• Alleged rise in theocracy in U.S. Alleged rise in theocracy in U.S. By the Rocky Mountain News, Denver – November 9, 2004 Any hope that this year’s brutal political rhetoric would diminish after Nov. 2 has been utterly dashed.
• Alleged rise in theocracy in U.S.
Alleged rise in theocracy in U.S.
By the Rocky Mountain News, Denver – November 9, 2004
Any hope that this year’s brutal political rhetoric would diminish after Nov. 2 has been utterly dashed. If anything, the reaction to George W. Bush’s re-election in some cases has been even more hysterical than warnings incubated in the heat of the campaign. Supposedly serious people have actually begun to worry — or at least to say they worry — about the rise of theocracy in America.
Yes, that is the incendiary word anguished commentators have used — “theocracy” — in publications as mainstream as USA Today and The Miami Herald, not to mention more partisan enclaves such as The Village Voice and Salon.com. Writing in The New York Times, Gary Hart joined the hysterical herd, warning of “the disturbing tendency to insert theocratic principles into the vision of America’s role in the world.” Pundits elsewhere lamented the endorsement of “an extremist Christian regime” or predicted the descent into “another dark age.”
Finally, those worried about theocracy should keep in mind that the actual percentage of voters who identified moral values as their top concern was roughly one-fifth. Most voted for Bush, but so did most voters who favor tax relief and who see the war in Iraq as critical for U.S. security. It is nonsense to claim that a horde of religious zealots put Bush over the top. …
