Shaking off the "L" word...

Well, that's it. Mike Huckabee isn't a real Conservative. Fred Thompson told me so.

Funny how these things work. Back when Thompson was weighing his options an independent analysis mentioned he might well have trouble with "real" conservatives. That author declared him a southern moderate.

Now he's the real-deal -- according to Fred.

Huckabee is now a Liberal -- according to Fred.

Why? He questioned our foreign policy a couple of weeks ago. Huckabee said we were arrogant in some ways.

Actually, Huckabee is the Conservative on this... The world has shifted.

As much as I'm a Bush supporter, the truth is that the Bush White House has adopted in many ways a Liberal Wilsonian foreign policy -- Nation Building, making the Middle East a place of Democracy.

It's called "Wilsonian" hearkening back to the First World War. Remember the cry, "Make the world safe for democracy!"?

Here's the shift: Liberals are arguing for a more isolationist less intrusive foreign policy.

It's not the first time. In a sense the Conservative push to attack Communism was Wilsonian. The Liberal response was Conservative isolationism.

It can be argued that Iraq AND the war against Communism in South Korea and Vietnam all had clear and compelling national interests. In that way, the nation-building, Wilsonian policy becomes a Conservative policy. These things just aren't pure.

And that's EXACTLY the point!!! Conservative and Liberal are shifty labels. I've been called both. Any thinking person will be.

As an aside, this, I believe, is the problem with Ron Paul... He's so incredibly doctrinaire that he ceases to make sense.

I come back to my undergrad Math degree. In math theory there's a proven principle that has VERY broad application.

In systems -- descriptions how things actually work -- any system is contradictory. A closed system (a system that claims to be the ONLY system with ALL the right answers) is shaky, falls apart, doesn't work.

An open system (one which understands that there is no absolutely PURE answer) is strong, consistent, resilient, effective.

That's what drew me to Huckabee... exactly because there are places where he understands a rigid adherence to an ideology falls in dust under pressure. But at the same time, holds strongly to central tenants as a guiding star.

D--