The other night I sat down to watch Jon Stewart and was greeted to one of the most fascinating interviews I've ever seen with former Governor, former Fox News host, and (let's be honest) future former Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee.
I was first reminded of all the times Jon Stewart was accused of pitching softball questions to his political guests, because apparently its become standard practice to look to comedians for our cues on journalistic integrity...but that's neither here nor there.
After listening to Huckabee speak for almost ten minutes (the extended interview is even better), I was convinced that the GOP's constant claims that a class war was being waged were right, it was just being waged by THEM.
Look down here, there's more.
For a quick recap:
Huckabee was on the show promoting his new book "God, Guns, Grits and Gravy". If the title didn't tell you all you needed to hear, in the book Huckabee lays out the two types of people that exist in this country (What's a "melting pot" anyway?): The "bubbas" and the "bubbles".
https://www.youtube.com/...
I won't recap the whole thing, the video's there if you want the full conversation. But the cliffnotes version goes something like this. Huckabee refers to the bubbles as coastal liberals living in the "bubbles" of Hollywood, DC, NYC, etc. The bubbas being those who live out in the rest of the country, the so-called flyover states.
Now, republicans love to drum up fervor over the class war, insisting that the mean old liberals just wanna punish the rich people for being rich. But after watching Huckabee speak, it dawned on me that it is the GOP trying to incite a class war between the bubbas and the bubbles.
In a particularly obnoxious example of his point, Huckabee claimed a hypothetical situation. If your car got a flat tire on the side of a road somewhere, who would you want to come along and help you, an MD in a Beamer, or a couple good ol' boys in a pick up with a toolbox in the back. Now it doesn't take an MD to realize why this is a stupid example. Certainly, I would probably prefer a couple good ol' boys in that specific scenario. However, I can also think up, with very little effort, a million other scenarios in which I'd rather have different types of people be the one to come along and help me. If I needed my appendix removed...I'd rather have an MD, for example.
The point is, Huckabee spent his entire interview trying to drum up this notion that the "East Coast Liberals" and the "Hollywood Liberals" didn't get the bubbas. That the liberals look down on them and think of them as stupid.
Now, in my 26 years I've lived among all different types of people. I've lived in suburbia, rural Georgia, DC. I've lived among the "bubbles" and the "bubbas". I've never met a single "bubble" who looked down on the types of skills that the bubbas have. What they may sometimes lack in formal education, they make up for in a handiness that I could only dream of. In the same vein, I've never met a bubba who would stop on the side of the road to help someone with a flat tire, but then pause and say, "Hang on, now, you ain't one of those East Coast Liberals are ya? Cause if you are I ain't gonna help ya."
Is this really the only way the GOP can survive? By generating made up conflicts and mistrust? I'm baffled, I really am.
And don't even get me started on his hypocrisy about Beyonce and Ted Nugent.
P.S. First diary, yay. Feedback is welcomed and appreciated.