It takes a scam-artist to know a scam-artist:
An angry Mike Huckabee lashed out at evangelical Christians who declined to back his struggling presidential campaign.
The former Arkansas governor and conservative commentator spoke with his erstwhile colleague Todd Starnes, of Fox News, about his disappointment with the Religious Right establishment, reported Right Wing Watch.
“As I’ve often said, ‘I don’t go to them, I come from them,’ but because of that I do understand them ,” Huckabee said.
Huckabee, who has been criticized for selling his mailing list to quack doctors and conspiracy-mongers, complained that conservative Christian leaders seemed more interested in raising money off anti-abortion hysteria and same-sex marriage fears than actually ending their legal acceptance.
“A lot of them, quite frankly, I think they’re scared to death that if a guy like me got elected, I would actually do what I said I would do, and that is I would focus on the personhood of every individual, we would abolish abortion based on the Fifth and 14th Amendment, we would ignore the Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage decision,” Huckabee said.
Let’s face it. There is absolutely no way that a conservative evangelical Christian fruitcake from Arkansas is ever going to crack the Electoral College puzzle and get elected president. Mike Huckabee knows this. Anyone with even an iota of political savvy knows this.
So, what’s he really angry about? That he’s not getting enough love to keep his gravy train going past Iowa?
I mean, Alan Keyes was always nuts but at least he didn’t lash out at his own kind for not falling for his transparent efforts at grifting.
But Huckabee is correct to identify the plank in his own eye in the eyes of his fellow travelers. For professional victims, there’s no money to be made in actually succeeding.
He’s probably frustrated at the declining clout of RW Christians in the GOP.
It’s kind of lost in the fact that all sectors of the GOP have gone completely nuts regardless of religiosity, but it’s quite telling that Romney and Trump got into their positions without their explicit support. W. Bush and McCain had to lick their boots clean not too long ago.
The best hope that the RW Christians have right now is Ted Cruz. Who, to say the least, likes the concept of theocracy more than the soi disant theocrats. Marco Rubio would normally be a great backup choice but he comes with assorted cultural baggage and the media has been pretty effective in hiding how politically indistinguishable he is from Huckabee.
We once elected an evangelical Christian from Georgia as POTUS. Admittedly he was not a fruitcake.
I think that it’s very bad for the medium-term health of American Christianity that evangelicalism, and Christian for that matter, have become synonymous with bucolic WASP right-wing Christianity.
As a Gnostic Christian who sympathizes more with freethinkers and non-theists than this polity, it’s particularly troubling to me how evangelical Christianity is more-or-less indistinguishable from conservative evangelical Christianity.
It wasn’t very long ago that evangelical Christianity was much more politically diverse and even shaded with liberalism. American Civil Rights probably would’ve never happened without the organizing influence of evangelicalism. So I have a soft spot for it. I greatly resent how the religious right hijacked the movement and if there’s one thing I’m looking forward to it’s watching these pious frauds get knocked off of their thrones. Unfortunately, I don’t think that evangelicalism will survive the transition.
Have you read Fred Clark, AKA Slacktivist? I’m an atheist and I have a lot of respect for him. Before I read him I didn’t know progressive evangelical Christians still existed.
I come from an evangelical family background, and I’ve had to make a total break from my family’s current belief system. It has gotten so polluted by the rightwing hijacking that their beliefs and practices bear almost no resemblance to what I was taught and learned in the churches of my youth.
Frankly, the Family/Fellowship has done a real number on twisting a lot of churches away from the teachings that I remember. Nowadays, too, these churches focus almost exclusively (in my experience) on the vindictive “god” of the Old Testament. The good news of Jesus in the New Testament is barely discussed.
And yes, you’re entirely correct that it wasn’t so long ago that were very liberal shades of the evangelicals who do a lot both for the civil rights movement and the Anti-Viet Nam movement. I can also well remember my former minister and his wife unhesitatingly supporting Roe v. Wade without a qualm.
The rightwing group led by Lee Atwater’s Southern Strategy put paid to that “nonsense” (in their eyes), and the rest is a very sad, sorry history leading to where we’re at today. The only churches that I’ll attend now (other then when I hold my nose and go to my family’s churches when I absolutely have to) are those that are outside the mainstream and usually encompass a variety of belief systems.
Ricky and Huck can start a pity party — “But they really, really liked me the last time I ran. What’s wrong with them now?”
Of course! It’s a con job and has been since the first Babylonian priest convinced some farmers that he was in touch with magical powers and they better give him a big share of their food and labor or he would tell his celestial buddies to put the whammy on them.
Oh, and send their daughters for service as temple whores. That part hasn’t really changed either for these evangelists.
That’s what stood out for me, as well. It’s like Chucklehead didn’t get the memo or something that the RWNJ “leadership” ain’t interested in outlawing abortion or closing down PP. Those services are waaaay more valuable to the RWNJ establishment “leaders” if they’re still legal, up and running. Way easier to grift the rubes.
Like: duh.
Huckabee’s just whining because he thought he’d be further ahead at this point, figuring that he’d still be ca$hing in on that olde timey religiony grift train faking out that he’s “seriously” running for POTUS.
What’s the Huck$ter got going for himself at this point, anyway? Does he still have a shift at Fake Noise? I mean, does he have any visible means of earning a living?? I’m guessing not… Ergo, he’s probably also panicking about money, which is why he’s turning on his base. Scared, cornered animals will do that.
Too bad, so sad, get used to it… LOSER!
First rule of Grift Club: don’t talk about Grift Club.
He’s all about the grift. Gotta keep that RW gravy train running after this political season is over.
OT:They POISONED these people.
POISONED THEM.
………….
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 1/7/16
Water donations run dry in Flint, no action from Governor Snyder
Stephainie Gosk, NBC News correspondent, talks with Rachel Maddow about how the people of Flint have been relying on scarce water donations to replace their toxic water supply as Governor Rick Snyder has increased the amount he’s talking about the crisis without taking any actual short-term action for the people of Flint who are without options.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/flint-water-donations-run-dry–no-state-plan-598134339963
The Huckster is frightened that he might have to go back to preaching and the only place that will accept him is some whacked-out small rural congregation in the Outer Ozarks and Ouachitas. And the Huckster doesn’t do snakes.