Daniel Larison mentions that he, too, has thought before of Jon Huntsman as a kind of Red State Joe Lieberman…but he’s perplexed as to why it is that Democrats like the guy the way they do:
Here’s what puzzles me: why would “wonky lefties” like him? Forget about the Iran and Israel business for the moment. Just look at Huntsman’s record and his proposals as a candidate on domestic issues. He is more or less an older version of Paul Ryan, whom “wonky lefties” certainly do not adore…. Huntsman has been the candidate willing to make meaningless gestures to demonstrate that he is not in lockstep with his party on matters relating to science and environmental policy, but his actual positions on environmental policy in this campaign are essentially no different from the other candidates’ views… The hawkish Republican love affair with Joe Lieberman has been deeply unfortunate in many ways, but at least everyone knows why they are heaping praise on the man. What explains similar liberal adulation for Huntsman? There doesn’t seem to be any policy or political reason for it. Is it simply a bizarre reverse tribalism that inspires liberals to root for a candidate that conservatives have rejected?
Larison is absolutely right to point out that, policy-wise, Huntsman is almost as conservative as they come (he’s pretty centrist on gay rights). But I’m sure he’s also aware of the unpleasant fact that renders the continuing functioning of democracy — however ugly and imperfect it may be — rather miraculous: people don’t vote on policy.
Just as Barack Obama spent much of his primary campaign sounding and seeming like the liberal alternative to Clinton when in reality his positions were often identical or to the right of the current Secretary of State, Huntsman sounds and seems like the Lefty among the 2012 GOP crop. At least to Lefties (and I should note that the criteria for what Lefties in this example think of as being like them is exceedingly self-flattering).
Another way of saying the same thing is that, for a politician, Huntsman seems semi-normal and almost kind of cool. We — Lefties and Righties alike — tend to unconsciously assume that someone we like not only likes us in return but is like us, too. So while it’s probably the case that some Democrats like Huntsman because so many Republicans don’t, I’d guess that what’s happening is actually simpler and even more superficial: they just like the guy, and any policy-based cognitive dissonance is shrugged off or waved away.
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There’s the likeability factor, plus the fact that, especially when compared to most of the other Republican candidates, he comes across intelligent, capable or reason, and sane.
Just off the top of my head, it seems that Left and Right are mostly defined now by stances toward ‘social issues’, and not financial ones. Few people have informed opinions about the implications of various financial policies. But everyone has opinions on social issues. That’s what the tribalism is based on. You end up arguing for your side’s plan, even if you don’t/can’t really understand it.
That’s why the Left can fall in love with a conservative, and the Right decry him as a liberal plant for Obama. Both are following their tribe’s pattern. But Huntsman upends that pattern, by doing conservative things and holding ‘liberal’ views. Environment for instance. Huntsman says that the rules and regulations governing environmental protection are a big problem and he’d get rid of them. The conservatives should love that. But he also says that the climate scientists are correct, and that we should strive to protect the environment, and so liberals champion him as sane and reasonable.
What ends up happening is the Left identifies with him, and the Right does not, even though in fact he does things that the Right agree with and even champion. Instead when they hear his positions on things the Right agrees with, they interpret it as being fake and false, because of his somewhat moderate views on other things. The Left is constantly having to remind itself that he endorses some very conservative policies.
I think Huntsman is genuine (but I am a left-leaning independent), and I’ve heard him discuss his views at length in various interviews found on Youtube. By which I mean, I don’t think that it is Huntsman’s fault that he’s not gaining more traction, but that the electorate rarely sees beyond the group with which they identify. Huntsman is misinterpreted on both sides.
I give him a little credit solely because he’s into Beefheart:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2011/09/06/jon_huntsman_passes_the_captain_beefheart_test.html
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