Sherry Chandler

Duelling Evangelists

Mike Huckabee is a real evangelist. His are the strengths and weaknesses of a real evangelist. He’s smart and quick-witted. Maybe even wily (as in let me show you this negative ad I’m not going to run against Romney). Compassionate probably, with a belief in the possibility of redemption for everyone, as long as redemption takes a form he recognizes.

But he has his limits and blind spots. I would never want him to be president of the United States. I think he was right when he said Jesus Christ was too smart to run for political office. Although I’m not sure about the word smart. Perhaps the word should be wise. Religion and politics don’t mix. Shouldn’t mix.

I think both Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush have shown us that, though I hate to use their names in the same sentence.

Still, I appreciate what Huckabee is doing in showing us that George Bush (et al.) is a fake evangelist. Bush (Romney/Guiliani) is at heart a Wall Street Republican, a son of wealth who believes in his own privilege most of all. When he tries to walk the walk, what we get is swagger. When he tries to talk the talk, what we get is smirk. Enough to fool some of the people some of the time.

(When I look at Romney’s fake smile, I see Basil Fawlty, trying to remain congenial and keep a lid on his volcano of temper while all his best-laid plans crumble.)

And I appreciate the ways in which Huckabee is gaming the political system that has been exploiting people like him for decades. His Chuck Norris ad is a beautiful piece of post-modernism that works as political satire while also giving him a Chuck Norris endorsement. Though he appeared on Leno, he’s a Dave-Letterman sort of politician.

Huckabee is refreshing.

He is everything that made me leave the evangelical church behind and everything that makes me want to defend it from those on both sides who want to turn it into a cliché.

And he is creating a fair amount of schadenfreude among liberal bloggers. See, among others, Jane Hamsher on Huckabee and Limbaugh (another fake populist), Kevin Drum, Lance Mannion, who’s pretty smart about the dynamic of the “Southern Strategy.”

As for Barack Obama, I see in his campaign style also a good bit of the evangelist. It’s what an evangelist does, after all. He brings the “good news.” He’s an orator. Martin Luther King, Jr. was an evangelist, after all. Bill Clinton had a little evangelist in him.

Obama, our latest Kennedy clone, is bringing us the feel-good message of liberal humanism and American exceptionalism, sending out code words to the right (social security) and to the left (against the war) without being any too specific about what he stands for.

We, the people, love this message and we buy it over and over again. Sometimes to our good, sometimes not.

So, the way I see it right now, we have a race of two populist evangelicals. Not necessarily a bad thing. We could use some fresh faces in politics, a leader needs passion and charisma, and the people need some attention after decades of Reaganism.

But charisma is from the shadow side.

Best to remember that.

Meanwhile, Kevin Drum also puts his finger on what it is that makes me root for Hillary when I’m not really all that enthusiastic about the prospect of another Clinton presidency:

As long as we’re laying our cards on the table, this is one of the things that keeps me on Hillary’s side regardless of anything to do with issues or tactics or rhetoric or anything else. I just hate the idea that the fever swamp has been able to turn a perfectly decent liberal woman into such an object of malign loathing. If she loses, then she loses. But by God, I don’t want her to lose because millions of Schiffren’s fellow travelers have carried on a 15-year vendetta of sick-minded smears and hatred. Enough’s enough.

He is speaking here of this, from Dan Quayle speech-writer Lisa Schifferen at the National Review Online.

Possibly related posts:

Romney’s Mormonism

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And again, it’s class

Gonzalez

Above the Law?

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