The emergence of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as a viable standard-bearer for the Republicans (placing a respectable third in New Hampshire after winning the Iowa caucuses) has left conservative commentators almost apoplectic.

But some of those people howling the loudest are the very same people who made Huckabee’s candidacy not only likely, but also inevitable.

The road to Huckabee’s candidacy can be traced at least as far back as 1968, when former Vice President Richard M. Nixon deployed the so-called “Southern strategy” in his second bid for the White House. Nixon strategist Kevin Phillips, who popularized the term, explained how the GOP worked to separate voters angered by the civil-rights movement from the Democratic Party, usually in the guise of “states’ rights”:

“From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10 to 20 percent of the Negro vote and they don’t need any more than that… but Republicans would be shortsighted if they weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That’s where the votes are. Without that prodding from the blacks, the whites will backslide into their old comfortable arrangement with the local Democrats.”

The demonizing of African-Americans also could be seen during the 1980s, when Ronald Reagan raised the specter of the anecdotal Cadillac-driving “welfare queen.” Suddenly, African-Americans who had endured centuries of involuntary servitude and abuse were not victims – they were layabouts who were gaming the system. Americans who had been told for decades that the American Dream was big enough for all abruptly learned that there wasn’t enough to go around. And if middle-class white voters weren’t getting their slice of the pie, it was all the fault of minorities.

This viewpoint, given voice by the so-called country club Republicans, was a tremendous help in distracting voters from the reality of the nation’s wealthiest citizens increasing their fortunes at the expense of those less fortunate. In short, it turned economic injustice into a race issue, not a class issue.

Slowly, the argument changed yet again. It turned out that African Americans were victims after all, thrust into that position by pandering politicians and an unrestrained judiciary. How dare progressives argue that African-American students couldn’t learn except in the company of white students, neatly skirting the fact that school funding is a cornerstone of educational equality.

Now there was an entire cohort of villains who needed to shoulder their share of the blame for all the country’s ills: a hedonistic culture, a liberal media elite, ivory tower academics, feminists, you name it. In response, the twin themes of personal responsibility and bringing the nation back to God are trumpeted.

Many Christian conservatives heed the call. In acts of true patriotism, they vote against their economic self-interest to vote for candidates who professed to share their beliefs concerning the right to life and the importance of faith in the public square. (Conversely, the Log Cabin Republicans represent a group that votes for their economic interests to the detriment of their position on societal and cultural issues.)

And then came 9/11, the day that hawks tell us changed everything. America had an implacable enemy whose religious practices were foreign to most residents. The politics of faith and fear had converged.

Enter Mike Huckabee, a former staffer for televangelist James Robison who pastored several Southern Baptist churches in Arkansas before entering politics.

A few words about the Southern Baptist denomination: It is a denomination striking for its insularity and lack of inclusiveness. Women are generally excluded from the pulpit, gays aren’t welcome and many congregations are segregated by race. To his credit, Huckabee successfully encouraged the all-white Immanuel Baptist Church to accept black members.

Still, Hukabee has not missed an opportunity to exploit the fears that permeate his denomination. One reason establishment candidate Mitt Romney failed in Iowa might have something to do with Huckabee’s pointing out that elements of the Mormon and Southern Baptist faith are at odds.

But for all that, Huckabee remains an appealing candidate whose lack of slavish devotion to conservative orthodoxy causes Republicans to grind their teeth. The current occupant of the White House already has proved that being hazy on current events is no impediment to a successful race. To demonstrate his populist streak, he has admitted enjoying squirrel cooked in a popcorn popper.

People invited to a state dinner during the Huckabee administration may want to consider brown bagging it.

The ultimate flaw in a Huckabee campaign is that conservatism, by its very nature, is about the status quo. The former governor may be the Republicans’ own man from Hope, but the candidates with hope are on the Democratic side of the ledger.

At least, with his pastoral background, Huckabee won’t have any trouble understanding what a sacrificial lamb is when the Election Day results come in.