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The Texas Blue
Advancing Progressive Ideas

Huckabee and the GOP Coalition

Mike Huckabee's win in Iowa means the end of the Republican coalition of religious conservatives, business interests and security hawks.

A presidential primary race isn't just about choosing a candidate. It's about control of the party. Huckabee's win means that the religious conservatives feel that they might take over the GOP and achieve the social changes (banning abortion, prayer in school, etc.) that they've been promised over and over but have never received. The business interests aren't going to let that happen. Already they are training their big guns on Huckabee, and they will take him down. But the religious right will see that (rightly!) as a betrayal, and they'll bolt the party. They might have put up with a non-religious candidate winning, but not by stabbing their man in the back.

Huckabee is the true candidate of the religious right. Romney is the candidate of business who pretended to be the candidate of the religious right, who saw through his scam. Giuliani is the candidate of the defense establishment, and McCain is the candidate of, well, John McCain. Whichever of them wins the nomination and takes control of the GOP will win a LOT of Republican enemies.

Which makes me very, very happy.

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