Welcome to The Ballot Box, a new political blog at The News Herald where we can discuss Campaign ‘08 on the local and national levels. Keep in mind this blog is moderated, so please keep your comments on topic and refrain from vulgar language and making libelous claims.
Let’s kick it off with an issue that’s relevant to the Jan. 29 Florida primary (and the very red Panhandle): Is Mike Huckabee a conservative?
Making the case for the former Arkansas governor is blogger Joe Carter, who has worked for Huckabee’s campaign. In a Jan. 3 post titled “The One-Legged Stool: How the Elites Misunderstand ‘Reagan Conservatives’ ,” Carter writes:
Reagan conservatives understand the economy on a personal level, and not as just a series of charts and statistics and abstract theories. For instance, when they hear the so-called fiscal conservatives (e.g., the Club for Growth) bashing Governors like Mike Huckabee for raising state sales taxes a fraction of a cent in order to fix the roads and schools they shake their heads in disgust. They are tired of hearing that a candidate who wants to eliminate the AMT, cut corporate taxes, and provide more tax relief for the middle class is somehow an “economic populist.” Washington insider might be dim enough to convince themselves but Reagan conservatives aren’t so easily fooled.
On the other side is Henry Olsen of the American Enterprise Institute, writing in the Wall Street Journal. In “The GOP’s Time for Choosing ” he characterizes Huckabee’s politics not as American conservative, but more European Christian democrat:
Christian Democrat parties have always distinguished themselves from liberals and socialists, favoring private property and traditional values while supporting government regulation and taxation to ameliorate what they perceive to be capitalism’s defects. …
Christian Democracy is a different beast than Reagan-era conservatism, which drew upon the traditions of the Founding Fathers — which are extremely suspicious of government power, regulation and redistribution. It is virtually impossible to imagine a Christian Democratic leader inveighing against government intervention in the economy as Ronald Reagan did in his first inaugural address.
So what say you?
