Huckabee at Brown

If nothing else, former-Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas practices what he preaches. Standing in front of an auditorium at Brown University, where a recent Brown Daily Herald poll found that 86.1% of students support Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, Huckabee proclaimed that he enjoys talking to people who are his polar opposites. One must be able to defend his or her views against criticism, he said. As a conservative, creationist minister speaking at Brown, an institution with a (deserved) liberal reputation, Huckabee must have felt a long way from Iowa, where he won the Republican primary in January 2008. Though he may not have convinced any students to vote for John McCain, Huckabee certainly charmed the crowd.

Huckabee opened his speech by sarcastically remarking how happy he was to be in this “bastion of conservatism,” well-aware that most Brown students probably viewed the success of a creationist minister in the Republican primaries with alarm, even horror. He succeeded in ingratiating himself with much of the audience. When a ringing cell phone interrupted his speech, Huckabee joked that it was probably John McCain calling to see if he would join the Republican ticket. Tell him “I’m busy at Brown with some of the smartest students in America,” Huckabee said, drawing laughter and applause.

Huckabee’s criticism of the electoral process probably resonated with Brown students, who have been energized by the anticipation of an historic election but exhausted by the length of the campaign. His alliterative argument that the “pursuit of the presidency is more about process than policy” reflects the challenges that Huckabee faced in the Republican primary, in which he said that his opponents outspent him anywhere from 10:1 to 20:1. The media’s coverage of the Huckabee campaign focused heavily on his staff size and how much money he had raised.

Huckabee bemoaned that the election had become more about plutocrats. This was a thinly veiled critique of his Republican competitor Mitt Romney, who used his personal wealth to finance his campaign and lend to his campaign credibility, for which Huckabee must have yearned. He described the Republican debates as a game show that failed to address substantive problems like education, health care, and national infrastructure.

Yet Huckabee’s speech at Brown left many questions about his policies unanswered. He mentioned some of the challenges of the healthcare system, which continues to operate on the assumption that one stays with the same employer for forty years, though people change jobs every seven years on average today. It is also difficult to define the minimum expectations of United States healthcare provision. For example, someone who has a heart attack should have access to emergency medical care, but the necessity of knee replacement surgery that might improve one’s quality of life is more debatable, Huckabee said. Ultimately, Huckabee’s views on healthcare were unresolved.

One of his most intriguing ideas is the FairTax, which would replace all federal income and payroll taxes with a progressive consumption tax and eliminate the Internal Revenue Service. Americans would receive a “prebate,” or an advanced refund, on all spending up to the poverty level (currently $21,027 for a family of four with two children) to compensate for the regressive nature of sales taxes. In theory, the FairTax would increase consumption by increasing real disposable personal income. It would generate even more federal tax revenue than the current tax system and make the United States a more economically competitive nation, according to Americans for Fair Taxation.

For a generation that faces enormous budget deficits and likely tax increases as it enters the workforce, college students might be predisposed to any system that would reduce their future taxes. Yet, major questions remain about the FairTax. Critics, like the conservative economist Bruce Bartlett, say that state governments have no incentive to ensure thorough regulation of tax collection, and the absence of the I.R.S. would make audits nearly impossible. Huckabee may have sensed that his audience was not entirely receptive to his idea. Remembering that this was Brown University, Huckabee pointed out that the fair tax was a conservation-minded, “green” tax because it would curtail consumption. This statement was completely at odds with the theory that the FairTax would increase consumption by allowing workers to keep all of their paychecks.

Mike Huckabee was entertaining, but his appearance at Brown explained his failure in the primaries and his continued lack of national recognition. Many Americans would agree with Huckabee that income taxes are a disincentive to work and entrepreneurial activity; that it is difficult to reconcile the need for adequate healthcare with the desire to limited government spending; and that it is foolish to finance prisons when students could benefit from grants to attend public universities.

Huckabee hopes people will learn to govern themselves better, so that the costs of financial regulation, healthcare for diseases related to unhealthy life choices like smoking, and an extensive prison system will be obviated. But Huckabee did not persuasively articulate another vision of limited, but functional, government. Perhaps this is why, when using a credit card that said “Huckabee for President” to rent a car during his campaign, he was asked, “President of what?” Though likeable and humorous, Huckabee ultimately failed to provide what he thought the electoral process lacked: substance.