At OneNewsNow, Mike Huckabee attempts to defend his stance on illegal immigration:
He also refuses to apologize for his record of supporting pre-natal care for pregnant illegal aliens and a plan that allows illegal aliens who graduate from Arkansas high schools to apply for state college scholarships. "I don't think you punish children for the crimes of the parent. Whether it's the crime of coming here illegally, or you don't put a child in prison because the father robbed a bank," he argues. "And so I did propose some things in Arkansas that would treat children differently than parents who had broken the law. And I think that's the appropriate response to take."
I'm sorry but this just doesn't fly.
Emergency care is one thing. But if a pregnant illegal immigrant is identified, she needs to be deported. If an illegal immigrant applies for a college scholarship...he/she needs to be sent home.
I don't recall anyone saying anything about putting children in jail for the crimes of their father; in fact, I think this is an intentionally inflammatory statement on Huckabee's part to misdirect attention away from the real issue. If illegal immigrants are identified, you deport them back home, family and all.
Family is important and families should be kept together except when there's a compelling reason to incarcerate a parent. Therefore, if the only crime the parent has committed is entering the United States illegally, you process them and deport the whole nuclear family. If the father/mother has committed a crime worthy of incarceration, then you lock them up as you would anyone else and deal with the children...the same way you would the children of any other offender. The only difference being, say, the father commits a jailable offense and you identify that his wife and children are here illegally, then you incarcerate him and deport the rest of the family. We don't look at a criminal who has children and say, "Oh, he committed a crime, but we can't lock him up or deal with that because then we'd be 'punishing children for the crimes of their parent.'" What a bunch of bunk!
This isn't rocket science, and Huckabee's attempt to play the sympathy card is disappointing at best from a Republican. Most issues are pretty simple, and only become complicated when we try to find ways to avoid dealing with incorrect behavior without actually admitting that's what we're doing.
This is why Huckabee's contention that he's "
a 'grace' Christian, not a 'law' Christian" is not only unbalanced theologically, but has "real world" ramifications in that he tends to make excuses for illegal behavior, rather than dealing with the problem.
Then there's more obfuscation from Huckabee on his liberal positions, this time on buying into the Leftist "global warming" fantasy.
Huckabee has also been riding a wave of support on the campaign trail from evangelical Christians, including some liberal evangelicals who believe human activity is causing global warming. The more than 100 signers of the Evangelical Climate Initiative recently praised Huckabee for "announcing his support for a mandatory cap on global warming pollution" and "recognizing that Americans have a moral obligation to address climate change." He tells OneNewsNow that he wants to "create a greater level of conservation."
"Sometimes the issue gets lost in an argument over whether there is global warming and whether humans cause it," he notes. "For me, that's not even the debate -- I don't try to get into that. I just know that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. It belongs to him. I'm a guest, I don't own it. I'm a steward of this planet, and because of that I think I have to take good care of it," says Huckabee.
The issue doesn't get lost in that argument--that IS the argument: whether humans are causing a warming of the planet. If we are, then maybe we can and should do something about it. But if we're not, then it's just a natural cycle (which is what the evidence indicates), and carbon credit schemes are worse than useless.
I don't know of anyone who's saying "Gee, let's pollute the planet." Any reasonable person would support doing things in the cleanest way feasible, and taking care of this planet that God has left man in charge of. But the radical environmentalists have lost sight of the fact that creation is here for man, not man existing to serve creation. And Huckabee's response above clearly says nothing substantive, while trying to straddle the fence between those of us who know the global warming fantasy is nothing but an attempt to cripple Western civilization, and those who want it crippled.
How disappointing all this is, from not only a Republican, but a Baptist minister.
The Republican Party can not only do better than Rudy Giuiliani, it can do a whole lot better than Huckabee, too.