the triumph of the religious right

"It may look like that, but liberals should think again before despairing." (Another article from The Economist of November 13-19th, 2004: 27).

"Secular Europeans wondered whether they and the Americans were now on different planets. The week before the election, Rocco Buttigline had been forced to withdrwa his nomination as a European Union commissioner because he had said that homosexuality was a sin, and that marriage exists for children and the protection of women. In America, he would probably have won Ohio.

Der Spiegel, Germany's most popular newsweekly, put the statue of liberty on its cover, blindfolded by an American flag. Britain's Daily Mirror asked, "How can 59,054,097 people be so DUMB?" And a contributor to Pravda, that bastion of religious expertise, claimed that "the Christian fundamentalists of America are the mirror image of the Taliban, both of which insult and deny their Gods."

(...) The moralists' share of the electorate was only 22%, just two points more than the share of those who cited the economy, and three points more than those who nominated terrorism as the top priority.(...) Moreover, that 22% is much lower than it was in the two previous presidential elections, in 2000 and 1996. Then, 35% and 40%, respectively, put moral or ethical issues top, and a further 14% and 9% put abortion first, an option that was not given in 2004.

(...) What may be changing is that the country is getting a little more intense in its religious beliefs. Also, and this could be more important, it is becoming more willing to tolerate religious involvement in the public sphere. (...) Gallop polls in the 1960s found that over half of all Americans thought that churches should not be involved in politics. Now, over half think that they can be.

(...) This week there was a sign of what may be to come when Republicans threatened to strip Senator Arlen Specter of the chairmanship of the committee that overseas Supreme Court nominations after he said that staunch opponents of abortion were unlikely to be confirmed.

(...) the victory of aggressive social conservatism over the small-government tradition in which morality is not legislated."