"US AGAINST THEM!"
At Mike Huckabee’s rally on campus yesterday, that was the slogan on the flip side of the “I LIKE MIKE” signs. No one clarified the antecedents of those objective pronouns, but if “US” are bass-fishing, grits eating, SEC football loving Republicans who still get mushy over Lynyrd Skynyrd, then we can extrapolate the rest. I assume those are the “us,” because those were people he expressly addressed during the rally. My working theory was that “them” refers to terrorists who would destroy our way of life and give us Fridays off, but one of my law prof colleagues thinks that “us” refers to Christians and that “them” refers to the secular, liberal hordes. Either way, the slogan uplifts the spirit, no?
To carry that theme out a bit more, at one point the Governor said that he was running to be president of everybody, “from Wall Street Republicans, to Wal-Mart Republicans.” Then, he moved onto a different point, whereupon the law student to my right said, “And to hell with the Democrats.” The one on my left then starting yelling, “States’ Rights!” They’re hilarious, especially the HU alum sporting the Ron Paul threads.
The Governor gave a passing speech to satisfy the base and those to whom he is campaigning, although his message did not convince me that he really wants the job.
He made some headlines in Huntsville, calling out McCain and Romney, but in Montgomery he only mentioned Romney as “one of my opponents” and addressed McCain not at all. Very strange to me, Huckabee said not a thing about the war in Iraq. He talked about the threat of terrorism a little bit and segued into immigration a lot, but no war. I understand that Bush’s war is a bit of an albatross for the Republicans. Either you embrace it as McCain does or you try to deflect it or explain it, but to ignore it altogether when running for Commander-in-Chief is odd, at least, fearful, at worst.
Increasingly strange to me, the latter, former Governor from Hope reprised his line about “not allowing the federal government to tell you how to raise your children,” to thunderous applause. Although I can support the premise, my family must not be on the mailing list of the Department of Health and Human Services’s Parenting Administration, because no agent, judge or official ever has suggested to us how to rear our daughters.
Governor Huckabee seems uninterested in building any sort of coalition of voters beyond his base of white, working - to middle-class social conservatives, and he surely does not expect to win the nomination. He hustled in Alabama yesterday though, and I hope his efforts bear fruit for him here. Our university benefited from the campaign stop, so I begrudge him no Republican delegates in our fair state.
Alabama will support him, too, because Chuck repelled in from the roof of the gym, without a rope, using only his belt and shoe-laces to get him within 60 feet of the floor. But that’s all he needed.
From “US AGAINST THEM!” to “YES, WE CAN!” I direct you to this fine piece of campaign literature and humbly suggest that this is a much better way to use the Bully Pulpit:
(Thanks, ME.)
Vote on Tuesday.
To carry that theme out a bit more, at one point the Governor said that he was running to be president of everybody, “from Wall Street Republicans, to Wal-Mart Republicans.” Then, he moved onto a different point, whereupon the law student to my right said, “And to hell with the Democrats.” The one on my left then starting yelling, “States’ Rights!” They’re hilarious, especially the HU alum sporting the Ron Paul threads.
The Governor gave a passing speech to satisfy the base and those to whom he is campaigning, although his message did not convince me that he really wants the job.
He made some headlines in Huntsville, calling out McCain and Romney, but in Montgomery he only mentioned Romney as “one of my opponents” and addressed McCain not at all. Very strange to me, Huckabee said not a thing about the war in Iraq. He talked about the threat of terrorism a little bit and segued into immigration a lot, but no war. I understand that Bush’s war is a bit of an albatross for the Republicans. Either you embrace it as McCain does or you try to deflect it or explain it, but to ignore it altogether when running for Commander-in-Chief is odd, at least, fearful, at worst.
Increasingly strange to me, the latter, former Governor from Hope reprised his line about “not allowing the federal government to tell you how to raise your children,” to thunderous applause. Although I can support the premise, my family must not be on the mailing list of the Department of Health and Human Services’s Parenting Administration, because no agent, judge or official ever has suggested to us how to rear our daughters.
Governor Huckabee seems uninterested in building any sort of coalition of voters beyond his base of white, working - to middle-class social conservatives, and he surely does not expect to win the nomination. He hustled in Alabama yesterday though, and I hope his efforts bear fruit for him here. Our university benefited from the campaign stop, so I begrudge him no Republican delegates in our fair state.
Alabama will support him, too, because Chuck repelled in from the roof of the gym, without a rope, using only his belt and shoe-laces to get him within 60 feet of the floor. But that’s all he needed.
From “US AGAINST THEM!” to “YES, WE CAN!” I direct you to this fine piece of campaign literature and humbly suggest that this is a much better way to use the Bully Pulpit:
(Thanks, ME.)
Vote on Tuesday.
posted by JRB at 3:31 PM
6 Comments:
Just caught the last half of Huck's speech on C-SPAN. Let me tell you that the "I like Mike" was no where in view, only the "US AGAINST THEM".
So, that was Chuck that I saw there bobbin' his head on stage left!
The Advertiser article I linked to says that those signs were "locally produced" and that the Governor didn't know who "they" are. Is it is a bigger problem that he is campaigning with such Fear of the Other or that his campaign doesn't know what their own signs say?
FU ON C-SPAN! As I live and breathe. . .
I was there, witnessed the whole thing and, well, just have to shrug.
This is tough politics time...where EVERY candidate is pulling out questionable tactics and the like.
Nobody has the high ground because, ultimately, every single candidate from both parties in this election has decided that getting the nomination trumps losing while remaining on the high ground.
Of course, this is no surprise because it is our American political history. While the level and degree of tactic may vary, no major candidate has every really declined to use them.
In this case, there were some Huckabee signs that said "Us Against Them". I'm not voting for the Huck, but I still say "big deal" (indeed, in an amoral political way, its a very clever sign as it can be construed to his potential voters--one of which wouldn't have included you in the first place--in a variety of potentially appealing ways).
But, alas, there is one thing that we will again learn this Tuesday:
No major candidate comes to us with clean hands. We are only left to decide which brand of dirt we can most overlook as we press the button, pull the lever, or pick our chad and hope it doesn't dangle.
Chad, I didn't suggest that the slogan was underhanded or dirty. It is, however, not clever and is self-destructive for the campaign, especially for a candidate running to an increasingly small corner of the electorate. The Rise of the Right is over, and the Rovian scare tactics have stumbled out of every gate in this cycle. It's a miscalculation, and it actually runs counter to Huck's initial strategy and tone when he entered the race.
What strikes me more and more, though, is not the poor slogan but that the campaign let it show up without their knowledge, as the the MA article suggests, especially if they had any notion than C-SPAN or anyone else would run with it all weekend.
"Self-destructive"?
Yeah, I guess if he was in McCain or Romney's position (i.e. had a real chance to win the nomination).
But, the reality for the Huck is that the best he can hope for is to win a few more states that have traditional, conservative voting blocs.
And, many in those blocs continue to few things as "Us Against Them" when it comes to the government (ex: the expansionist interpretation of the Establishment Clause).
Secularists obviously won't find the message appealing but those type folks weren't going to support him anyway.
He's looking for the 30 and some percent of voters to get him a win in a place like Alabama who don't readily and completely separate church and state because, at this stage, that's all he can get.
I used to work with Chip Saltsman, Huck's campaign chief, and Chip's a very comprehensive guy. I strongly doubt that those professionally designed signs just happened to end up in the audience at Faulkner.
I'm sure he's done a good job.
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