April 28, 2005
Long Live Satan!
It is one of those bitter ironies that God is not foremost on the minds of extremist Fundamentalists. Their obsession is with fear and discipline, a fixation with what libertarians used to call “unnatural coercion” that would clearly make them much better suited to Devil worship. Theocracy is no stranger to American politics. From the start the three major players were old school British Rule, Enlightenment types like Thomas Jefferson, and, of course, one of the biggest and most old world power brokers of them all, the Christian Church. The battle over the role of the church in the new nation has always been ugly. Jefferson was by no means in the majority, extremely disliked, embattled, and under constant fire from the messianic fervor of zealous theocrats. In many ways it was a minor miracle that the country got off to such a good start. For over a century afterwards the theocrats were basically held in check. Only through figures like William Jennings Bryan, thoroughly derided by H.L. Menkin as a snake oil salesman and demagogue, did Fundamentalism develop the political infrastructure that has finally flourished under the Bushevik administration. If the Neocon mission is to instill good Christian values the world over, they sure have a strange way of going about it. It would hardly seem as though they have any interest at all in reviving a peace loving, just God. The very opposite would seem much closer to the truth. Judging by the Neocon policies thus far, what the Rushdoony-ites do in the basement of the Council for National Policy building in Alexandria, Virginia in the middle of the night must be rather sinister. It would seem their immediate and pressing priority is hardly with peace and love, but rather with fear mongering. There is no evidence to conclude that Fundamentalists miss God in any way, and all the evidence indicates it is the negative example they really miss. Not surprisingly, the nation is struck dumb and spellbound: the Neocon bid to bring Satan back to life makes for an incredibly frightening spectacle.