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Is the moral majority dying?
By Ned | May 20, 2007
I, for one, wouldn’t mourn the passing of radical Christian fundamentalism’s inordinate influence on American politics, but, unlike Frank Rich, I don’t see it really going anywhere for a while.
As Rich himself points out, Giuliani seems to be the only Republican presidential candidate who’s caught onto this alledged new wave of secular (or at least moderately religious) conservatism. And it’s important to remember that when 30% of Republican presidential candidates summarily reject evolution in a debate, the proportion of Americans who agree with them, scarily enough, is closer to 50%.
There’s no doubt, of course, that Christian fundamentalism has taken a beating in the last few years. They’ve been abandoned by the Bush administration, but I don’t think that was there death knell. All it did was leave a huge opening for Republican candidates trying to distance themselves from Bush to pander to that part of their base. And it made the movement leaner, meaner, and smarter. The next generation of fundamentalist high prophets isn’t going to be a group of stale old white men like the late Jerry Falwell or James Dobson.
No, the next generation is going to be headed by the cool uncle. It’s going to be soaked in a hip, fresh aesthetic that will serve only to disguise the Dark Ages attitude that fuels the movement. This is the face of the movement’s future. And they’re going to continue to be a powerful force in American politics for a very long time.
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