Evangelicals will leave the Republican Party if it supports redefining marriage to include same-sex couples, Mike Huckabee said.
When asked if he believes the Republican Party will change its position and support gay marriage in a Wednesday Newsmax interview, Huckabee remarked, “They might, and if they do, they’re going to lose a large part of their base because evangelicals will take a walk.”
Huckabee currently hosts a Fox News show called “Huckabee.” He was formerly the governor of Arkansas and ran for president in 2008. Before he entered politics, Huckabee was a Southern Baptist pastor and a religious radio broadcaster.
“And it’s not because there’s an anti-homosexual mood, and nobody’s homophobic that I know of,” he continued, “but many of us, and I consider myself included, base our standards not on the latest Washington Post poll, but on an objective standard, not a subjective standard.”
“I don’t hate people, my religion does” is a crappy argument that cowardly haters use to dodge accusations of bigotry. But Mike doesn’t have to worry, RNC chairman Reince Priebus says that, while he wants the party to be more accepting of people who do support marriage equality, the party’s platform will still have the “we hate gays!” plank. At least for now, anyway.
Besides, where would these evangelicals “walk” to? Certainly not the Democrats and not Libertarians, either (that is, real libertarians. Not Republicans who don’t want to call themselves Republicans like Rand and Ron Paul). Start up an Evangelical Party? I suppose they could, but by leaving the GOP coalition, they’d actually be losing power.
The GOP will drop the marriage-inequality plank eventually. Probably within Huckabee’s lifetime. So I guess we’ll have the opportunity to find out where he’ll walk to when that day comes.
