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Old 07-26-2006, 09:49 AM   #18 (permalink)
roachboy
 
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Location: essex ma
this is becoming ridiculous really quickly.
it is empirically the case that a very significant element of the populist coalition the right has assembled is geared around the chrisitan coalition and that ralph reed was fundamental to transforming this from an umbrella organization started by jerry falwell into an extremely effective grassroots political machine. it is also obviously the case that the election of extreme right republicans owes much to the efficacy of this machine. there is nothing paranoid about this--it is simply a fact.

the christian coalition's success relies upon several factors: central among these is that it is routine in evangelical land to draw no clear distinction between questions of faith and questions of politics. given the deference accorded to folk who speak with some assurance on spiritual/political matters within the congregations, the effect of this blurring of lines can be kinda authoritarian if you think about it.
one of the central arguments the coalition has advanced internally is that a preacher is a preacher and an independent political agent at once and that there is no need to keep the two functions separate. look for yourself--look at the coalition webpages.





the christian coalition has been pretty innovative in exploiting this blurring of lines for its own ends: it publshes voter guides for each election that tell the faithful how to vote...it sponsors a range of lobbying activities and routinely generates cash that it streams toward reactionary candidates.

http://www.cc.org/about.cfm

the coalition has been a significant element in fashioning and enabling to function the various "wedge issues" that the right has used to generate and maintain a sense of (persecuted) separateness--the effects of which you see in nearly every thread here.

it is a very large, very well-funded and politically significant group, if you want to look analytically at what remains of the right after 6 years of george w bush.

one can argue with host's staging of the effects of this relationship, but you cannot do as powerclown appears to be trying to do and as aladin sane simply echoes and discount the relationship between extreme rightwing protestant evangelical/fundamentalist churches and the extreme right wing of the republican party.
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