Huckabee on Vertical Politics:
"The idea that I believe that American is looking for the kind of Conservative that won’t just lead the country horizontally, because average Americans sitting around their kitchen tables tonight with their bills spread out and the calculator going don’t think so much in horizontal terms they think primarily, not Left Right Liberal Conservative Democrat Republican, they think vertically. Will these people take us up or will they take us down?
"With everything within me from the depth of my bones, I believe that the principles of Free Market Conservatism, strong defensible borders, the idea of protecting life and family, I believe those principles will take us up not down. And with all that is within me, I believe with all my heart that the principles of taxing and spending and creating a monstrous government, will take us down and not up. And that is why we need to exercise the competent Conservatism that can get us back where we lead.
"I believe that what we need right now is some Vertical Patriotism to lift us out of this economic mess. I’
ve never been one to hold my breath waiting for the Federal Government to help me. I told the Republican Convention last year when I spoke there: I’m not a Republican because I grew up rich, I’m a Republican because I
didn’t want to spend the rest of my life poor waiting for the government to come and rescue me." (
CPAC 2009)
