Some Dare Call It Theocracy

Today is the debut of The Huffington Post "celebrity" blog. I have added it to the blogroll and although I expect a lot of nonsense today's post by Max Blumenthal would indicate we can anticipate some worthwhile posting as well.

Mr Blumenthal takes on the rise of theocracy in this once secular nation. He correctly points out that it's no longer a Republican/Democrat issue.

As Karen Armstrong and many others explained at the "Examining the Real Agenda of the Religious Far-Right" conference in New York last weekend (which Kurtz flippantly mocked), the battle between the Christian right and advocates of church/state separation is not necessarily a left/right ideological conflict. The conflict is, in fact, only one theatre in a worldwide battle between fundamentalism and the Enlightenment. In this context, the Dominionist wing of the Christian right probably has more in common with Hamas than they do with the staff of William Buckley's National Review. But as conference speakers Frederick Clarkson and Chip Berlet correctly pointed out, the Democratic party, and by extension, the left, has struggled to make this argument. Instead, it has substituted perjoratives like "the radical religious right" for actual ideas.

Now that seems to changing. Just read Al Gore's speech or Hedges' article. Whether or not you agree with their choice of rhetoric, their argument is hard to dispute: the struggle for America's future is not a conflict between political parties, but between two ideologies. One values individual freedom, the other, clerical authoritarianism. True conservatives should choose sides more carefully.

I suggest you go check out the entire post.