Huck and the Christian Democrats

I don’t think I have ever mentioned this here before, but I’m somewhat of a Germanophile. I have certainly mentioned before that I’m a Huckaphile. One of the reasons I like Mike is that he is the closet candidate we have here to a German Christian Democrat. For those who are unaware, the CDU (Christlich Demokratische Union) is a center-right party in Germany. They are socially conservative and advocate an economic philosophy called the Social Market Economy (Soziale Marktwirtshaft) which supports the capitalist system, but uses the government to fix problems created by capitalism (such as wealth inequality, pollution, et cetera).

I have believed for some time that this is the type of party Americans are looking for: a party that is socially conservative and fiscally centrist. Our only two choices are the Dems who are socially and fiscally liberal, and the GOP which is socially and fiscally conservative. The reason elections have been so close over the past eight years is that Americans only agree with either party about half the time. They agree slightly more with the Republicans, and the Republicans are on the right side of the most important social issues, so elections usually break in favor of the GOP. But a party that is socially conservative and fiscally centrist would be tapping into the desires of a large majority of Americans and can expect Reagan-like numbers.

The fact that Huckabee is an American Christian Democrat has been noticed by others, as well. For example, Henry Olsen explains this in The Wall Street Journal. He writes:

Mike Huckabee's stunning victory in Thursday's Iowa caucuses does more than change the GOP nomination race. With a platform explicitly grounded in his Christian faith and a populist economic message, Mr. Huckabee offers the Republican Party a new political narrative, light years removed from the limited government principles governing the GOP in the Reagan and post-Reagan era.

This pro-faith, pro-government message may sound strange to American ears -- but it is a staple of conservative political parties on the European continent. Mr. Huckabee, in other words, essentially gives Republicans a choice: Does the GOP want to become a Christian Democratic party?

I’d say yes, but Olsen follows this question with an argument against Christian Democracy writing,

Every country which has been primarily governed by Christian Democrats since World War II (Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands) is poorer than the United States, with substantially higher unemployment rates and slower economic growth. The differences aren't even close.

This surprised me. After all, the Christian Democrats oversaw the German Economic Wonder of the mid-20th century. Using the Social Market philosophy, Konrad Adenauer and the CDU were able to bring Germany up from the ashes and rubble of World War II to create one of the biggest and strongest economies in the world.

Tremendous growth, however, is not the primary goal of the Christian Democrats. They prefer a slow, stable economy with low unemployment and more equally distributed incomes.

Olsen backs up his argument with stats showing that CD countries do indeed have higher unemployment and slower growth. I can’t speak for all the nations in Olsen’s list, but for Germany, these numbers are more than likely outdated. It is true that Germany has experienced some hard times over the past decade, mostly due to the cost of reunification. However, according to the German news agency Deutsche Welle, the total number of unemployed Germans has dropped from around 5 million to 3.278 million in the two years since Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Christian Democrats regained power from the left wing Social Democrats. That’s a 34% decrease in two years, and it’s the lowest unemployment number in 15 years. Deutsche Welle also reports that,

A survey of top managers and executives from six EU nations has found that Germany tops the list of most competitive economies in Europe. Internationally, the country takes second place -- behind China.

Further, according to the CIA World Factbook, Germany’s estimated GDP growth in 2006 was 2.8%, the United States was at 2.9%. Not much of a difference there. Also, Germany’s economy is the third largest in the world (behind the US and Japan). Germany is also the world’s largest exporter. Americans, concerned about a huge trade deficit and a dwindling manufacturing sector, may look with envy at that number. Obviously, Germany is not as bad off as Olsen claims.

Merkel and the CDU have achieved this turn around by introducing economic reforms that we in America would consider Reagan-esque. The similarity doesn’t end there. Merkel has had to turn around an economy that was experiencing the same kind of malaise as the U.S. economy in the 1970's. When all is said and done, we may look back and see Merkel as a German Reagan.

Olsen has tried to cast Christian Democracy as Liberal. The reality is that it is quite conservative and pro-market, but Christian Democrats don’t believe that the free market system is infallible. Nothing in this world is infallible.

Reagan won by arguing against the forces that threatened the middle class. At the time, the problem was a burdensome government. Reagan fixed the problem by making government smaller and lowering taxes. Today, governmental policies such as lopsided trade agreements (or the lack of a policy, such as in the case of immigration) are harming the middle class. Huckabee seeks to fix these problems by insisting on fair trade and securing the borders.

Much has been said about Huckabee’s tax hikes in Arkansas. The truth is, Huckabee inherited a state with a horrible road system and failing schools. These problems take money to fix. Conservatism is not just about tax cuts, it’s about responsible government. There are quite a few Republicans in Congress who feel they can spend all the money they want and still call themselves Conservative because they voted for a tax cut. Huckabee is not that kind of Republican. That’s why he should be the GOP nominee.

–J.E. Heath
per-fidem.org

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