One of the unique features of our government is our power to not only choose between people for elected office, but to choose those who run for office in the first place. That’s where you and I wield our greatest power in a democracy. So many Americans today are weary of political shenanigans. We’re tired of the mud slinging and out of control spending. The media and the candidates have been out there for so long that we tend to tune them out. Or we get discouraged with all the problems our nation faces and throw up our hands and give up. What can one person do, anyway?Actually, one person can do quite a lot. The first thing you can do is vote in the primary elections. Exercise your power to put names on the general election ballot, but do so in an informed way.

I’ve researched the candidates — both Republican and Democrat — by looking at their various websites and watching some of the debates on television. I’ve looked at videos and ads on YouTube. Mike Huckabee is the person who now has my whole-hearted support because I’ve found that his values and his faith match up with my own.

I encourage you to check out Mike’s stance on the issues at http://www.mikehuckabee.com. The more I read and learn about Mike, the more impressed I become! Here’s what he’s said about some of the issues (taken directly from his website, emphasis added):

Homeschooling:

I have been a strong, consistent supporter of the rights of parents to home school their children, of creating more charter schools, and of public school choice.

Faith and Politics:

The First Amendment requires that expressions of faith be neither prohibited nor preferred. We should not banish religion from the public square, but should guarantee access to all voices and views. We should share and debate our faith, but never seek to impose it. When discussing faith and politics, we should honor the “candid” in candidate – I have much more respect for an honest atheist than a disingenuous believer. My faith is my life – it defines me. My faith doesn’t influence my decisions, it drives them. For example, when it comes to the environment, I believe in being a good steward of the earth. I don’t separate my faith from my personal and professional lives.

Sanctity of Life:

I will use the bully pulpit to change hearts and minds. I have no desire to throw women in jail, I just want us to stop throwing babies in the garbage. To me, life doesn’t begin at conception and end at birth. Every child deserves a quality education, first-rate health care, decent housing in a safe neighborhood, and clean air and drinking water. Every child deserves the opportunity to discover and use his God-given gifts and talents.

Health Care:

The health care system in this country is irrevocably broken, in part because it is only a “health care” system, not a “health” system. We don’t need universal health care mandated by federal edict or funded through ever-higher taxes. We do need to get serious about preventive health care instead of chasing more and more dollars to treat chronic disease, which currently gobbles up 80% of our health care costs, and yet is often avoidable. We have to change a system that happily pays $30,000 for a diabetic to have his foot amputated, but won’t pay for the shoes that would save his foot.

Taxes/Economy:

But I am running to completely eliminate all federal income and payroll taxes. And do I mean all – personal federal, corporate federal, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, self-employment. Instead we will have the FairTax, a simple tax based on wealth. The FairTax will replace the Internal Revenue Code with a consumption tax, like the taxes on retail sales forty-five states and the District of Columbia have now. All of us will get a monthly rebate that will reimburse us for taxes on purchases up to the poverty line, so that we’re not taxed on necessities. That means people below the poverty line won’t be taxed at all. We’ll be taxed on what we decide to buy, not what we happen to earn. We won’t be taxed on what we choose to save or the interest those savings earn. The tax will apply only to new goods, so we can reduce our taxes further by buying a used car or computer.

Marriage:

I support and have always supported passage of a federal constitutional amendment that defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman. As President, I will fight for passage of this amendment. My personal belief is that marriage is between one man and one woman, for life….Our true strength doesn’t come from our military or our gross national product, it comes from our families.

Energy Independence:

The first thing I will do as President is send Congress my comprehensive plan for energy independence. The plan will get underway during my first term, and we will achieve energy independence by the end of my second term. The Huckabee Administration will be remembered as the time when we finally, finally achieved energy independence….None of us would write a check to Osama bin Laden, slip it in a Hallmark card and send it off to him. But that’s what we’re doing every time we pull into a gas station. We’re paying for both sides in the war on terror – our side with our tax dollars, the terrorists’ side with our gas dollars. We have to explore, we have to conserve, and we have to pursue all avenues of alternative energy: nuclear, wind, solar, hydrogen, clean coal, biodiesel, and biomass. We will remove red tape that slows innovation.

Our dependence on foreign oil has forced us to conduct our foreign policy with one hand tied behind our back. It’s time to untie that hand and reach out to moderate Muslims with both hands. Oil has not just shaped our foreign policy, it has deformed it. When I make foreign policy, I want to treat Saudi Arabia the same way I treat Sweden, and that requires us to be energy independent.

Immigration:

Governor Huckabee knows that securing our borders must be our top priority and has reached the level of a national emergency. He is as sick and tired as you are that it is harder for us to get on an airplane in our home town than it is for all these illegals to cross our international border unchallenged.In this age of terror, immigration is not only an economic issue, but also a national security issue. We must know who is coming into our country, where they are going, and why they are here. All those who are caught trying to enter illegally must be detained, processed, and deported. As Governor, he ordered his state troopers to work with the Department of Homeland Security to arrest illegals and enforce federal immigration law.

The Governor opposes and will never allow amnesty.

The War in Iraq:

I am focused on winning. Withdrawal would have serious strategic consequences for us and horrific humanitarian consequences for the Iraqis. If we leave, Iraq’s neighbors on all sides will face a refugee crisis and be drawn into the war. When we deposed Saddam, we emphasized Iraq’s central location as a prime place to establish democracy and have it spread. That was the potential dramatic upside. Now we’re faced with the potential dramatic downside that the terrorists are fighting to take advantage of: Iraq’s central location as a prime place to create chaos and have it spread .

The War on Terror:

Radical Islamic fascists have declared war on our country and our way of life. They have sworn to annihilate each of us who believe in a free society, all in the name of a perversion of religion and an impersonal god. We go to great extremes to save lives, they go to great extremes to take them. This war is not a conventional war, and these terrorists are not a conventional enemy. I will fight the war on terror with the intensity and single-mindedness that it deserves. Creativity and flexibility are our keys to dealing with….Muslim leaders. Instead of asking if someone is for us, I will ask if we should be for them, if they can be useful in any way, however limited, however temporary.

Fighting smart means learning the neighborhood, achieving a level of political, religious, and cultural sophistication about the Arab and Islamic worlds that will pay huge dividends for us. We have to know the cast of characters, not just the national political leaders and their leading opponents, but the clerics, the tribal and clan leaders. We get criticized for our arrogance, but it’s our ignorance that’s killing us.

Our current armed forces aren’t large enough – we have been relying far too heavily on our National Guard and our Reserves, we have worn them out. Having a sizeable standing army actually makes it less likely that we’ll have to use it. So I will increase the defense budget.

Second Amendment Rights:

No candidate has a stronger, more consistent record on Second Amendment rights than I do. Our Founding Fathers, having endured the tyranny of the British Empire, wanted to guarantee our God-given liberties. They devised our three branches of government and our system of checks and balances. But they were still concerned that the system could fail, and that we might someday face a new tyranny from our own government. They wanted us to be able to defend ourselves, and that’s why they gave us the Second Amendment. They knew that a government facing an armed populace was less likely to take away our rights, while a disarmed population wouldn’t have much hope. As Ronald Reagan reminded us, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” Without our Second Amendment rights, all of our other rights aren’t inalienable, they’re just “on loan” from the government.

These are just a few of the issues Mike talks about on his website. If you are undecided about who to support in the upcoming primary elections, go ahead and browse Mike’s website.

Perhaps the most attractive quality about Mike is his sense of humor. The issues facing our country are serious, and it is important that we elect a leader who has the ability to break the tension, to bring everyone back to what we all have in common: our humanity.
You can see the humor I’m referring to in his new campaign video:

And here’s an interview on FoxNews with Mike Huckabee and Chuck Norris at:

Regardless of who you choose to support in the upcoming primary election, my prayer is that you will actually support someone. Find out who you think will lead this country in the right direction, and vote!