A reader writes:
"In your blog recently you have been pointing out how far removed the Christianists are from the religious attitudes of the Founding Fathers. This is all very true, but I think there is another dimension to this shift that you are missing.
The Founding Fathers were not very representative of Americans in the late eighteenth century. During that time period, the country was rocked by a number of fundamentalist religious revivals, in both the North and the South. So in their detached Deism, Jefferson, Adams, and the like were really unrepresentative in their own time.
I think the Founders recognized this, and this is why the Constitution tried to check the power of democracy as much as possible, by limiting the right to vote, by having the assemblies elect Senators, and by having the electoral college choose the President. The Founders didn’t want the Bible-Thumpers in their midst making the important decisions. In case white male voters started transferring their "irrational" religious beliefs to the ballot box, the Founders could ensure that these other safeguards would prevent them from having their way.
Of course, in the intervening centuries, the democratic process has become much more inclusive. Now the people elect their own Senators, and the electoral college is little more than an archaic formality. The natural consequence of this is that the group of people whose religious enthusiasm the Founders once sought to exclude are now moving to the front and center of the political process. This is the price of democracy in a predominantly Christian land with a strong tradition of evangelicalism. And this is exactly the price the Founders hoped to avoid."
The founders, in other words, were elitists. You bet they were. You can see the imprint throughout the constitution, which is a republican, rather than democratic, achievement. And they were often conservative elitists, trying to restrain the impulses of democratic majorities, especially when conjoined to religious appeals. Remember when conservatism was like that? Miss it? Me too.
The Dish 