{"id":11724,"date":"2008-02-16T10:37:44","date_gmt":"2008-02-16T17:37:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2008\/02\/16\/the-friends-you-keep-andor-potentially-appoint.html"},"modified":"2014-11-10T16:15:13","modified_gmt":"2014-11-10T23:15:13","slug":"the_friends_you_keep_ando","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/02\/16\/the_friends_you_keep_ando.html","title":{"rendered":"The friends you keep (and\/or potentially appoint)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve commented before that Mike Huckabee seems like an nice, entertaining guy. I’ve enjoyed his appearances on Colbert Report <\/em>and hearing him interviews, and he’d be high on my list (as previously noted) to invite over for a beer.<\/p>\n

BD rightly points out that Dubya got elected on just that sort of personal bonhomie <\/em>(which, I’ve read, is much stronger one-on-one or in small groups, and is a “secret” to his success).<\/p>\n

And in keeping with that, an examination of some of the folks Huckabee hangs out with<\/a>, who may also be fun to tip a brew back with, but who have some pretty scary reconstructionist and domininist religio-political ideas. <\/p>\n

\n

Ideas like the ones some of Huckabee’s supporters hold stem from two radical doctrines, reconstructionism and dominionism. As Conason writes, these ideas come down to “the notion that America, indeed every nation on earth, is meant to be governed by biblical law.” Additionally, they stem from a belief that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, then betrayed by secular humanist liberals who created a myth of separation of church and state in the 20th century, leading the country to immorality and godlessness, and that the United States must be taken back by Christians. Some of the proponents of this idea are unashamed about using the word “theocracy” to describe their goal. The most radical among them — including two of the movement’s leading lights and progenitors, R.J. Rushdoony and his son-in-law Gary North — advocate a return to the practice of stoning as a method of execution, and expanding this death sentence to the crimes of homosexuality, blasphemy and cursing one’s parents.<\/p>\n

One of the early organizations to promote reconstructionist ideas was the Coalition on Revival. Rushdoony and North were members of its steering committee. In 1986, two years after its founding, the group produced “A Manifesto for the Christian Church,”<\/a> which says, among other things, “[The] Bible is the only absolute, objective, final test for all truth claims … The Bible is not only God’s statements to us regarding religion, salvation, eternity, and righteousness, but also the final measurement and depository of certain fundamental facts of reality and basic principles that God wants all mankind to know in the spheres of law, government, economics, business, education, arts and communication, medicine, psychology, and science.” The group also released 17 tracts laying out its prescription for what the “Christian Worldview” should be on topics from government to law, medicine, family and economics. The introduction to these states, “We believe America can be turned around and once again function as a Christian nation as it did in its earlier years. We believe that wherever the pastors of any city in the world join together in unity to make Christ Lord of every sphere of life, and, with Spirit-led strategy, mobilize their people into a unified spiritual army; that city can and will become ‘a city set upon a hill.'”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I worry a scosh about judging a person too <\/em>much by some of the folks who support or hang out with him (cf. all the conservative blogosphere’s current outrage over some Obama supporters wearing Che Guevara shirts), but it’s something to examine critically (does this reflect the person’s thinking? is this person likely to call on these people for advice, support, or even to serve in office?). Most candidates are only one or two degrees of separation from some real nuts. Heck, most of us probably are.<\/p>\n

Still — remember this when McCain picks Huckabee for VP — or, at the very least, actively courts his support once the nomination is sewn up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve commented before that Mike Huckabee seems like an nice, entertaining guy. I’ve enjoyed his appearances on Colbert Report and hearing him interviews, and he’d be high on my list…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[715,54,27,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime-punishment","category-elections-2008","category-religion","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":128305,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/13\/mike-huckabee-is-a-dolt.html","url_meta":{"origin":11724,"position":0},"title":"Mike Huckabee is a dolt","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 13-Oct-15 10:55pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Mike Huckabee is a dolt And not many years of avuncular Daily Show appearances can overcome that. https:\/\/twitter.com\/PoliticalLine\/status\/654117563115393024 View on Twitter","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40863,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/01\/24\/huckabee-do-as-i-say-not-as-i-did.html","url_meta":{"origin":11724,"position":1},"title":"Huckabee: "Do As I Say, Not As I Did"","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 24-Jan-14 11:28am","format":false,"excerpt":"'Women I know are outraged that the Democrats think that women are nothing more than helpless and hopeless creatures whose only goal in life is to have the government provide for them birth control medication.'Because when a governor in 2005 supports and signs a bipartisan bill that mandates contraceptive coverage\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128094,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/20\/governor-huckabee-is-outraged-outraged-that-a-gay-man-can-lead-the-army.html","url_meta":{"origin":11724,"position":2},"title":"Governor Huckabee is outraged, OUTRAGED, that a gay man can lead the army","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 20-Sep-15 9:28am","format":false,"excerpt":"Mike Huckabee is not happy about the president's nomination of Eric Fanning as the next Secretary of the Army. No, not happy at all (https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/mikehuckabee\/posts\/10153290377432869):'It's clear President Obama is more interested in appeasing America's homosexuals than honoring America's heroes. Veterans suicide is out-of-control and military readiness is dangerously low, yet\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/o-MIKE-HUCKABEE-facebook5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/o-MIKE-HUCKABEE-facebook5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/o-MIKE-HUCKABEE-facebook5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":17789,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/06\/unblogged-bits-tue-6-jul-10-0801.html","url_meta":{"origin":11724,"position":3},"title":"Unblogged Bits (Tue. 6-Jul-10 0801)","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 6-Jul-10 6:01am","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... Big oil avoiding new taxes when they currently get away with fiscal murder - You know, for all the nattering about how we must REDUCE THE DEFICIT, removing some of these ridiculous tax breaks\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12861,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/09\/16\/its_gods_purpose_so_its_m.html","url_meta":{"origin":11724,"position":4},"title":"It’s God’s purpose, so it’s my purpose, so it should be your purpose, too!","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 16-Sep-08 2:37pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Mike Huckabee seems like a pretty pleasant guy, and I'd invite him over for dinner at the drop of a hat. That said, he should stop screwing around in...","rel":"","context":"In "LGBTQ &c"","block_context":{"text":"LGBTQ &c","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gay-stuff"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/marriage.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":49576,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/13\/huckabee-happy-wedding-days-and-the-holocaust.html","url_meta":{"origin":11724,"position":5},"title":"Huckabee, Happy Wedding Days, and the Holocaust","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 13-Feb-15 8:06am","format":false,"excerpt":"So the headline belowis a bit misleading, as Huckabee didn't actually say that. Precisely. He didn't, at least in the quoted passage, attribute to King any opinion whatsoever about gay marriage.Instead, he quoted from King's \"Letter from the Birmingham Jail\" about civil disobedience, in the context of attacking those gosh-darn\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11724"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47883,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11724\/revisions\/47883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}