No holy war in the heartland

By Ruben Navarette - San Diego Union-Tribune, opinion
Wednesday, December 19, 2007 - Web Link
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December 19, 2007

As pundits try to explain a couple of happenings in Iowa – Mike Huckabee's surge in popularity and a drop in support for Mitt Romney – some are force-feeding us a simple explanation: It's a God thing.

If you watch the Sunday morning talk shows or read the weekly newsmagazines, there is a religious war erupting on the road to Des Moines. Here's the narrative: Romney is stumbling in Iowa because the former governor of Massachusetts is a Mormon and evangelical Christians – who make up more than a third of the state's GOP voters – won't support a Mormon for president. Meanwhile, Huckabee is thriving because the former Arkansas governor is also a Baptist minister whose views on issues are in line with those of social conservatives.

A Newsweek poll of Republicans likely to participate in the Iowa caucuses finds Huckabee out in front with the support of 39 percent, while 17 percent favor Romney.

Note the headline in a Newsweek cover story about Huckabee's strong showing in Iowa: “Holy Huckabee!” On the same cover are references to other stories in the magazine such as “God and the GOP” and “the Mormon-Evangelical Divide.” The lead story, written by editor Jon Meacham, is titled “A New American Holy War.” Even a profile of the Iowa front-runner's spouse, Janet Huckabee, is dubbed “Wife of the Preacher Man.”

Conflict helps sell magazines. But Newsweek went overboard in framing the Huckabee-Romney contest as an exercise in religious strife.

There are at least three problems with this narrative – it's dangerous, insulting and likely untrue. Dangerous because it provides yet another way to divide Americans – who have already been split into warring camps based on race, class and education. Insulting because it paints a large swath of the Iowa electorate as religious bigots. And likely untrue because Newsweek's own polling data suggest that Iowans are more open-minded than national political commentators give them credit for being.