I've written numerous times that one of the dangers of injecting religious fervor into politics is the degree to which religion can impede compromise. Having one's political positions informed by religious values need not be a problem, but it is a significant problem when you start thinking that some position is what God Wills or what God Hates.
This is because such positions become impossible to compromise on. If it's something God Wills, then you can't settle for only half of it; if it's something God Hates, then you can't accept even a little bit of it. We're used to seeing this on issues like abortion or gay marriage, but it's not limited to just such obvious issues. We are now seeing, for example, exactly such absolutism on economic matters as well.
Amanda Marcotte writes:
Basically, once you start saying that god is telling you what to do, what you mean is you're making 100% of your decisions based on knee-jerk emotions. And not just any emotions, but fundamentalist Christian ones---i.e. paranoia, grandiosity, etc. A lot of these folks probably believe Obama is the Antichrist. But even if they don't, they definitely believe that anyone who isn't their version of right wing conservative is in thrall to Satan. What this makes them is impervious to reason.
That's why I think they really, seriously do believe that Obama, Boehner, the pundits, etc. are lying when they say the shit hits the fan if we don't raise the debt celing. That is, in the fundie eye, a lie fueled by Satan to keep this country away from the path of the Lord. Everything the demonized mainstream media and the Democrats say is, in their view.
This is what religious fanaticism does to the body politic. I think a lot of people have, for a long time, imagined that the fundie right wasn't that big a deal, because hey, they just want to ban abortion and gay rights, right? As long as people considered these second tier issues, the fundies could grow their power unchecked.
The mainstream Republican party thought they could use the Bible thumpers to get a caucus together, throw them some abortion bones, and then use their warm bodies to get votes for the stuff Wall Street really cares about. But what they've found is they've created a monster.
The Tea Bagger movement was heavily bankrolled by corporate interests and "mainstream" Republicans -- people who should have a clue about economic matters and haven't been happy at how their extremist foot soldiers have been acting. They don't seem to have fully comprehended earlier what it was that they were purchasing, but now they should know. Will that matter, though?
The so-called "culture war" isn't just about a limited set of moral and cultural issues. It's not possible to let the "culture warriors" run around and do whatever they want with abortion and gay marriage and expect them to be satisfied. For them, "culture wars" are about everything in culture -- including all political and economic issues. It all matters to them -- and they are quite right that these things can't all be separated into neat, easy, distinct categories.
What this means, though, is that putting the culture warriors in power entails giving them power over all those issues -- and giving them the ability to apply the same absolutist, uncompromising, fundamentalist approach to economics and international relations that they already apply to abortion and homosexuality. This is what voting for Republicans gets you in today's America. This is what the Tea Bagger movement is all about.
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