> Without thinking too hard, I come up with: the war on Iraq, provoked in
> significant part by millennarian Christian thinking and the certainty
> that God put Bush in office to fight a holy war; the imperious attitude
> towards information, criticism, and dissent, provoked in significant
> part by the same set of religious influences; the policies on abortion
> and stem-cell research; the idiotic gay marriage amendment; subsidies to
> religious entities under the rubric of "faith-based initiatives"; the
> related war on public schools; Ashcroft's war on porn....
You are stretching here, by linking the policies of the Bush administration to the religious right, which as a movement has all but ceased to exist. The invasion of Iraq was motivated by several geopolitical reasons, plus the agenda of the neocon right, Millennarian Christianity was probably not a factor in the decision to invade Iraq. The attitudes towards dissent are typical of any authoritrian ruler. These attitudes are not uniquely the province of the religious right, nor are they necessarily tied to the religous right. The policies on abortion are the same as they've always been with the Republicans. Abortion rights were actually chipped away more under Clinton than under Bush. The gay marriage amendment did not come out of the *grassroots* religious right, rather it is a cynical and effective campaign by the Republicans to increase Republican voter turnout by Republicans, because they understand that rank-and-file Republicans are not enthusiastic about Bush. The Democrats handed the gay marriage issue to the Republicans by their cowardly, chickenshit duplicitous waffling on the issue.
Subsidies to religious entities is nothing new. There is plenty of money going to religious organizations in the welfare sector, as well as in other programs for the poor. The voucher war on public schools is probably where the religious right is most active right now and they are succeeding because everybody hates public schools. As long as the Democrats keep backing loser issues, they will have their heads handed to them on a plate by the Republicans.
Ashcroft's war on porn is hype. Even if he accomplished something in this area, it wouldn't ever threaten the existence of porn. In fact, Internet porn is probably one factor in the decline of the religious right. ;-)
Chuck