As evidenced by his speech just the other evening, it would seem that presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee is unfamiliar with the founding fathers’ desire to create and maintain a separation of church and state.
Apart from the usual rhetoric that accompanies such speeches, Huckabee made very specific comments to his desire to revise and amend the constitution, with provisions defining marriage and a human life amendment (that would presumably ban abortion).
There’s not much I feel the need to add here, as it should be fairly obvious that Huckabee’s proposals fly directly in the face of the founders’ desire to create a free country where religion played no part in dictating or governing civil liberties. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness take many forms for many people, and so long as those choices do not infringe on another’s rights to do the same, or cause harm to someone else, they should not be restricted. It seems obvious to me (though some may disagree) that marriage falls into each of those categories (life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness), and that marriage between two individuals of the same sex in no way infringes on the rights and privileges of others to exercise their freedom to get married (or not).
Huckabee is, of course, speaking directly to the ultra-conservative Christian voter, of which there are many. But that number in no way represents the majority. They are instead a vocal minority who receive a great deal of press time. And the simplest reason for that is because the “squeaky wheel gets the grease.” He who yells the loudest will be heard, right?
Turning out the vote in recent years has seemed to center around pissing off your base enough (and directing that anger at the other guy) that they can’t help but get off the couch and vote. The Democratic party seems to be below average when it comes to doing this, which may be why you don’t see a whole lot of grass-roots groups forming to get the vote out for their candidate or candidates. For every 1 liberal organization led by or comprised of potential Democratic voters, there are 50 fire-and-brimstone organizations protesting everything from the sexual content of Disney channel shows to the need for “intelligent design” field trips and text book content. It would seem, from the outside at least, that every churchgoer with a grudge is mailing flyers and leading protests outside movie theaters, schools, grocery stores and the like.
Huckabee, and his followers/supporters, are entitled to their beliefs, to be sure. However, when those beliefs are used as a justification for taking away the rights of other free citizens, it seems obvious that Mr. Huckabee would prefer he didn’t live in a free country at all. And there are plenty of countries in the world where he can move if truly seeking a lack of freedom.
