The Evangelical Rebellion

by Chris Hedges*

The rise of Mike Huckabee as a presidential candidate represents a seismic shift in the tactics, ideology and direction of the radical Christian right. Huckabee may stumble and falter in later primaries, but his right-wing Christian populism is here to stay. Huckabee represents a new and potent force in American politics, and the neocons and corporate elite, who once viewed the yahoos of the Christian right as the useful idiots, are now confronted with the fact that they themselves are the ones who have been taken for a ride. Members of the Christian right, recruited into the Republican Party and manipulated to vote against their own interests around the issues of abortion and family values, are in rebellion. They are taking the party into new, uncharted territory. And they presage, especially with looming economic turmoil, the rise of a mass movement that could demolish what is left of American democracy and set the stage for a Christian fascism.

The corporate establishment, whose plundering of the country created fertile ground for a radical, right-wing backlash, is sounding the alarm bells. It is scrambling to bolster Mitt Romney, who, like Rudy Giuliani or Hillary Clinton, will continue to slash and burn on behalf of corporate profits. Columnist George Will called Huckabee’s populism “a comprehensive apostasy against core Republican beliefs.” He wrote that Huckabee’s candidacy “broadly repudiates core Republican policies such as free trade, low taxes, the essential legitimacy of America’s corporate entities and the market system allocating wealth and opportunity.” National Review’s Rich Lowry wrote that “like [Howard] Dean, his nomination would represent an act of suicide by his party.”

More after the click ...

* Chris Hedges, who graduated from seminary at the Harvard Divinity School, was a foreign correspondent for nearly two decades for the New York Times and other publications. He was part of a team of reporters at The New York Times that won the 2002 Pulitzer prize for its coverage of global terrorism.

He is the author of:
War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning
Leaving Moses on the Freeway: The 10 Commandments of America
and
American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America

My comment: So ... we have Christian fascism on one hand and Corporate fascism on the other hand, in a power struggle to see who gets to be the favorite flavor of fascism to destroy the free world.

Personally, I'm for WHATEVER the F@$& is behind door number three ... WHATEVER the F@$& it is.