If McCain secures the Republican nomination, we will of course have Mike Huckabee to blame. The Huckster has succeeded in drawing just enough support in key states to split the conservative vote and to make a McCain nomination seem inevitable. If McCain puts this thing out of reach today, history will remember Mike Huckabee as the man who prevented conservatives from placing a conservative at the head of the Republican ticket in 2008.
But what if Mitt Romney pulls this off? Suppose Mitt today wins California, Georgia, Massachusetts, and pulls an upset in one more state (Tennessee? Missouri?). Suppose Mitt then carries that momentum into Louisiana, Washington, Kansas, and beyond. Supppose Mitt wins the nomination. What will Mike Huckabee's legacy be in that case?
Unfortunately, the media have been portraying Huckabee as the new political spokesman for the evangelical movement. This is unfortunate and unfair. Huckabee does not in fact represent evangelicals, he merely represents one of the two distasteful elements in evangelicalism: the Know Nothings. But because we evangelicals are a rather egalitarian lot, and have no official spokespersons, this is an area in which perception matters at least as much as reality. So if the world perceives that Mike Huckabee represents evangelicals then Mike Huckabee does, for all practical purposes, represent evangelicals.
And what if the world perceives that, despite their best efforts, supporters of Mike Huckabee failed to prevent Mitt Romney from securing the nomination? In that instance, evangelicals appear not merely to be morons but politically inept morons.
Now, I point out this Hobson's choice not because I care one whit about Mike Huckabee's legacy. (In all events, I am still holding out hope for a Romney victory, and will do so until he concedes.) I make this point only to demonstrate some of the damage that Huckabee has caused to evangelicalism. More on the implications of this damage in Part II, to come.
But what if Mitt Romney pulls this off? Suppose Mitt today wins California, Georgia, Massachusetts, and pulls an upset in one more state (Tennessee? Missouri?). Suppose Mitt then carries that momentum into Louisiana, Washington, Kansas, and beyond. Supppose Mitt wins the nomination. What will Mike Huckabee's legacy be in that case?
Unfortunately, the media have been portraying Huckabee as the new political spokesman for the evangelical movement. This is unfortunate and unfair. Huckabee does not in fact represent evangelicals, he merely represents one of the two distasteful elements in evangelicalism: the Know Nothings. But because we evangelicals are a rather egalitarian lot, and have no official spokespersons, this is an area in which perception matters at least as much as reality. So if the world perceives that Mike Huckabee represents evangelicals then Mike Huckabee does, for all practical purposes, represent evangelicals.
And what if the world perceives that, despite their best efforts, supporters of Mike Huckabee failed to prevent Mitt Romney from securing the nomination? In that instance, evangelicals appear not merely to be morons but politically inept morons.
Now, I point out this Hobson's choice not because I care one whit about Mike Huckabee's legacy. (In all events, I am still holding out hope for a Romney victory, and will do so until he concedes.) I make this point only to demonstrate some of the damage that Huckabee has caused to evangelicalism. More on the implications of this damage in Part II, to come.
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