Former Arkansas Gov. and erstwhile presidential candidate Mike Huckabee urged social conservatives Friday evening to “show up” and make their influence known at the polls to elect people who share their common values.
“If 10 percent more evangelicals had voted in the last presidential election, we would have a different president,” he said at the 2014 Values Voter Summit.
“Imagine what would happen if the people of faith, the value voters of America — the evangelicals, the pro-life and pro-family Catholics and Protestants from all over this country would let it be known: we are registered, and we will show up,” he said. “We will hire people, and we will fire people who should have been fired a long time ago.”
Mr. Huckabee, who enjoys strong ties to the evangelical community, played off a line in a commercial from former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign that called into question President Obama’s experience by asking viewers who they would want answering a 3 a.m. phone call at the White House.
When the phone rings during a crisis like the turmoil in the Middle East with the Islamic State terrorist group, he said, “they need to know that America is serious about protecting the people of this country.” When the phone rings in Israel, he said, they need to know America is with them.
He also said that the Supreme Court and judicial system don’t have any more authority and power than the legislative and the executive branches of government.
“This nonsense that has happened where individual judges around the country have decided that they can upend the duly passed laws and constitutional limits in states that affirm natural marriage — we need to say no: judges don’t get to legislate,” he said.
He finished by acknowledging the frustrations of many in the public — but urged them to participate in the electoral process.
“Some of you are frustrated and even upset and angry about America, and I get it,” he said. “And I say to you, the answer is as simple as it is that the answer to the phones in our hearts that God is ringing. When we register people to vote, when we get them to the polls to vote, when we hire the people that will take our values to this city, and when we fire the ones who refuse to hear not only our hearts, but God’s heart.”
“That’s how we change America,” he said. “I say let’s show up. Let’s get the job done. Let’s change this country.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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