They are single-issue voters, the followers of Mike Huckabee. Well, not single issue really, single-issues. But the issues are related – abortion, gay marriage, and so on. What they stand for is moral purity – or so they believe, anyway.

To me, it looks a lot more like a self-congratulatory notion that they, and only they, are righteous.

They are the kind of people who forced Hester Prynne to wear that scarlet letter. The kind of people who get a nice warm feeling when they shame others.

Ironically, they call themselves Christians. Obviously, they’ve never read the New Testament.

These people have been a force in the Republican Party for a long time. But could their influence be waning?

Obviously, Huckabee thinks so. He is threatening to go his own way.

Enraged by the party’s submissive response to the Supreme Court’s refusal to overturn state marriage equality laws, Huckabee ranted:

Go ahead and just abdicate on this issue … I’ll become an independent. I’ll start finding people that have guts to stand.

His threat met the same kind of response as that tree that falls in the forest with no one around to hear it.

Could it be that Huckabee’s days are numbered? He has consistently polled among Republicans’ top choices for president and his Fox News show gets good ratings. But the ideas he cherishes seem to be losing traction as the GOP scrambles to eke out a victory in November.

Writing in Politico Magazine, Bill Scher notes that there’s a growing trend for Republican candidates to back away from rigid positions on social issues.

Times are changing in America, and Republicans are scrambling to fudge their antiquated notions. It might seem that they are abdicating their party’s long-cherished ideals.

But I strongly suspect Huckabee and his followers have little cause for dismay. I am sure the changes they deplore are cosmetic, driven by the need to reassure today’s voters. Back in power, the party would emerge from behind this new mask and bare its true face.

It’s the same old face of intolerance and bigotry.

Click for Bill Scher’s article.