How the GOP Became God's Own Party
By Kevin Phillips
Sunday, April 2, 2006;
Washington Post
Now that the GOP has been transformed by the rise of the South, the trauma of terrorism and George W. Bush's conviction that God wanted him to be president, a deeper conclusion can be drawn: The Republican Party has become the first religious party in U.S. history.
We have had small-scale theocracies in North America before -- in Puritan New England and later in Mormon Utah. Today, a leading power such as the United States approaches theocracy when it meets the conditions currently on display: an elected leader who believes himself to speak for the Almighty, a ruling political party that represents religious true believers, the certainty of many Republican voters that government should be guided by religion and, on top of it all, a White House that adopts agendas seemingly animated by biblical worldviews.
(The rest of the article is here.)
Kevin Phillips, a former Republican strategist, has been a political and economic commentator for more than three decades. He is currently a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times and National Public Radio and also writes for Harper’s Magazine and Time. American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century is his 13th book.
More by Kevin Phillips: "Time to Recall Bush?" from the Huffington Post
More on Kevin Phillips:
Sunday, April 2, 2006;
Washington Post
Now that the GOP has been transformed by the rise of the South, the trauma of terrorism and George W. Bush's conviction that God wanted him to be president, a deeper conclusion can be drawn: The Republican Party has become the first religious party in U.S. history.
We have had small-scale theocracies in North America before -- in Puritan New England and later in Mormon Utah. Today, a leading power such as the United States approaches theocracy when it meets the conditions currently on display: an elected leader who believes himself to speak for the Almighty, a ruling political party that represents religious true believers, the certainty of many Republican voters that government should be guided by religion and, on top of it all, a White House that adopts agendas seemingly animated by biblical worldviews.
(The rest of the article is here.)
Kevin Phillips, a former Republican strategist, has been a political and economic commentator for more than three decades. He is currently a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times and National Public Radio and also writes for Harper’s Magazine and Time. American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century is his 13th book.
More by Kevin Phillips: "Time to Recall Bush?" from the Huffington Post
More on Kevin Phillips:
- "Tying Religion and Politics to an Impending U.S. Decline" from the NY Times
- Amy Goodman interviews Kevin Phillips on Democracy Now!
- "The Erring Republican Authority: Kevin Phillips is wrong about everything. Why is he taken so seriously?" from Slate
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2 Comments:
Awesome post.
To Norwegianity:
We try to give both sides when we can. From there we can let readers decide....
LP
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