Mike Huckabee Wins Conservative Fringe Group's Straw Poll

It used to be that the Powers That Be in the GOP placated and pandered to their base and their fringe groups, merely to get their votes. They threw them red meat, they used coded language, they got the votes, then they did whatever they wanted to do. If you'll notice, abortion is still legal, but that issue is still trotted out, even when it is only tangentially related to whatever issue is being discussed (Sidebar: The Democrats do this with gay rights issues, promising much but usually delivering little).

A political inversion has taken place in recent history, where the fringe sets the agenda, and the politicians are at least on the surface, backing them up. Attempts to distance themselves from them have been tepid, and rarely do they attempt to completely shut the nuts down. And so, many of the most prominent GOP figures are now regularly appearing at the most extreme events, such as The Values Voters Summit. "Values" is a shortening of "traditional family values," a twenty-odd years old code phrase for "we don't like gay people." Actually "family" is as much a code for that as values is. Pick a political/religious group with family in the title, and you can bet that the primary purpose (at least originally) was to fight the advancement of gay rights. Almost always with a Christian fundamentalist slant.

It is discouraging to see that politics is being blended with religion so nakedly. For all of their claims of allegiance to Constitutional intent, they are determined to erase the wall of separation between church and state. Not surprisingly, one of the most overtly religious of the current GOP hopefuls list won the group's Presidential straw poll. For Democrats, this is likely a good thing. I believe Mike Huckabee could actually win a Republican primary. But I have strong doubts that he could win a general election.

[Excerpt]

Huckabee Wins GOP Presidential Poll

A day after former Baptist minister and likely presidential rival Mike Huckabee offered a withering critique of Mitt Romney's record, the former Massachusetts governor made his pitch to the same group of religious conservatives. . .

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