The Christianists Betrayed

by tristero

Looks like the rightwing operatives who hide behind the skirts of priests are so pissed they are threatening to tell their followers not to vote for Republicans this fall. Good.

I think it’s important, however, to make a distinction that Dave Neiwert made when Judge Roy Moore – he who blasphemed the Ten Commandments by turning them into a textbook example of idolatry – was thinking of running for president and many of us including yours truly were cynically and wrongly cheering him on.

It’s one thing to encourage the Republican party to tell the christianists to crawl back underneath whatever rocks they hale from. The sooner the Dobsons of the world are politcally marginal in the US, the better. It’s quite another, in an effort to defeat Republicans, to root for a splintering of the GOP into two groups such that the christianists establish a seriously powerful second national party* in opposition to Republicans.

As the past five plus years have shown, the last thing this country needs is a wealthy politcal party hellbent on inflicting its nutty theocratic agenda on the rest of us. Divested of the (admittedly weak) secular anchor of the rest of the GOP, these people could wreck this country even faster than you could say George W. Bush.

So if the christianists are to break away and establish a National Christianist Party – let’s call it the NaXi Party – it should be accompanied by strenuous efforts to exacerbate their tendency to fight amongst themelves, thereby making it impossible for them to cohere around a national agenda. This is not as far-fetched as it sounds at first glance, what with their alarming goose-stepping solidarity in opposing marriage rights and adequate healthcare for the poor. There are major differences between Catholic christianists and Protestant ones and they can be exploited. And there are other ways to weaken them politically. Let’s not forget that evangelicals had a long tradition of focusing on their own salvation and avoiding national political organizing, as they did in the decades immediately post-Scopes. This, too, can be used to limit their effectiveness (yes, I know it’s a lot more complicated than that, but Christianity is supposed to be a religion, for crissakes, not a political movement, and it’s time evangelical leaders looked at the log in their own eye).

So, yes, Republicans should boot the Bible-thumpers out of positions of serious influence in their party. But no, the christianists should not be encouraged to form a NaXi Party as that could rapidly lead to Very Bad Things which all of us, especially liberals, would come to regret. And let’s not make the mistake many liberals (and mainstream conservatives, too) made in the 70’s and 80’s. The christianists represent a very, very dangerous element in American culture; they should not be ignored, dismissed, underestimated, or in any way encouraged.

*For many years, the Democrats have failed to demonstrate they are serious about being a national politcal party. Although Dean’s work as Chairman is encouraging, and more so the more I hear of what he’s doing, the jury is still out as to whether other influential Democrats actually will permit him build a viable party, ie, one capable of winning and retaining either house of Congress, not to mention the presidency.