Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
David Barton and Mike Huckabee traded compliments at the Rediscovering God conference in Iowa over the weekend, with Huckabee going to far as to say that every single American student should have to read the welter of lies Barton puts out about American history.
And I just wish that every single young person in America would be able to be under his tutelage and understand something about who we really are as a nation. I almost wish that there would be a simultaneous telecast and all Americans would be forced, forced, at gunpoint no less, to listen to every David Barton message and I think our country would be better for it.
This was met with applause.
Politics
Comments
Dumb Fuck.
Posted by: JimNorth | March 30, 2011 10:08 AM
Talk about indoctrination. Hopefully, this will kill all chances of Huckleberry ever running for office again.
Posted by: Owen | March 30, 2011 10:10 AM
Imagine the howling from the right if a democrat said something like this.
Posted by: Imrryr | March 30, 2011 10:10 AM
Presidential candidate forces suggests forcing students at gunpoint to watch propaganda telecast full of known lies: democratic hero.
President addresses public students on first day of school in opt-out telecast: fascist.
Posted by: lofgren | March 30, 2011 10:12 AM
Of course Huckabee and his ilk (sorry, I do like that word) would want this. An ignorant populace is easier to control.
Posted by: Ellie | March 30, 2011 10:12 AM
Of course he'll soon backtrack and claim he only meant that a 'surveyor mark' should be placed on any student who refuses the indoctrination.
Posted by: Phillip IV | March 30, 2011 10:20 AM
Phillip IV - "... that a 'surveyor mark' should be placed on any student who refuses the indoctrination."
On the forehead or on the right hand? - Dingo
Posted by: DingoJack | March 30, 2011 10:31 AM
Imagine Huckabee's idea presented as a newsreel about 'forced listening'. Say, in Maricopa County, Arizona. An assembly hall of students surrounded by sheriff's deputies (including Steven Seagal) aiming automatic weapons at the kids. If any close their eyes, they get blasted. To teach them a lesson of course. For the good of the country, of course. In the name of God, of course.
Does this man ever THINK before he talks?
Posted by: Reverend Rodney | March 30, 2011 10:35 AM
But almost only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and H-Bombs.
Posted by: abb3w | March 30, 2011 10:46 AM
Some of us liberals are armed and wouldn't take kindly to having guns pointed at us, and especially not at our kids. Just sayin' ...
Also, remind me again which side is the Nazis?
Posted by: Fifth Dentist | March 30, 2011 10:46 AM
I can't tell. Is Huckabee a vegetarian?
Posted by: lofgren | March 30, 2011 10:49 AM
@ 8 Rev. Rodney
Would it be called the Ludovico technique?
Posted by: Fifth Dentist | March 30, 2011 10:51 AM
I'd guess that Barton speeches are probably low on Huck's list of things he wants people to be forced to listen to at gun point. There's just so many items above it.
Posted by: eric | March 30, 2011 11:04 AM
Right Mike, because Jesus was all about forcing people to listen to his message with weapons pointed at them.
Moron.
Posted by: Science Avenger | March 30, 2011 11:11 AM
Give Mikey a break. He didn't actually say he was going to do this.
He just said he wished for it. It's just a dream of his. An aspiration. His vision of an ideal America.
Everyone should be allowed to dream of their perfect society without fear of being surrounded by pen-toting liberals forcing their ideologies on others!
Posted by: Ken | March 30, 2011 11:46 AM
I'd just like to say, as a guy who used to drink like a fish, worked almost 3 decades in construction with guys who'd say anything to get another riled up, myself as fellow instigator included, that I never thought I'd hear something that truly offended me.
What a pair of scumbags.
Posted by: trog69 | March 30, 2011 11:47 AM
Freedom is messy.
Posted by: Blotto von Bismarck | March 30, 2011 11:51 AM
I almost wish that there would be a simultaneous telecast and all Americans would be forced, forced, at gunpoint no less, to listen to every David Barton message and I think our country would be better for it.
Shorter Mike Huckabee: We have to be subjected to tyranny and indoctrination in order to save ourselves from tyranny and indoctrination.
Posted by: Tommykey | March 30, 2011 12:15 PM
I think Mike Huckabee should be forced - forced at gunpoint - to stop forcing people to do stuff.
Also, I'd like for Mike Huckabee to come to my house with a gun and force me to watch this guy at gunpoint. I wouldn't fight back or anything, but I'd have a helluva time uploading video to youtube afterwards.
Posted by: lunchstealer | March 30, 2011 12:51 PM
They actually edited out this part of Huckabee's speech by the time of the big nation-wide webcast of the event on Saturday. I just posted about this on OpEdNews, with the edited version of the video that people saw in churches all over America on Saturday. (Right Wing Watch had the unedited video clip that Ed posted because they recorded the live stream of Huckabee's speech when he gave it on Thursday night. I recorded the webcast on Saturday after it was edited).
Here's the link to my piece:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Huckabee-All-Americans-Sh-by-Chris-Rodda-110330-577.html
Posted by: Chris Rodda | March 30, 2011 1:22 PM
I think that Huckabee has discovered the 'Palin Method' to gain stardom and riches, say batshit crazy stuff that idiots eat up, sell books and get top dollar for personal appearances, with the bonus of never again having the responsibility of actually serving in public office!
Are you paying attention, Haley?
Posted by: Freedonian | March 30, 2011 1:35 PM
As a native (though ex-pat) Arkansan... I apologize.
Posted by: Woof | March 30, 2011 1:38 PM
An example of Democrats winning as opposed to not losing or the GOP losing, would have them successfully exploiting this clip for years. They should pound the GOP unmercifully on both of these guys' character, objectives, and dishonesty. Truly repugnant stuff if one cares even an iota about objective truth and liberty.
Posted by: Michael Heath | March 30, 2011 1:49 PM
Huck's veneer of reasonableness has gotten so thin it should be transparent to everyone. In '08 I had people arguing with me that Huck wasn't a Christo-fascist - of course most of the ones arguing with me were his fellow thumpers.
Posted by: Rob Jase | March 30, 2011 2:39 PM
Obama giving an opt-out telecast: some right-wing talking heads accuse him of trying to indoctrinate children, encourage a protest for the "sake of the children" and then backtrack when the telecast is really more innocuous than they were giving it credit for initially.
Mike Huckabee, a prospective Presidential hopeful, suggests that Americans should be forced, at gunpoint, to listen to Barton (I wonder how he will backtrack and claim that it was merely a rhetorical flourish?) and wants every young person in America to have to listen to his hogwash too: good old-fashioned Christian concern for the spiritual welfare of the nation.
Of course, if it has spiritual trappings, it's hardly fascism. Donchya know?
Posted by: SW | March 30, 2011 2:46 PM
I thought he was talking about Joe Barton the Texas congressman Whois certified nut!,
Posted by: Jake anders | March 30, 2011 2:47 PM
@ Jake anders --
I seem to remember that the Fascists were supported by the churches.
Posted by: Hunter | March 30, 2011 3:19 PM
In fairness to Huckabee's audience, there was also some laughter at the "at gunpoint" remark. It doesn't make up for the positive response to the suggestion as a whole, but it's a little better. (I also think the positive response might have just been courtesy, to a degree; the applause didn't sound incredibly enthusiastic.)
Posted by: The Christian Cynic | March 30, 2011 3:52 PM
That's odd. I've got this weird, synthesized version of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony playing in my head all of a sudden.
Posted by: feralboy12 | March 30, 2011 4:04 PM
Feralboy12, give me a call if it changes to the William Tell Overture.
Posted by: Abby Normal | March 30, 2011 4:14 PM
I find the Barton part much more upsetting than the gun part.
Posted by: Dennis N | March 30, 2011 4:20 PM
Rob Jase @ 24:
I think Gov. Huckabee's nature is that of being reasonable and open-minded. I think he's also a good guy and smart though juvenile in his emotional development given his religious beliefs. His religion has him avoiding educating himself where he occasionally has an emotional reaction consistent with his faith but contra his nature. That religion did and does prevent him from properly educating himself as well.
I have no doubt that if Gov. Huckabee was raised by educated secularists he'd wouldn't be a conservative unlike George W. Bush whose a natural. However I'm not sure Mr. Huckabee has the raw intelligence needed to make it in politics in an ideological movement outside of conservatism which rewards gregariousness and tribalism more than executive skills, smarts, knowledge, and leadership.
The Christian Cynic:
I think this is obviously a gaffe he regrets and doesn't really believe himself. So it doesn't reveal someone desirous of doing this sort of thing. That's relevant to my point about the Dems "winning", they need to be more ruthless by exploiting this in spite of it being a type of gaffe more insidious than mistaking Iran for Iraq or claiming there's 57 states but not by much. Not by focusing exclusively on the gun point part but instead showing how easy it is to get Christianists to promote forcing their demonstrably false beliefs such as Barton on others. That's the real failure here, not the gun point quip but Huckabee's promotion of a propagandist attacking one of the most important pillars of our founding.
Make it about Barton and then show how Huckabee's type of thinking can lead to the promotion of fascism that desires us to forcibly consider dishonest propaganda that attacks our freedom. Huckabee's promotion of Barton is analogous to the Idiocracy in the movie of the same name soaking its plants in Brawndo rather than water.
Posted by: Michael Heath | March 30, 2011 6:50 PM
Not even Big Brother from 1984 would have gone so far.
Posted by: Paen | March 30, 2011 7:12 PM
The problem that Huckabee will face if he decides to run is that he raised taxes while governor of Arkansas. That's a no no to the tea baggers.
Posted by: SLC | March 30, 2011 7:13 PM
I don't agree. (I agree with "more insidious", I don't agree with "not by much".) I evidently missed the "Iran for Iraq" gaffe, but it sounds like a straightforward misspeak (they are very similar words), as "57 states" very clearly was--he clearly started out to say "50 states", remembered it hadn't actually been all 50, and corrected to 47 in mid-word.
This, on the other hand, is not a simple slip of the tongue, or if it is, it's quite a bit more revealing. This was downright emphatic. He said forced twice. Then he elaborated on that, still emphatically--"at gunpoint, no less". No one says something like this by accident. I'm sure he now regrets saying it in public, but I'm also sure that he really believes something quite close to this--a hell of a lot more so than Obama thinks there are 57 states.
Lest it be thought I simply categorize verbal gaffes by the political orientation of the gaffe-artist, I think Sarah Palin's comment about standing by our North Korean allies (or whatever the fuck it was) is far closer to the 57 states thing. But I think Huckabee sincerely meant what he said on some level, and that sends chills down my spine.
(Not the good kind.)
Posted by: Katie | March 31, 2011 2:53 AM