2008

For a Trusty Voting Bloc, a Faith Shaken

...religious conservatives...claimed credit for propelling George W. Bush to two terms in the White House. Even in wartime, they had managed to fixate the nation on their pet issues: opposition to abortion, gay marriage and stem cell research.

Now with the 2008 race taking shape, religious conservatives say they sense they have taken a tumble. Their issues are no longer at the forefront, and their leaders have failed so far to coalesce around a candidate...

Over the past 7 years, we've read countless articles about the religious right, their influence with Bush. their voting block powers, their hatred of gays, stem cells, and a women's right to choose, and much more.

Bush went over the top with this group. His speeches were crafted with terminology that was directed straight to the religious right, the rest of us were clueless.

We were aghast at the degree of what we perceived as hypocrisy and a boatload of bad information that seemingly kept the R.R. stuck in a bubble world. We couldn't believe that so many people could obviously vote for politicians that would consequently move on issues contrary to the R.R.'s own interest. The R.R. rank and file were duped and played like easy chumps on endless issues. The worst aspect was their seemingly unconscious willingness to move the country away from democracy towards totalitarianism.

Bush made separation of church and state something to laugh at. Christians are crawling all over the Pentagon, and military personnel are exposed to R.R. preachments like it or not. The codes of behavior in the military manuals are now rewritten with terminology that is straight from the R.R.

Fundamentalism isn't going away soon. As groups of people move towards more egalitarianism and openness, there will be an equal and greater movement towards fundamentalism and the right, a movement towards all things fascistic.

Progressives are starting to get the idea about how to frame issues. The war of words has heated up and there is a greater understanding that the fringes of the right need to be pushed back. Look at how groups are taking on some of the hate radio people quite strongly in fact. Its about time.