The Corner

Still Anti-Huck After All These Years

During the 2008 primary campaign, I was a fairly constant anti-Huck voice on NRO. This morning, Byron York reports that Huck may be gearing up for another run. FWIW, I’m as anti-Huck now as I was then. Why? He’s more of a liberal Christian populist than a limited-government conservative. He’s economically illiterate, has protectionist impulses, endorses nanny-state policies and creationism, urged the isolation (i.e. quarantine) of AIDS victims long after such a position could be remotely defensible (1992), and repeatedly dissembled when called out on it. Sure he’s got a nice folksy style, but Father Coughlin was charismatic too. I don’t expect to agree with a presidential candidate on every issue, but someone like Huck is, in my view, unsupportable. Were he the GOP nominee, I’d vote Libertarian or just stay home, and I’m confident I’m not the only one who feels that way.

Jonathan H. Adler is the Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law and the director of the Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Law at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
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