David

Karki

Read Davids bio and previous columns here

January 7, 2008

Obama and Huckabee in Iowa: Oprah vs. ‘Jesus’

The Iowa caucus results are in, and about the only solid conclusion that can be drawn from them is what Minnesotans like me have known and joked about for years: Iowans are morons.

I know that sounds rough, but what else can you say about a state that selects one candidate backed and bankrolled by Oprah Winfrey and another simply because he purportedly waves Jesus in everyone's face, all the better to hide his awful record? And when the alternative is to realize that this is precisely how far our political discourse has fallen – that substance and maturity and leadership are no longer desired, so much so that they are virtually an automatic disqualifier – how can anyone do anything but hope and pray that such myopia is limited to the land of corn and pigs?

About the only good thing that came from this ridiculous circus is that Hillary! might just not win the Democrat nomination after all. For all I completely disagree with Barack Obama on – which is, well, everything – if he can do America the yeoman's service of ridding us of the Clintons once and for all, I will hold him in high regard. And we all would owe him great thanks.

Having said that, disposing of Hillary! only to elect another phony Arkansas governor would be the epitome of both pointlessness and stupidity. It is staggering to me to see so many Iowans fall for Mike Huckabee's words when his actions are so completely liberal. Handing him the GOP presidential nomination would surely be death for the party, as his leftist track record would disgust the conservative base.

And his wrapping of that leftism in what he views Christianity to be would put off the secular center-left he thinks he'd gain. (Never mind that Huckabee's Christian Socialism, or Evangelical Liberalism, or whatever the heck you call it isn't close to the genuine article. And as one myself, I resent his use of it to promote a near-totalitarianism that is the antithesis of what Jesus Christ has called us individually – not collectively – to be and to do.)

By the way, can we please stop referring to this as “populism”? That is quickly becoming the most fraudulent word in the English language today. Be it scumbag trial lawyer John Edwards spewing hate at corporations or Huckabee playing religious identity politics, “populism” is just a euphemism for pandering to the absolute worst feelings of people, be that jealousy, envy, bigotry or what have you. It is lowest-common-denominator politics, and it is simply obscene. And that so many have fallen for it hook, line and sinker is a frightening and dangerous thing. It causes me to fear for my country's future.

There is still good reason to believe that Iowa will not be a bellwether; historically, it has not been. And that on the GOP side there is still a long way to go, perhaps even all the way to a brokered convention in late August. But however it turns out and whomever becomes the standard-bearer, one thing separate and apart from all of that must happen: We must stop basing our vote on shallow, meaningless fluff like “likeability.” The idea that we'll hand the most powerful office in the world to someone based on Oprah's endorsement or cross-waving is so disturbing, it shakes me to my core. What's next – a debate question on how best to save Britney Spears from her ongoing total self-destruction?

We cannot take another vacation from history, like we did in the 1990s. We got frivolous and elected an unfit intern boinker who ignored Islamic terrorism – and 3,000 people paid for it with their lives. That we made such a grave error once is shocking. That we might energetically repeat it is probably the death-knell of our once-great nation, now teetering on the edge. Then again, those who don't remember history . . .

We must grow up and get deadly serious. Pandering ambition-driven candidates and a biased media trying to orchestrate the outcome as they would like it to be are certainly not so, nor will it become so any time soon. So the initiative lies with us. We have issues before us – the creep of radical Islam around the globe, reliance on foreign energy due entirely to radical environmentalism, entitlement spending set to explode and destroy the younger generations – that must be resolved with real leadership. And we must demand it from our candidates, our parties and our news media. We simply cannot afford a “Seinfeld” election about nothing.

Liberal democrats who are so detached from reality they can't even acknowledge these problems, and liberal Republicans who are so gutless they can't even challenge a debate moderator's phony premises, are not fit to be put in the position of highest power in times like these. And like Clinton in the 1990s, putting one of them there anyway will come at an extremely high cost.

Is it really so much to ask that we treat a presidential election with the gravity and solemnity it requires, and not like a middle-school student council campaign?

© 2008 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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