Huckabee: God Responsible for My Rise in Polls

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There is so much about Christian evangelicals that coastal liberals don’t understand. Like how a man of obvious intelligence can attribute his rise in the polls to mass prayer and God’s will.

Huckabee backtracked slightly after this appearance, adding, “I’m saying that when people pray, things happen…. I’m not saying that God wants me to be elected.”

Huckabee, who is taking first and second in national polls of the Republican race nowadays, told GQ recently that it isn’t fair that he gets so much scrutiny for his faith while the other candidates don’t. He can’t make those complaints with a straight face if he’s going to go around saying stuff like this.

America needs to decide if they are ready for a president who literally sees God in the details. Doesn’t the idea of getting God to do what you want through prayer contradict the very idea of being a governor or president? Because you wouldn’t need to pass and sign laws to get things done if God can really create new realities if you ask for them.

And speaking of, I’m willing to be bet an awful lot of people (more than those who are praying for Huckabee’s rise) have been praying for Roe v. Wade to be overturned. Weird how that hasn’t happened.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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