Mike Huckabee sure didn't disappear. After his defeat in the Republican primary, he started HuckPAC and even got his own show on FOX. It's a likely bet his name will be back in the hat for 2012.
He wrote an article for the Washington Post today, talking about the need for Republicans to get back to conservatism... and not just in theory, but in practice.
"Enough already of the hand-wringing and night sweats about the demise of the conservative movement! Conservatives aren't challenged because of the basic principles that define us, but by the failure of the principles being translated into policy and practice. The crisis is not one over the precepts, but the practice. It's not that we've failed in our doctrine, but our 'doing.'"
Well said, and true. He went on to explain part of the philosophy behind conservatism: federalism.
"Conservatives believe that the best government is the most local government possible and that the 10th Amendment means something and should be followed. Yet, the supposedly conservative Republican Party has been a drum major for the expanded role of the federal government."
And fiscal restraint.
"Perhaps no other example is more glaring than having painfully watched so-called Washington conservatives abandon the most fundamental principle of conservatism - fiscal restraint. A Republican administration pushed for and got the authority to spend $700 billion that we had to borrow from our grandchildren's future so we could do what government has no business doing - picking out winners and losers in the private sector marketplace."
Huck's not all gloom and doom, though. He sees a bright future for conservatism.
"What gives me hope is my belief that the party of Reagan will reunite behind the consistent conservative policies that have made our country great - policies that empower individuals, families, and entrepreneurs, not government, to shape our own destinies. If we do that, we will not fail. We don't need so much to redefine conservatism. Just practice the real thing."
You can read the entire article here.
