From The Consortium News
By Robert Parry

Huckabee – in his unthreatening, easy-going style – has managed to tap into that now widely perceived view among white Christian conservatives that they are somehow facing persecution at the hands of Jews, Muslims and atheists.

So, when Huckabee airs an ad in Iowa in which he wears a red sweater, sits in front of a Christmas tree and what looks like a cross, and says “what really matters” this time of year is not politics but “the celebration of the birth of Christ,” he is subtly touching this powerful sense of Christian victimhood.

Huckabee drove home the point during a rally in Marshalltown, Iowa, on Dec. 20 by telling a crowd of 200, “I know this is probably a very controversial thing, but may I say to you, ‘Merry Christmas!’”

As Huckabee emphasized the “Christ” in “Christmas,” the crowd rose to its feet as if he had bravely uttered some phrase forbidden by a hated dictator.

Similarly, Huckabee told a crowd in Dike, Iowa, “What’s wrong with our country, what is wrong with our culture, is that you can’t say the name Jesus Christ without people going completely berserk.” His comment brought that group to its feet, too. [NYT, Dec. 21, 2007]

In this sense, Huckabee’s rise can be viewed as another outgrowth of the extraordinary power that the American Right has created through its massive investment in media over the past three decades.

Read more Huckabee