Posted on 05/11/2008 3:05:15 PM PDT by The_Republican
Ah, spring. Fresh flowers, fresh leaves, fresh leases on life...and, in step with a tradition dating back to around 2004--the year when Christian "values voters" reportedly seized our fragile nation's helm--there's also a fresh crop of new books unabashedly bashing evangelicals.
Leading the pack is "The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power," which is yet another entry in the behind-the-scenes, just-like-Skull-and-Bones Christian conspiracy genre. Luckily for yawning readers, there's also a newer, cuter, echoes-of-Jon-Stewart form of Christian-bashing on the 2008 market, which involves shelving the drama, loading up on the irony, going undercover and making merciless fun of the poor religious saps. In early May, self-affirmed tolerant and open person Matt Taibbi (who, in a recent Rolling Stone article, ridicules "nerdy" evangelicals wearing "the gayest" shirts as "a slow-moving hulk of confused, shipwrecked masculinity, flailing for an Answer") comes out with "The Great Derangement," his own book on the topic. Daniel Radosh, meanwhile, offers a kinder, gentler evangelical skewering--but a skewering nonetheless--in his new book on Christian popular culture, "Rapture Ready."
The funny thing about all of this is, of course, that it's not 2004 anymore. And as any barely alert political observer can tell you, evangelicals are certainly not running the show. They're...well...where are they, anyway?
Seriously, where'd all those hard-right, Republican evangelicals go?
The supposed storyline is a familiar one: Religious fundamentalists, a.k.a. "values voters," catapulted Bush into office. (John Kerry's "I voted for it before I voted against it," in this questionable-at-best narrative, had nothing to do with it.) In the wake of the Kerry disaster, Democrats scrambled to appear more religious.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
In 2004, the question was “Shares my values” as the voters left the polling booth and took exit polls, Kerry lost those voters by 68%, this time around the issues are not as burning as of yet.
And GWB was an unabashed Evangelical, he made no bones about it, Mad John is much more a man of the mold of Goldwater, Religion is not really a part of his world views, couple that with Outsourcing literally leaving swaths of Evangelicals unemployed or under employed coupled with McCain’s insistence on arguing for even more outsourcing of manufacturing, and one would have to be quite resolute in one’s faith to support the candidate who wants to see your job shipped to China or “wherever”...
Oh, evangelicals are just as powerful as before. Their flocking to Huckabee all but gave the nomination to John McCain with the help of independents and liberals.
So now they’ll no doubt chat up McCain. Now, whether he’ll even pretend to listen is anyone’s guess.
I never thought President Bush was an Evangelical.
Reagan tapped into the majority of america.
America is a Conservative oriented society.
Less government is good.
taxes are always too high.
respect the traditional family
support the american dream
protect the nation.
x41 benefited from that and lost to x42 because he forgot that.
GWBush was elected to go back to it and reelected to keep the momentum.
However we now have been manipulated to deny us a choice and the monied people think we have not noticed that we have three clones as a choice.
If only there as a way to punish soros and buffect and then we would have fun.
You can read it free online: HERE.
Just Mencken's introduction is worth a read.
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