Friday, December 21, 2007
RE: Bye, Bye Mike [Mark Hemingway]
Regarding that Huckabee advisor's soon-to-be-regretted comments about Limbaugh, Huckabee actually encourages people in his book From Hope to Higher Ground: 12 STOPs to Restoring America's Greatness to "listen to less talk radio" as part of his "12 Action Steps to STOP Being Cynical." No doubt he wants everybody to follow that advice today.
I had (largely) refrained from piling on Huckabee because I wanted to give him a fair shake. I've now read his last two books (you can read my piece about them
on NRO today) and am here to tell you they were terribly written and totally insubstantial. Thought his
Foreign Affairs piece was bad? Read his chapter in
From Hope to Higher Ground on how to "STOP the Loss of America's Prestige at Home and Abroad." His relentless use of folksy aphorisms and corny rhetorical sleight of hand provokes visceral objections — but the criticism isn't merely superficial. In the
TNR I piece
I linked to yesterday a member of the Arkansas press corps observed, "He thinks and speaks in metaphors. And, often, they're not right." That, well, hits the nail on the head. And his ideas about the limits of governance are frightening:
History shows that we can, in fact, help Americans to change, not by force-feeding them government restrictions or requirements but by first changing the attitudes and atmosphere in which we live. Eventually, having shifted public opinion, we can solidify the attitude and atmospheric changes with government actions that define the will of the majority. [Emphasis Added]
I don't think I'm being uncharitable when I say that's disturbingly authoritarian. Huckabee should probably start answering some critics instead of dismissing this all as "The Establishment" trying to keep a good ol' boy down.
UPDATE: I described the source of the anti-Limbaugh comment as an "advisor" — that's probably overstating it. Ambinder described him as a "DC-based Huckabee ally."
12/21 11:35 AM
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