And It Came to Pass

Very early in 2003, when I was beginning to pull together all my notes and observations on the neo-conservative Right, I gave them the following warning:

Let's assume, hypothetically that this Administration blunders the United States of America into a World War. Let’s say we are viewed as the illegal aggressor; this is strictly hypothetical. The world comes crashing down on us, changes our leadership by force, and then convenes a military tribunal for war crimes. Under the current situation, without your specific distinction, all Christendom is suspect and innocent people will likely be executed for what their membership has done. While every Christian, in theory, should be ready to give their life for Jesus Christ, it is not exactly justice that all Christians should be tainted with crimes against humanity. That is, of course, presuming that justice is contained within your expression of Christianity. Again, this is hypothetical as an illustration of the outcome to the actions which you currently support.

That is already coming to pass.

I am wholly enjoying American Theocracy by Kevin Phillips. However, I also see the warning I gave the neo-conservative Right coming to pass. Mr. Bush, the GOP’s darling of 2000, fully supported by the rank-and-file conservatives of the Republican Party, is now, as a lame duck, being cast as a religious zealot under the influence of the neo-conservative Right. I am no supporter of the neo-conservative Right, but let’s be honest. That branch of the GOP only produced four million votes for Mr. Bush in 2004. Whatever else is to be said, they were not exactly ringers. Mistaken, maybe, but still entitled to their “Sacred Franchise,” as it was once called. They have the right to campaign for the politician of their choice. They have the right to vote. The remainder of Mr. Bush’s victory, and his dismal performance in office (with an approval rating of only 22%)[1] was at the bequest of the mainstream, hard-line, big business stalwart conservatives of the Grand Old Party.

Now Mr. Bush’s approval rating has dropped below Nixon’s, and the GOP members of the House and the Senate have to be reelected. The same people who brought him to power are using the neo-conservative Right as its scapegoat. Mr. Phillips, as a GOP strategist, had a hand in recruiting Southern conservatives into the Republican Party to give Nixon the boost he needed from the Silent Majority in 1972. He writes as if he is surprised, shocked, and appalled by the clearly fundamentalist leanings of the Southern culture. American Theocracy, and others that will follow (my own included), lays blame at the feet of the neo-conservative Right and the good people who worked so hard to put the Bush-flavored GOP into office. However, William Buckley had just as much, if not more, to do with the twin victories of Mr. Bush as did Dr. Dobson, Pat Robertson, and Jerry Falwell.

I am willing to fix blame on the neo-conservative Right for being duped into supporting the GOP with such fervor. That is my biggest vexation with the neo-conservative Right. They think they are in the game. They are not!

The Kingdom of God is not a political state within any geographical border. That ended back in 73 C.E. (or A.D. if you prefer). The GOP has co-opted the sincere religious beliefs of the neo-conservative Right to propel the GOP right wing hard liners into political power. This is not much different from the Democrats use of the Religious Left (the whole Liberation Theology Movement which smacked of Marxism more than Jesus) in the 1960s and 1970s. Let’s make no mistake; the GOP is using the neo-conservative Right for its own aims, and the neo-conservative Right is using the GOP to further its aims. It is the equivalent of a prostitute and a gigolo in bed together.

Neither one is innocent. We all are the ones paying the price.

It would be rather ironic if, in the near future, those of us who are despised by the neo-conservative Right need to come to their aid to protect them from what they wrought in the land. It would be Jehovah’s joke on us all.

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[1] President's approval rating at record low, 5/18/2006 3:23 PM, Capital News 9 Staff