The Religious Right

Larison questions Damon Linker’s thesis that the religious right has been bad for the United States. But Larison’s abhorrence of the liberal achievement in neutering the power of religion in the public square would hardly allow him to differ, would it? Larison is able to write the following sentences without flinching (which is why he makes for bracing reading):

Theological certainties are basically good things–why wouldn’t we want them ”injected” into public life?  “Injected” sounds bad–this is the sort of thing that junkies and poisoners do, they “inject” things, bad things, into their bodies or others’ bodies–but if instead we said that religious conservatives introduced (or re-introduced) theological certainties into public life, not only would religious conservatives agree that they have done, or tried to do, this, but they would be baffled as to why anyone would be concerned.

If you believe in God and His final judgement, everyone’s acts and goals have metaphysical significance.

Where does one start? Ross chips in here.

Theocons vs Obama

Douglas Kmiec is the exception. There’s a campaign among some of the most vocal theocons to describe Obama as unacceptable to Catholic voters. K-Lo, cocooned among the far right, just assumes that no Catholic nun can be a Democrat. Bill Donahue – surprise! – has been venting the meme here and here. Catholics United hits back here. Obama has been gaining – just a little – with Catholics. But he has a lot more work to do. My sense is that the better they know him, the more they’ll be open to giving him a chance.

Following The Money

The representative of working class white America is now using her own multi-million dollar fortune to ensure that the little people’s voices are heard. It’s a nice contrast with the elitist, commie egghead who has revolutionized campaign finance with 1.5 million small donors. But, hey, the Clintons can simply position themselves the way the Bushies do: they create their own reality. But what the Clintons’ self-financing now means is that all the sleaze around Bill’s post-presidential money-grubbing is on the table. The Clintons are financing their campaign with dollars gained by Bill’s speaking gigs to all sorts of interested parties. Who paid him? Why? What did they get out of it? To whom will this wannabe president already indebted?