckabee. Saying that he is too liberal in his tax policy and on immigration. One has to ask oneself, why would a political opponent be trying to classify Huckabee as, for the lack of a better word, an "enemy." Could it be that he is trying to win an election, or does Romney actually believe that Huckabee is closer to a liberal than a conservative.

Groups such as the anti-tax group "The Club for Growth" also call Huckabee a liberal since he raised taxes as the Governor of Arkansas. They claim that he is a fiscal liberal even though he he supports a large federal sales tax. Blogs like http://www.freedomworks.org/blog/?p=1130 call Huckabee a liberal based on his stances towards things like illegal immigration and tax policy.

Yet is Mike Huckabee actually a liberal, could the entire country be fooled? Maybe his opponents would like to de-fang him since they see his growing popularity as a threat? Maybe conservative groups are simply frustrated that Huckabee is not as conservative as they would like him to be? Both factions do an excellent job of painting him as liberal but when one looks at his actual stances and views, it is clear that Huckabee is far from liberal.

"None of this is to say that Huckabee's policy positions are much better than those of his Republican rivals; in some cases, they're worse. He wants to replace the federal tax code with a gigantic, horribly regressive sales tax; he cannot name a single time he has ever disagreed with the National Rifle Association; he wants to amend the Constitution to ban gay marriage and abortion." - Hendrik Hertzberg, wrote in The New Yorker

It is hard to qualify Mike Huckabee as liberal unless you are a Republican who is upset with some of one of your candidates actions or if you want to beat him in an election. One would be hard pressed to claim that Huckabee comes any where near liberal even in his handling of illegal immigration. His views are a little less conservative than the pack but still are not "Blurring the line between liberal and conservative."

-Peter Lubershane