ActiveFaith.us
I was having a discussion this week with my radio show guest, Michael Miller, Director of Education at the Acton Institute, about the economic views and policies of the Republican candidates for president. (It was fairly easy to dismiss all of the Democrat candidates’ views on economics: “socialism.”) During the conversation, I stumbled upon a description of Ron Paul that I hadn’t thought of before: the “anti-Huckabee.”
What do I mean? Well, we know that Ron Paul is a “little l” libertarian. Libertarianism is commonly described as being “conservative on economic issues” and “liberal on social issues.” (I’m specifically talking about national policy-making issues here - in other words, what role does the national government have to play in these areas?) So, when it comes to social issues, Ron Paul is a strong advocate of the national civil government playing only a very small role and allowing states and localities to make those decisions; and on economic issues, the national government should keeps its “hands off” and allow the free market to have its beneficial effect.
Fair enough; a lot of evangelical Christians should be able to support that view, at least on most issues (if they know their Bibles, that is). So what about former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee? After all, we’re starting to see a lot of evangelicals flock to him; where does he stand?
He’s got a pretty conservative stance on most social issues like abortion, marriage, family, etc. In fact, the policies he’s advocating (at least now that he’s running for president) promote a strong role for the federal government to play in advocating for those causes.
But on economic issues, as I noted in a previous post, Huckabee falls far to the “left” -- to the point of being called a “Christian socialist,” at least on economics. The economic policies he advocates promote a strong role for the federal government in “stimulus” as well as welfare spending (and taxing to pay for it all).
So... Mike Huckabee is liberal on economic policy issues, and conservative on social policy issues; and Ron Paul is conservative on economic policy issues, and liberal on social policy issues. (Put more simply, Huckabee is a big government Republican, and Paul is a limited government Republican.)
Thus, I stumbled upon this new moniker for Ron Paul: “The Anti-Huckabee.” Feel free to use it wherever applicable. Just be sure to link back here. :)
William Greene is the author of Christian Political Activism: Biblical Principles for Active Faith, a “work in progress.” Read the latest chapters at ActiveFaith.us.
“ Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” (2 Corinthians 3:17)
Friday, January 18, 2008
Ron Paul: The “Anti-Huckabee”?
