Right before Christmas Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee doubled down on his support of Michelle Obama’s Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act by defending Mrs. Obama from Sarah Palin. The former Governor of Alaska took a jab at her “not liking desserts” on a recent episode of her TLC show, Sarah Palin’s Alaska.
Huckabee said of Palin’s criticism:
She has misunderstood what Michelle Obama is trying to do. Michelle Obama is not trying to tell people what to eat or not trying to force the government’s desires on people, but she is stating the obvious, we do have an obesity crisis in this country and if you don’t believe it I always tell people to walk into any third grade class and look around and then go back and pick up your third grade school class picture if you are an adult. Look at that picture and tell me what you see that looks starkly different than what you will see in today’s third grade it will shock you.
I have no doubt that he is accurate. We do have an obesity problem. But I would say it is Governor Huckabee, not Governor Palin who misunderstand what Michelle Obama is trying to do. I quoted Michelle Obama’s comments during the signing of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 that she helped to initiate saying “we can’t leave it up to the parents.”
She went on to say that “parents have the right not to have their efforts at home won’t be undone each day in the school cafeteria and in the vending machine.” I’m frankly more concerned that parents’ efforts at instilling a value system at home is being undone in the public school system which has become more and more hostile toward Judeo-Christian values, but I digress. If the First Lady wanted to use a bully pulpit and instill the value of eating healthy and exercising for kids more power to her. I applaud Mike Huckabee’s desire to see people live healthy lifestyles and admire his example. I too lost a bunch of weight, and understand it’s importance.
The problem is what role does the government play in such matters. Governor Palin gets it, Governor Huckabee at least with this issue doesn’t. David Harsanyi, a columnist with The Denver Post, in a column published at RealClearPolitics brings up a great point and one that ought to be considered with a potential Huckabee 2012 run:
But foundational beliefs like an aversion to federal overreach into local decisions cannot be disposed of because kids happen to be part of the equation. And if Huckabee believes there’s nothing wrong with the federal government controlling local school lunches and instituting national smoking bans, how many issues will he believe are more important than federalism?
Now, Sarah Palin may not always be the most sophisticated spokesperson for conservative ideology, but she is right on the money here. In fact, with all the sneering about her comments, she may want to turn to one of her favorite authors, C.S. Lewis, who also understood that “moral busybodies” who “torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
Intuitively on this issue, Governor Palin has it right when she says that the Obamas don’t trust people “to make decisions for their own children.” We’ve seen two years that the Obamas favor more governmental control. Michelle Obama does try to tell people what to eat, and she has pushed the government’s desires onto people through this act.
When will he recognize that this bill is unconstitutional and a further encroachment of government into people’s every day lives?