The Deplorable Mark Levin

Something pretty deplorable has to be going on for me to agree with Right Wing News, but Mark R. Levin's deplorable piece at The Corner did it.

He has the chutzpah to call Huckabee's campaign deplorable, and quotes the candidate:

"Mike Huckabee: "Many of us who have been Republicans out of conviction . . . the social conservatives," he told reporters, "were welcomed in the party as long as we sort of kept our place, but Lord help us if we ever stood forward and said we would actually like to lead the party."  More here."

Levin concludes his piece by calling "Mike Huckabee's tactics and candidacy" "deplorable."  Levin, who knows a lot about being deplorable, is furious because Huckabee dared to argue that evangelical Christians might be well represented by, well, a Christian evangelical. He actually challenges Christians to believe in the Gospel of Christ, and not the Gospel of Mark R. Levin.

As the N.Y. Times noted, Huckabee explained that he "believed in a Christian obligation to care for prenatal 'life' and also education, health care, jobs, and other aspects of 'life.'" The Gospel according to Mark R. Levin supports only "prenatal life," not life after birth. Christ's gospel strongly supported life after birth, and was far less clear on issues in the womb.

Andrew Sullivan is struck by how "identity politics has suddenly come roaring back in this campaign: gender, race and, of course, religion:"  He then quotes Huckabee:

"For a long time, those of us who are people of faith are asked to support candidates who would come and talk to us. But rarely has there been one who comes from us."

Sullivan, a professional in the field of identity politics, does not seem to be able to understand that Huckabee might be appealing to fundamentalist Christians  not merely because of their shared identity, not just because he is 'one of them", but because he holds similar beliefs. Kind of like people with Republican beliefs tend to vote for Republicans.

Just like his precursors in the late 1960's, when the Republican leadership was happy to count on the vote of the African American, but was unwilling to share a restroom or a lunch counter with them,  Mark R. Levin is furious that the evangelicals dare to want someone who actually believes what they believe. The right have never liked the uppity ones.

(memeorandum)

 

Comments

[Steve J.]

The problem Levin has with Huckabee comes down to values. Huck's populism IS in the Bible (cf. ACTS 4:32-35, 5:1-10)and cutting taxes for the top 1% isn't.

[bbbustard]

Thanks for the comment: Levin knows deplorable, he sees it every morning as he shaves, or brushes his teeth. One of the nastiest players on the right. Really like your site.

[CT-dan]

Concerning your comment: "Just like his precursors in the late 1960's, when the Republican leadership was happy to count on the vote of the African American, but was unwilling to share a restroom or a lunch counter with them..." , may I respectfully suggest that you revisit your history. I know that the MSM pedals these innuendos and impressionable people absorb them, but the media stereotypes are deceitful. Lincoln happened to be a Republican, he's the president who objected to slavery and freed the black slaves. The white slaveholders were for the most part Democrats, your direct ancestors. In the period following the Civil War known as Reconstruction, the Republicans empowered blacks to vote and hold elective office while the White Citizens' Council (WCC) was an American white supremacist organization that tried to deny blacks their political rights. It was manned by Democrats as was also the Ku Klux Klan. Northern Democrats were also by and large not in favor of freeing the slaves and after the war did not oppose in any meaningful way the effort to roll back the clock on black political rights. I know that many Democrats believe that somehow between the 19th century and contemporary times that they magically switched places with the Republicans, but the fact is that the Republicans supported and voted for the civil rights laws of the 1960's to a greater percentage than the Democrats. And also it was still the Democrats running the KKK. In fact Democrats to this day honor Grand Wizard Robert Byrd with a seat in the US Senate. Nor is the campaign of Hillary and Bill very racially enlightened currently. "Liberal"/leftist (not liberal in the Enlightenment sense) intolerance of conservative views, the founding values of our country, and your dishonesty about our history is of the same substance as the fascism of your forbears of the WCC and the KKK.