Huckabee slick as an oilfield
by digby
Mike Huckabee remains the most unctuous piece of work in the Republican field (and that’s saying something.) Evidently too afraid to offend the white supremacists he counts on voting for him, he dodged a weaved like Muhammed Ali on the confederate flag issue on This Week this morning. He’s one of the best.
But then he refused to say whether he believes in climate change and chastised “the left” for embracing the Pope’s encyclical on climate change while refusing to believe his edicts on abortion. And yes, one might turn the argument back on him and ask why “the right” believes his edicts on abortion and rejects his encyclical on climate change. But that would be missing the point, wouldn’t it?
The point is that “the left” broadly speaking doesn’t make its decisions on these issues on the basis of what the pope says about anything. Perhaps liberal Catholics do and I’d suggest he take it up with them. The difference here is that the right is the faction that insists religion guide our civic life. If there’s an inconsistency it’s theirs not ours.
I’m happy to have the Pope using his pulpit to educate people about climate change. But I don’t have any inconsistency where the pope is concerned because my beliefs are not contingent on what he thinks. He’s just another ally on a discrete issue. Like Rand Paul on civil liberties. Huckabee and his rightwing cohort are the ones who have embraced Catholicism as fellow wingnut travellers over the past few decades are the ones who make “Judeo-Christian” ethics the centerpiece of their entire worldview. Its their problem.
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