I'm not sure if this is really much of a prediction, but I'll put it out there anyway.  This election cycle, we're going to hear the word "Culture" so much that it will make you vomit.  I'm already hearing it too much from Republicans.  And if you get nothing else from this post, get this.  Every time you hear the word "Culture", you should think "Big Government".  Rick Esenberg recently asked "What's the matter with Huck?":

Huckabee offers a mix of economic populism and moral conservatism that we don't generally see anymore. I do not believe that he would abandon free market principles but it does seem likely that he would govern to the left of the GOP platform on economic issues in some rather significant ways. At the same time, he is likely to be a champion for moral conservatism.

After listening to some of Huckabee's interviews, and reading some of his campaign literature, I'm struck with how often he says he wants to "Create a Culture of _____".  He's not alone.  Many Republicans love that phrase.  They want to create a "Culture of Life" and "Create a Culture of Morals", and now we have Huckabee that wants to "Create a Culture of Health" (via The Corner).

But we have a serious health crisis in America that is costing you as a taxpayer billions and billions of dollars. I know you don't like to pay high taxes. Neither do I. And so, as a conservative, I think it's not government's place to tell you what you can eat, but it is government's responsibility to try to create a culture of health, so that people will make choices and those choices would be health choices.

Exactly how this culture will be created is left as an exercise to the listener.  But if you read that last line again, you'll see the perennial Republican flaw rear it's ugly head.  Huckabee wants you to have a choice (because that's the good small government thing to do), but he also wants to make sure you make the "right choice".  Exactly how he will make sure that you make the correct choice is also left for you to decide.  But remember, the government ultimately has only three things it can do in order to enforce any law.  It can take your property, take your freedom, or take your life.  And ultimately if you resist the first two, then the third is all that's left.

But no Republican campaign would be complete if we didn't have a discussion of what to do "for the children".  So, who should make these choices for children?  According to Huck, it should be government:

We've done a number of things to try to shrink government. But the truth is, we can't shrink it enough, as much as it's growing, because of the poor health of our citizens, who have eaten themselves into a financial crisis call Medicaid, health insurance for employees. It's a national disaster. And, no, I don't want to tell you what you can eat. But you're talking about schoolkids. We don't let schoolkids get married. We don't let them drive. We don't let them join the military and do contracts, because they're kids. And they don't have good judgment. We ought to make some decisions for kids.

The parents apparently are no longer able to do such things.  This from the candidate who believes in the strength of the family.  So as long as you're a man and a woman getting married and having kids, you're fine.  But don't think that you'll be able to decide what your child will eat.  Mike Huckabee will take care of that for you, lest you make the wrong decision with your freedom of choice.

You see, creating a "Culture of Anything" is really just smoke and mirrors for creating a big government program to punish you for making a "wrong" choice.  The final arbiter of what's right and wrong will of course be Uncle Sam.  It's the ultimate in government Newspeak.  The reality is that you can't give someone choice, and then make the choice for them.  They either have the choice and can use it, or they can't.  But apparently that doesn't matter to the many Republicans who are supporting Huckabee.  For if you have a Democrat who wants to to control your children and your life, but is deemed secular, that's bad.  But if you have a religious person who wants to control your children and your life, then that's just fine and dandy.

If only there were candidate who just didn't want to control your life or your children.