In fairness I must
agree with Prof. K. that Huckabee's re-formulation of his understanding of the amendment process passes muster. As a matter of political strategy, I think Fred Thompson's understanding that as President you do more to advance the social issues agenda by calling attention to it and taking the small steps you can take in 4 years than by contenting yourself with support for an amendment process in which you have no role. At this stage in the game, we shouldn't be focusing on amendments. But I will even concede that Huckabee's understanding of the matter is better than Fred's, at least as expressed here:
if Roe v. Wade is overturned, we haven’t won the battle. All we’ve done is now we’ve created the logic of the Civil War, which says that the right to the human life is geographical, not moral. I think that’s very problematic. That’s why I think that people like Fred Thompson are dead wrong when he says just leave that up to the states. Well, that’s again the logic of the Civil War – that slavery could be okay in Georgia but not okay in Massachusetts. Obviously we’d today say, “Well, that’s nonsense. Slavery is wrong, period.” It can’t be right somewhere and wrong somewhere else. Same with abortion.
I'm not so content with this comment, however.
it’s not a matter that we’re going to become left-wingers. I don’t think that at all. I think taking care of the earth is a matter of stewardship. It’s not about global warming, it’s about stewardship and responsibility. Things like hunger and homelessness. And it’s not about having a government program, it’s about simply reminding each of us as individual citizens that this is an area of our own responsibility. At my own church… our church is very, very engaged in everything from dealing with hunger, poverty, and we reach out to a lot of people. We don’t ask the government to do it. We do it ourselves as a church. It’s part of our ministry. The only reason the government would get involved would be that the other social institutions – primarily the family the church the neighborhood – failed. If the family or church does its own work and does it well, then there’s no reason for government to ever get into these things at all. The ideal is that they wouldn’t, that they’ll do a lousy job of it
generally.
Sounds good. But I fear (a fear substantiated by his record in Arkansas and the things he advocates on the stump) that Huckabee would be quite quick on the trigger in deciding that individuals and institutions have failed or are failing and therefore government should step in. I need to hear some specifics about how we enable the mediating institutions to do their work, primarily by getting the government regulationcrats out of the way. (Please don't tell me about the Fair Tax and abolishing the IRS, which can't be done in 4 years, even if it's a good idea, which I doubt.)
