Reagan vs. Huckabee on "conservative" and libertarian

From Chuck Muth...

I've said it before and I'm repeating it now: If Sen. John McCain picks former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as his running mate there's no way I'll even consider voting for the GOP ticket this year...an "iffy" proposition as it is already. And if there was even a smidgen of doubt in my mind about that, it was erased this week by these comments by the Huckster.

"The greatest threat to classic Republicanism is not liberalism; it's this new brand of libertarianism, which is social liberalism and economic conservatism. But it's a heartless, callous, soulless type of economic conservatism because it says 'look, we want to cut taxes and eliminate government. If it means that elderly people don't get their Medicare drugs, so be it. If it means little kids go without education and healthcare, so be it.' . . . That's not historic Republicanism. Historic Republicanism does not hate government."

That's the kind of over-the-top anti-conservative/libertarian rhetoric you'd expect to hear from Hillary or Obama. And it's nothing but warmed-over regurgitation of "compassionate conservatism" - and we all know how well THAT has worked for Republicans.

All I know is that while "hate" is too strong of a word to use to describe how libertarians feel toward government, the Founding Fathers certainly harbored a far higher degree of fear and skepticism of government than Huckleberry and his brand of big-government Republicanism. And as for describing libertarianism as "heartless, callous (and) soulless," I'll take Ronald Reagan's description of the libertarian philosophy instead.

"If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. . . . The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is."

Mike Huckabee, you're no Ronald Reagan.