Are Huckabee supporters really voting for a religion? December 20, 2007
Posted by Zack in Iowa , trackback
Most of the pundits on both right and left are writing about evangelicals as though they are robots, supporting Huckabee because of a simple If statement in their programming:
if isBaptistPreacher(candidate_x)
then voteFor(candidate_x)
Yesterday, Ruben Navarette, at the San Diego Union-Tribune, challenged that picture:
Note the headline in a Newsweek cover story about Huckabee’s strong showing in Iowa: “Holy Huckabee!” On the same cover are references to other stories in the magazine such as “God and the GOP” and “the Mormon-Evangelical Divide.” The lead story, written by editor Jon Meacham, is titled “A New American Holy War.” Even a profile of the Iowa front-runner’s spouse, Janet Huckabee, is dubbed “Wife of the Preacher Man.”
Conflict helps sell magazines. But Newsweek went overboard in framing the Huckabee-Romney contest as an exercise in religious strife.
There are at least three problems with this narrative – it’s dangerous, insulting and likely untrue. Dangerous because it provides yet another way to divide Americans – who have already been split into warring camps based on race, class and education. Insulting because it paints a large swath of the Iowa electorate as religious bigots. And likely untrue because Newsweek’s own polling data suggest that Iowans are more open-minded than national political commentators give them credit for being.
Comments»
Yeah, get real, Newsweek! People are excited about Huckabee because Walker: Texas Ranger is his P.R. guy.
Merry Christmas Zach!