DECONSTRUCTING HUCKABEE

From an interview Nov 7 with Salon's Michael Scherer

Mike Huckabee responding to question about abortion and the state and fed govts:

...But here's the issue: One has to decide, is this a political or a moral issue? If it is a political issue, then you can argue that each state could have its own political solution to it. If you believe it's a moral issue, then you really have to believe that morality does not change at the state line. That idea that morality is different in Massachusetts than it is in Texas is the rationale of the Civil War.

Do we want the federal government imposing morality? You are comfortable with the federal government playing that role?

Well, let's remember that all law establishes morality. That's what law does. The law of speeding is saying that it's immoral to go at 85 miles an hour. The morality is that we have established a 65-mile-an-hour limit. So that's what all law does: It establishes that it is wrong for me to murder you.(my ems) We've determined that that's not a good idea. I'm sure you are happy to hear that. So if I go over that law and murder you anyway, then society is going to punish me because I have violated a moral code, which we have all agreed to. So that's what law does. When people say you can't legislate morality, I am thinking, actually that is exactly what you do every time you pass a law. Now you don't legislate behavior. That's true. You can't legislate people's behavior. But all legislation legislates morality by its very nature. It defines the right and the wrong of the people.

I think Huckabee has some very basic concepts confused here.

LAW1 [law] Pronunciation Key
–noun
1. the principles and regulations established in a community by some authority and applicable to its people, whether in the form of legislation or of custom and policies recognized and enforced by judicial decision.
2. any written or positive rule or collection of rules prescribed under the authority of the state or nation, as by the people in its constitution. Compare bylaw, statute law.
3. the controlling influence of such rules; the condition of society brought about by their observance: maintaining law and order.
4. a system or collection of such rules.
5. the department of knowledge concerned with these rules; jurisprudence: to study law.

As opposed to:

MOR·AL /ˈmɔrəl, ˈmɒr-/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[mawr-uhl, mor-] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective
1. of, pertaining to, or concerned with the principles or rules of right conduct or the distinction between right and wrong; ethical: moral attitudes.
2. expressing or conveying truths or counsel as to right conduct, as a speaker or a literary work; moralizing: a moral novel.
3. founded on the fundamental principles of right conduct rather than on legalities, enactment, or custom: moral obligations.
4. capable of conforming to the rules of right conduct: a moral being.
5. conforming to the rules of right conduct (opposed to immoral): a moral man.
6. virtuous in sexual matters; chaste.


Morals may or may not speak to any law, but a law does most definitely not speak to morals. Is it really immoral to speed? If you ask me, it's dangerous to speed. Is it really immoral to skip the turnsignal if there's no other car around? It's illegal, and it may not be a good habit, but I do not believe that it's immoral.

How about buying liquor on Sunday? Illegal in CT, not illegal in some other places. Certainly, if I was out buying a bottle of wine for an evening dinner party, it could in no way be termed immoral.

Or walking around naked? I mean, not that I am a nudist, or want to see anyone in that condition, but I really cannot see anything immoral about standing in the sun in your birthday suit - if you really want one of those all over tans.

Peeing in your yard anyone? (can be useful, if your toilet is on the blink or you have a dog to train or there's an obnoxious dog next door) - it's illegal, even gross, but not immoral.

Smoking Medical Marijuana - the DEA and the Supremes say it's against Federal Law, but some states have other views, the medical community has an even different take on the subject, and I don't see any immorality. It wasn't even illegal in the US until the Mexican American war.


Do we want someone that confused to inherit the Imperial Presidency of the Bush Administration?