>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
This certainly begs the question, which battles (plural) that have already been won are people refighting? Maybe you have some in mind you could share? Also who on the "left" is inflating the threat from the "religious right" in order to continue a flow of funds? Nobody that I know but we, in all probability, define left, religious right and many other terms in this discussion in slightly different ways. What we can do to continue putting reactionary religious elements on a more defensive posture is certainly a topic worth discussing but celebrations of the death of such movements or elements is extremely premature. Right now they have certainly lost the pressure bearing ability they held recently but assuming they have lost is practically a guarantee that they will not.
John Thornton