> No one I know who is engaged in any battles with the religious right is
> fighting "ghosts and bogeymen" but rather groups and individuals
> involved in right-to-life beliefs, vouchers for religious schools,
> mandatory prayer in school, and a host of other issues that are real.
> They may not rank as high as your agenda of overthrowing the state but
> these issues matter to these people. I guess I'll tell them all to go
> home and quite fighting to prevent these gains from being rolled back,
> ChuckO says they're fighting ghosts and wasting time they could be using
> to smash the state.
> Reality is currently busy "stepp[ing] all over your dogma" about the
> powerlessness of the religious right.
I've fought against the religious right for many years and will continue to do so. Part of being an effective activist against the religious right--whoever they may be this year--is having an accurate understanding of their current power, numbers, players and priorities.
From everything I can see, the religious right is not just on the wane, they have been routed in the culture wars. That doesn't mean that they will pop up again--like they are going to do in Kansas again next year--but overall their movement is dead.
I see no use in being dishonest about this. I understand that the American left inflates the threat of the religious right to keep the funds flowing in from scared liberals, but I'm more interested in a level-headed understanding of the political terrain. It's not worthwhile to refight battles that have already been won. It's also important for us to talk about why the religious right lost the culture wars and the factors that caused their movements to wane or become defunct.
Chuck Munson Infoshop.org