Christopher Hitchens nails it in this article.
Gov. Mike Huckabee made the following unambiguously racist and demagogic appeal in Myrtle Beach, S.C., last week:
You don't like people from outside the state coming in and telling you what to do with your flag. In fact, if somebody came to Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag, we'd tell 'em what to do with the pole; that's what we'd do.
This is a straightforward racist appeal for the following reasons:
1) The South Carolina flag is a perfectly nice flag, featuring the palmetto plant, about which no "outsider" has ever offered any free advice.
2) The Confederate battle flag, to which Gov. Huckabee was alluding, was first flown over the South Carolina state capitol in 1962, as a deliberately belligerent riposte to the civil rights movement, and is not now, and never has been, the flag of that great state.
3) By a vote of both South Carolina houses in the year 2000, the Confederate battle flag ceased to be flown over the state capitol and now only waves (as quite possibly it should) over the memorial to fallen Confederate soldiers.
Thus, as well as crassly behaving exactly like someone “from outside the state coming in and telling you what to do with your flag,” former Gov. Huckabee of Arkansas deliberately aligned himself with the rancorous minority who are still not reconciled to the idea that South Carolina may not officially consecrate racism and slavery and secession. “Your flag”? What an insult, not just to the descendants of slavery but to the many, many other loyalists and Unionists who fought and died to bring their state back into the Union. And what is the point of the “outside the state” slur? Wasn’t this exactly what Gov. Orval Faubus of Arkansas used to say, as if to make it seem that all was hunky-dory in his own tight little dominion until them goddam “outside agitators” arrived? In the end, as Gov. Huckabee may or may not recall, the 101st Airborne Division, most of them “outsiders” not from Arkansas, had to be sent by a Republican president to integrate the schools of Little Rock. That was a lot of trouble and expense that the big-mouth rednecks put us all to, but it was worth it. It’s insufferable to hear this glib idiot make a mockery of it now in order to try to get the Klan vote in South Carolina.
We all knew that Huckabee was a homophobe and an anti-science idoit. Now we know that he is willing to make blatant appeals to racist sentiment. Too bad the media is hardly covering this story.
Fuck Huckabee and anyone that would support him.
i wonder if any fat people will vote for him.
Depends on the size of the vo…tin…ah, fuck it.
If they do, can we call them disgusting?
Fat people can’t vote. They can’t fit in the booths, and their fat fingers can’t avoid pressing multiple selections on the touch screens.
Now that you mention it, I remember seeing a clip of that. It is kind of amazing that a bigger deal was not made of it.
I can’t believe no one is making a big deal of the fact that his son tortured and killed a dog for fun.
El_Gui
January 22, 2008, 1:19am
9
Hmm. I wonder if this will get as much attention as that phony race war between the pro-Hillary and pro-Obama camps?
This being a “liberal” media and all, I’m sure it will!
<snark>
And, it looks like Huckabee gave a videotaped speech to the Council of Conservative Citizens, formerly known as the infamous White Citizens Councils of the 1960’s.
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Huckabee_gave_speech_to_white_supremacists_0118.html
This guy is nutty.
But he’s the anointed of Jay-sus, and that’s all that really counts.
-Joe
Uh oh. You do know that Chuck Norris is gonna come after you now, don’t you?http://www.chuck4huckbbq.com/ )
athelas
January 22, 2008, 1:24am
12
Phony in the sense that it ain’t happenin’, or in that what the camps are saying is bollocks?
El_Gui
January 22, 2008, 1:28am
13
Phony in the sense that I feel like it was mostly a media driven bullshit of a story.
He’s a pussy. John McCain is gonna send his 95-year-old mother to wash his mouth out with soap .
You’ve got it all wrong, man. Seriously. The Dems can still screw this up. Except if Huckabee gets the nomination. Even Edwards could beat him.
Of course, it’s also rich that he resents anybody coming in to an individual state and telling them what to do with their flag.
But let a state decide on its own how to handle, say, abortions or gay marriage?
DANGER! DANGER!
Can’t have any of that! Time for a Constitutional Amendment! :rolleyes:
Oh, good, a chance to link to one of my favorite *Onion * photos:
Georgia Adds Swastika, Middle Finger To State Flag
monstro
January 22, 2008, 3:01am
19
I’m SO glad he has no chance in hell of winning.
Well, dang, he just lost my vote.