> Maybe it's just my particular dealings with a broad cross section
> of society around here, I think the the cryptofacisct fundamentalist
> hordes are just as mythical as the "Moral Majority" of Nixon's era.
The hordes exist, but their power is vastly overrated. Listmembers may remember our argument last summer over the state of the culture wars, which I argued had been won by my side. I still think my assessment at that time was correct, but the right wing has effectively managed to fn the flames of the culture wars since then.
Or have they? The new culture wars appear to mostly the work of hype generated by the religious right combined with the willing ignorance of the liberals, who have suddenly found religion. The number of people of the religious right has not exponentially increased since a year ago. The Republicans managed to get most of the existing religious right to vote, thanks to some pandering using culture war issues. But as Thomas Frank pointed out the other night, Bush and the Republican hierarchy dropped most of this stuff as soon as his new term started. They are more interested in pleasing their chief constituency: the rich.
I'm not advocating dismissing the culture wars, but I think that it is important to not overestimate the power of the religious right. Progressives should stop finding religion and get back to fighting the class war. We need to understand how the culture war is used against us--see Thomas Frank's analysis.
Just remember that the culture wars and the "war on liberalism" are diversions. You can't win by being defensive.
Chuck0