{"id":612,"date":"2008-01-21T21:46:00","date_gmt":"2008-01-21T21:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arkansasfreedom.net\/?p=612"},"modified":"2008-01-21T21:46:00","modified_gmt":"2008-01-21T21:46:00","slug":"an-open-letter-to-huckabee-supporters-in-behalf-of-ron-paul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/?p=612","title":{"rendered":"An open letter to Huckabee Supporters in behalf of Ron Paul"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

An Open Letter to Huckabee
\nSupporters in Behalf of Ron Paul<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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It’s true.<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

I admit it. It seems I’m a
\nrecovering Huckaholic.<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

I attended a “Huckabee for
\nPresident” campaign rally in St. John’s Michigan last Friday Night. Please
\ndon’t hold it against me as it was Huckabee who invaded my space and not the
\ncase of my going out of my way to swoon over his rock star\u00e2\u20ac\u201clike status. My son
\nwas competing in a home-school basketball game and the Huckabee campaign
\ndecided that the venue would be a great photo op and rally site. Now, I could
\nhave decided to just miss the game since it was being converted into an
\n“All ignorant Jesus lovers vote for me” rally but since I am an
\nassistant coach for Anthony’s team I thought I would grin and bear it.<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

However, since I was forced to be
\nthere I do have an observation about those gathered, an observation about
\nHuckabee and a sociological observation regarding social behavior towards those
\nwho refuse to drink the kool-aid and who scream loudly that others shouldn’t
\ndrink the kool-aid.<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

First concerning the gathered
\nlemming; I must say it was as if I was transported to a Tom Jones concert of 40
\nyears ago. You know \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 the type where all the women would throw their
\nundergarments on the stage along with their hotel room keys in hopes that Tom
\nwould pick them. The swooning was surreal. Before Huckabee arrived their were
\nannouncements on the PA about how the Huckabee staffers were nervous that the
\ncrowd would swarm him and pleas that people would show their Christian behavior
\nby letting the candidate approach them and encouragement not to mob the
\ncandidate. The people in charge of the campaign kept giving us minute by minute
\nupdates on the coming of Huckabee. “Governor Huckabee is 10 minutes out.
\nGovernor Huckabee is 5 minutes out. Governor Huckabee is 2 minute out.”
\nAnd on and on it went. The last time I’ve seen a person tracked this closely
\nwith this much excitement was Santa Clause on Christmas Eve. Every time an
\nupdate was given the 500 souls in the gymnasium would swoon like teenage girls
\nbeing asked out on their first date. Then we had practice cheering runs.
\n“Let me hear what kind of noise you’re going to make when future President
\nHuckabee shows up.” Louis XVI would have been so fortunate to have such an
\nadoring people as these Huckabee groupies. These people were wetting their
\npants over getting to be in the same room with a guy that makes Tricky Dick and
\nSlick Willie look like amateurs.<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

And then when Huckabee arrived it
\nwas more of the same. The Huckster’s speech was boiler plate political vapid.
\nThere was no there “there.” My 18-year-old daughter characterized it
\nas “bushwah.” And yet people were screaming their lungs out as if
\nHuckabee was serving as the prophet of Allah making pronouncements revealing
\nAllah’s will.<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

To be honest I was ashamed of
\nmyself. Ashamed because despite all my skepticism and cynicism I had
\nunderestimated the ability of those who call themselves Christians to be
\ntotally deluded. Those 500 people present, most of whom no doubt would label
\nthemselves “Christian” have no idea who Mike Huckabee is or what
\npolicy he has pursued, and further have no desire to know. It is enough for
\nthem that Mike says he is the “Jesus candidate.” I used to think that
\nthese people were being manipulated by their Pastors but having spoken to a few
\nHuckabee Pastor types I realize that the fog in the pew is because of the mist
\nin the pulpit. In short, their Pastors are just as deluded as the rank and
\nfile. Somehow a lemming avalanche for Huckabee got started and once the
\navalanche begins no amount of reasoning will thwart its kinetic energy.<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

I know this because I got snowed
\nover by the avalanche. When it was announced that Huckabee was going to be in
\nSt. Johns and when I realized it was the home-schooling organization that I am
\nloosely a part of that was pushing it I sent an e-mail out to those in the
\nhome-schooling group simply explaining some of the liberal and statist
\ntendencies of Mike Huckabee and providing links for people to look closer at
\nthis wolf in sheep’s clothing. Given the response I received you would have
\nthought that I had committed blasphemy by touching the Lord’s anointed.<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

So here is the summary of the first
\nobservation. People, including Christians, so desperately want heroes that they
\nwill turn off rational thought once they decide, for whatever reason, that some
\nperson is going to be that hero. Secondly, the Christian community is no
\ndifferent from the non-Christian community when it comes to shallowness,
\npracticing thought by emotion, and sheer unmitigated gullibility.<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

The observation about Huckabee is
\nthat he is slick the same way that Clinton was slick except that he has added a
\nJesus coating to his slickness. This is my chief reason for disliking Huckabee.
\nIt is my estimation that he is cynically using Jesus to get elected. Let’s face
\nit, if it weren’t for Huckabee’s ministerial ties and willingness to invoke
\nJesus at every turn he would be running neck and neck with Duncan Hunter and be
\neasily dismissed as a center-left moderate Republican (what they call a Social
\nDemocrat in Europe). Recently, I am blaming him less and less for this and
\nincreasingly I am blaming the “Christian community” for being such
\nwilling naifs. Huckabee’s “I am the Bible’s candidate” spiel came out
\nagain in the few minutes that he spoke where he appealed to people to help him
\nslay the giants he was facing in the Michigan primary the way that David slew
\nGoliath. This was just more identity politics and more red meat for the Jesus
\npeople. <\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

Here is the summary of the second
\nobservation. Huckabee will ride this “I love Jesus” train as far as
\nhe can. What is unfortunate about it is that he is getting away with what so
\nmany ministers in our churches get away with and that is constantly having
\nJesus on their lips while preaching a theology that is not particularly
\nChristian. The goods are out there on Huckabee in terms of his leftist, statist
\nand non-Christian agenda but Christians just don’t care because it is enough to
\ninvoke Jesus.<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

My final observation is sociological
\nand has reference to the way people treat those who are unwilling to drink the
\nkool-aid. During the 36 hours when all this was unfolding I was told it was
\ninappropriate for me to e-mail people to warn them about Huckabee. My son was
\ntold by someone that they “felt sorry for him that he had the father he
\nhad,” and the most benign look I seem to get now is one that is quizzical
\nas if somebody is looking at a hunchback cannibal with the remnants of dinner
\nstill wedged between his teeth. Like the human body, a community protects
\nitself by attacking foreign elements that it perceives does not belong there.
\nMuch of the Christian community has decided that Huckabee is the man and woe
\nunto those who suggest that a vote for Huckabee is a vote which is, in reality,
\nprecisely against their best interest.<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

So yes\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I attended a Huckabee rally.<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

And my worst fears were realized.<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

January 21, 2008<\/span><\/em><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

Pastor Bret McAtee [send him mail<\/span><\/a>]
\nwrites on www.ironink.org<\/span><\/a>
\nand is from Charlotte, Michigan where he dwells with his perfect wife, dazzling
\nchildren and where he prays daily for Reformation in the West.<\/span><\/em><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Open Letter to Huckabee Supporters in Behalf of Ron Paul     It’s true. I admit it. It seems I’m a recovering Huckaholic. I attended a “Huckabee for President” campaign rally in St. John’s Michigan last Friday Night. Please don’t hold it against me as it was Huckabee who invaded my space and not the … Continue reading An open letter to Huckabee Supporters in behalf of Ron Paul<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-huckabee-shameful-record","category-presidential-candidates"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}