The Huck Channels Ron Paul

Eve Fairbanks
The New Republic
January 3, 2008

One of Huckabee’s biggest applause lines at his final appearance before the caucuses — onlookers packed a veterans’ center, the crowd was maybe 25% weary journalists — was not about faith or process, but the following:

One thing the government can do is get rid of the current tax code. I want to make sure poor people get at least a shot at getting rich without the government breathing down their necks.

I’d say the only mid-speech cheer that was bigger was for the line, "We must protect the innocent in this country." Now, is Huckabee’s tax plan — which Jon Chait on this site called "crazier, by an order of magnitude, than any other crazy idea I’ve seen at the national level" — really significantly less crazy than Ron Paul’s plan to abolish the IRS? Huckabee gets a lot of love for his tax stance, especially now that his stump speech has cooled it on faith-pimping. His supporters are far from being only home-schoolers with the Jesus fish on the back of their cars. At Huckabee events, you meet a number of fans who are also hot for Paul.

I bring this up neither to defend Paul or yoke Huckabee to some lunatic, but merely to point out that both he and, to some extent, Huckabee have tapped into a huge constitutionalist, limited-government, non-foreign-interventionist sentiment here. (Funny because Huck didn’t start his campaign on a limited-government tack; to the contrary! But I get the sense the Club for Growth attacks on him as a big spender have hardly made a bit of difference.)

As our beloved Talkbacker williamyard put it in comments, Paul is a pretty mockable political vehicle. (It’s soooo fun to talk about the gold standard. And doesn’t he disbelieve evolution?) Try this idea out, though: Barry Goldwater : Ronald Reagan :: Ron Paul : ________.

This isn’t perfectly apt; it’s a little overheated; I doubt history will judge Ron Paul as the fulcrum of a major movement turn like we now see Goldwater. But yesterday I accidentally wandered into a Ron Paul rally on the third floor of my hotel. It was as packed as any Republican event I’ve seen, and the people in attendance looked just like the people at every other Republican event I’ve seen — young, old, dumpy clothes and fancy suits. The simmer that’s bobbed him up to the surface isn’t going away.

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  1. Eric on January 4th, 2008

    You know I was thinking the same thing, I saw him talking about winning the Iowa Caucus and he was saying, “This is a victory for us, not just for me. I am just a representative. This is a victory for the people.” I feel like Ron Paul has been saying that for awhile, how it wasn’t about him it was about freedom. Most politicians are nothing but liars and would change their position on about anything to win a vote. That is why I like Ron Paul because he is actually honest and I feel like what he says he believes, he is not just looking for a vote. It seems like the other candidates want to be like him, so they could get his votes. I feel like he is the only sincere candidate besides Dennis Kucinich. I am hoping people wake up before it is too late, before all the voting machines have become electric and they are owned by corporations that have an interest in making sure a specific candidate wins because he or she is going to help get laws passed that benefit corporations and just destroy the middle class.

  2. Jon on January 4th, 2008

    The latest I heard from Huckabee is “I don’t think it is me. I think it is the message.”

    This guy is a Ron Paul plagerizer!!! He is also considered one of the most corrupt politicians, according to Judicial Watch.

    Hello you Evangelicals?!?!?!?!

    Yes, he has a big heart. But with his demonstrably shallow convictions, will he stick to them?

  3. John K on January 4th, 2008

    Mike Huckabee looks like a Keebler Elf. What is he gonna do give us all free cookies if he gets elected. Our country would be better off electing Charles Manson, ok maybe not Manson. But the point is that Huck a cuck looks like an elf and should stop stealing Ron Pauls ideas. Ron Paul for President in 08

  4. Tim on January 4th, 2008

    Huckabee is a PHONY!!!! He dosen’t even have a theological degree. BUT, HE
    SURE CAN PLAY THE GUITAR!!!!!!!!

  5. Del McReynolds on January 4th, 2008

    People are choosing a person they no nothing about accept what the media wants them to know. This is our last chance to get it right and people are picking who the Media call and show as front runners displayed in commercials advertising upcoming primary elections. Ron Paul is the only candidate that can stop the rape of this Country and nobody cares.
    Ron Paul not only offers “Hope for America”, he is the only “Hope for America”.

  6. Steve on January 4th, 2008

    He can play the guitar well. Shades of Bubba Klinton and the saxaphone. I saw a clip of the Huckster at a rally in N.H. He was going on about self reliance and getting rid of the IRS. I thought I was watching a Dr. Paul rally. I want to see Dr. Paul come in at 2nd or 3rd in N.H. No matter what I want him carrying on the campaign till the very end. Perhaps after that he needs to be convinced that he should consider a indedpendent run. We need to let the estasblishment know that “we the people” are not ging to “go gently into that good night”.

  7. Jim Buckley on January 4th, 2008

    Crazy? Sure. Abolishing the IRS may be crazy in the context of the political class’ usual debate - i.e., should government just spend more or should it spend a _lot_ more? - but put it on the ballot as a national referendum and it would win in a landslide. Does anyone doubt it? That’s why Huckabee stole that idea and threw it out there in a debate. He’d never actually do it, of course, but Dr. Paul would, and no one doubts that, either. Shows you what kind of man each of them is, which is why I’m going to vote the way I am.

  8. Eric on January 5th, 2008

    The ‘Huckster is just that a huckster.

  9. Steve Fye on January 5th, 2008

    Ron Paul is the last honest politician left and I prefer to vote for the real thing rather than someone who says what he knows we want to hear to get our vote.As far as the lying “ordained minister” is conerned,Huckabee can suckamee.Take your stupid Howdy Doody face back to the poorest state in the country(one of the poorest) and go back to your church and prey to your God for forgiveness for your power hungry lies.

  10. David Hudson on January 5th, 2008

    Our Constitution is divided into 2 parts: one which describes the form of our government, and one which describes the very limited authority given the federal government by consent of we the people. The first ten amendments to our Constitution, the Bill of Rights, describe SOME of the rights given by our creator and declared by the Constitution as inalienable. Ron Paul is the ONLY candidate dedicated to following the contract American citizens have with their government….the Constitution. He has the intelligence to understand it, and the integrity to be guided by it. Perhaps we may yet see some of what our nation was meant to become. Ron Paul has my support and my vote.

  11. Nazi-america on January 5th, 2008

    Huckabee plagiating Paul?
    Hasn’t pplanet even reported on a phrase they actually stole from him and posted on Huck’s official website? Something about peace and constitution, something in those lines…
    Fuck you fucking fuckwit, better go fuck yourself. I hope the constitution will rape all these candidates’ anuses once Paul has won -.-

  12. True Character: Highlighting Mike Gravel and Ron Paul « RichVermillion.com on January 7th, 2008

    […] Mike Huckabee, in fact, has recently changed some of his economic/tax rhetoric towards something mor… Nevertheless, only Ron Paul has been studying these issues for fifty years. And he has the twenty-year-long voting record to backup what he says he will endeavor to do. […]

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