That the Dover defendants and lawyers weren't up to the task, and that some creationists don't understand the differences between ID & creationism, DOES NOT make ID and creationism the same.
Now, if A has similarities with B, and I confuse them, does that make A=B?
"Intelligent Design" was launched by the Discovery Institute (DI) with the hope that it would become a broad-based movement in conservative circles, especially in "family-values" organizations. But despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent promoting ID--about $25 million from DI--over the last 10 years, ID has never developed a solid constituency. Today it is a notion increasingly seen as vacuous.
One problem that ID proponents have not been able to overcome is that it has not been picked up by churches and televangelists, such as Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Gary Bauer, James Dodson, and the like. ID is almost never mentioned on Christian radio.
Many preachers consider that ID has muddied the waters from the simple notions of creationism, Noah's Flood, and Biblical inerrancy. The main creationist groups, Institute for Creation Research and Answers in Genesis, have never embraced 'intelligent design'. They appreciated that ID diverted questions about Noah's Flood, which was impossible to justify on scientific grounds, to the "God issue", but they are unhappy that ID has never addressed moral values and skirts the issue of of who the "Grand Designer" is.
After Kitzmiller, the Discovery Institute could only whimper, claiming they never believed ID should be in schools. This directly contradicted their "Wedge Document." And the expert testimony sponsored by DI was caught in several contradictions at the trial, which Judge Jones pointed out. Even the Thomas Moore Center--the legal counsel engaged "to defeat the ACLU" ---was appalled by DI undermining their legal filings. So 'intelligent design' lost face big time with potential backers. DI has tried to reply with ad hominem attacks on Judge Jones, with a campaign to "teach the controversy", with attempts to brand critics as "liberal elites", but these attempts have backfired.
To make matters worse for ID and the DI, a distinct schism between Catholics and some evangelical Christians has arisen. Several important Catholic leaders have spoken out to say that the scientific theory of evolution is not inconsistent with Catholic doctrine. Neither the Roman Church nor the Orthodox Church have become champions of "intelligent design". Without this support in the largest Christian congregations, ID has no real base.