A Profound Abandonment of Reason

I share a view with many cultural critics: that the profound abandonment of reason, the seething rage stewing (and overflowing) among Evangelicals in the Bible Belt, has been fueled primarily by two discrete phenomena.

First, the "election" of George W. Bush represented the zenith of the Moral Majority's stated goal of "winning the culture for Christ." This was little more than slick sloganeering, of course. The real aim was to establish cultural hegemony (and lasting cash flow) for Christians of Falwell's ilk. The problem was that, in choosing "W" as their candidate, they were very much shooting themselves in the collective foot. Everything the man touched became a clusterfuck; thoughtful conservatives were able to recognize their serious tactical error in joining forces with politically-engaged right-wing religious zealots.

Then, of course, there was the election of Barack Obama. The shock of their lives, from which they haven't yet begun to recover. And not only his election; the man had the audacity to clean up most of their guy's world-class messes and achieve historic milestones for the country, despite their best attempts at total obstruction. No wonder they're losing their minds.