Mike Huckabee is a moron

Failed Repubican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, out hawking a book, has been taking the opportunity to promote hatred and bigotry along with sales. That’s not unusual for the slickest snakeoil salesman the far right christianists have.

Huckabee has already said that gay people don’t deserve human rights because the body count isn’t high enough: Not enough gay people have been attacked or killed for them to have earned human and civil rights. He says black people didn’t choose to be black, after all.

Mike is a moron.

Religion is 100% choice and it gets—and all the Huckabees of America demand—special rights. But sexual orientation is not a choice—that’s a rightwing myth. There’s ample scientific evidence to prove that sexual orientation is an innate characteristic. You can’t argue that with the Huckster, though, because he and his far right christianist buddies don’t believe in science (Huck believes the world is about 6,000 years old, remember). Which brings me back to religion: If the Huckster thinks that gay people don’t deserve equality because of their “choice”, then fine: Neither do religious people.

Huckabee bleats on and on and on and on about marriage being between one man one woman for 5,000 years. Uh, no, Mike, that’s a total lie: 5,000 years ago polygamy was quite common. Mike says that marriage is about proceation. No, Mike, that’s just plain stupid: There are plenty of married couples who never have children, by choice or circumstance. And, by the way, there are gay couples who do have children, but in 48 states those parents don’t have the legal protection of marriage.

Mike whines, if same-sex marriage is legal, you’d have to legalise all other sorts of marriage—like the man with 49 wives!! Uh, why, exactly? Contrary to your propaganda, gay people are NOT redefining marriage: We, too, see it as the legal union of two people who love one another and are committed to each other. All we are seeking is the legal equality that all citizens deserve as a birthright.

Is it just about that word? No. Huckabee and his ilk want to deny all legal recognition to same-sex couples—and they have the gall to say they’re not homophobic. Sure some of them say they may, quite possibly, be willing to allow us to have a few privileges, like hospital visitation. Maybe. I’ve got news for the Huckster: Equal means equal. You cannot pretend to believe that all people are born equal and then put an asterisk on that. In America, marriage conveys instant, transferrable rights that some “separate but not really equal” creation doesn’t and can’t. If there was a single, universally recognised form of marriage without the word, like New Zealand has, maybe we could talk.

Mike is probably the most dangerous extremist christianist in America, precisely because he doesn’t seem like it. His easy-going demeanour, his attempts to sound reasonable make the threat he poses seem less serious than it is. The book he’s been hawking is all about forcing the Republican Party to adopt a christo-fascist agenda (which means a fascist agenda using extremist Christian fundamentalism). It’s been well documented that Huckabee wants a far-right christianist theocracy in America (like, for example, when he said America should be run according to “God’s law”—you know, like the Taliban or Iran).

If Mike Huckabee really believes the homophobic lies and nonsense he spouts, then he’s a moron. But if he’s using gay people in a cynical ploy to become president, he’s despicable. Either way, he’s no “man of God”. It’s time more people started speaking that truth.

Update: For more on Huckabee’s nonsense, and the first strong example I’ve seen of someone calling him on it, check out the clip from “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” (the link is to Joe.My.God, because the website for The Daily Show doesn’t yet have a separate link to the video. Besides, this is where I saw it.)