I've said for a long time that the Republican Party has been on a trajectory towards fully identifying itself as a party exclusively for Christians. It is why I understand and agree with Steven Weber's piece in HuffPost from last week, which I linked to earlier. That piece imagines the party as a naked old man with no strength, life, or spirit left.
Since the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, the Republican Party has moved closer and closer becoming to a Christianist (i.e., pseudo-Christians who wield faith as a political weapon) movement. We have now seen the ascendancy of George W. Bush, which then begat the attempted (and incomprehensible) ascendancy of Sarah Palin. All of this was aided, of course, by a loud and dangerous cadre of right-wing media outlets that now dominate TV, radio and print media.
I predicted long ago (and have largely been proven correct) that the Republican Party would fracture into two camps -- one a mostly reasonable, patriotic bunch of thinkers who understand that politics works when deals are struck with the other party, and one a radical, reactionary, Christianist mob of True Believers bent on hastening the manifestation of their apocalyptic world-view. Still, in the middle of those two camps is a third camp, mostly those who still believe (wrongly) that the party embraces fiscal conservatism. Eventually it will dissolve into either of the two more dominant camps. The result will be the long sought-after multi-party system in American politics, except that our political debate will be even more fractious than before. This will give left-leaning Americans an unprecedented opportunity to forward their agenda for at least the next generation.
According to polls last November, Palin's candidacy was the main reason for the lopsided Democratic victory, as many Republicans who might have voted for McCain were awakened to the insanity that they had too long ignored among their ranks. Those of us on the left simply capitalized on the fact that many Americans have soured on and now openly reject the Christianist message embodied by Palin and others.
Well, here's the Christianist's response to us:
I suppose it will continue to get worse before it gets better, right?
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