Over on the r i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i ght....

December 25, 2007 10:52 AM

Chris Hedges reports on the The Evangelical Revolution. The idea of a Dominionist Domination has been around for a few years; though real Dominionists are apparantly in favor of Tancredo. Here's the wiki on fellow travellers and Dominionalism.
posted by adamvasco (25 comments total)

As of Dec. 20, Tancredo has bowed out and endorsed Romney. How's that going over with the Dominionists?
posted by krinklyfig at 11:08 AM on December 25, 2007

adamvasco: You should have just asked for an axegrinder for christmas. These articles are awful terrible no good bits of drek.

"What is the real agenda of the religious far Right? I’ll tell you what it is. These nuts want to take over the federal government and suppress other religions through genocide and mass murder, rather than through proselytizing."

Those are the opening lines of your "around" link. Journalism this ain't, which I guess is fine for an op-ed, even a shitty one, but one from 2005? Nice. I mean, at least it makes truthdig look like the Christian Science Monitor.
posted by absalom at 11:17 AM on December 25, 2007 [1 favorite]

Or: Is this just metafilter's lump of coal? I know we were bad this year.
posted by absalom at 11:18 AM on December 25, 2007

Tancredo has actually dropped out of the race and endorsed Mitt Romney.
posted by delmoi at 11:18 AM on December 25, 2007

Sunday we're having a heretic roast at my church. Mmmm!
posted by Horken Bazooka at 11:22 AM on December 25, 2007

I am so tired of these Democrats who tout the "Dominionist" line whenever an Evangelical makes a run for anything. It didn't happen, which might mean it won't happen, but neither Chris Hedges (or his contemporary, Chip Berlet) have decisively proven Dominionism's supposed power or its supposed reach.
posted by parmanparman at 11:26 AM on December 25, 2007

Absalom: Are you at all familar with the National Review? You do know that the section you quoted was the editorialist lampooning 'Lefties'? Or did you get down to the 'BUT THEY'RE SERIOUS' section?
posted by Orb2069 at 11:33 AM on December 25, 2007 [2 favorites]

Orb2069: Oh, thank god! I wish I'd known it was satire. I might have been able to stomach a couple more paragraphs of it than I did.
posted by absalom at 11:41 AM on December 25, 2007

There is, in fact, a fringe Christian group of “Dominionists” or “Reconstructionists,” who really would like to see an American theocracy, and a return to the death penalty for blasphemy, adultery, sodomy, and witchcraft. The dystopian political program of this utterly marginal, extremist sect has absolutely no traction with anyone of significance. But that hasn’t stopped conspiracy mongers on the Left from imagining a murderous Christian plot to destroy America. I’ve found a number of Lefty sites that link to the following description of Dominionism at religioustolerance.org. This description includes the claim that Dominionists “advocate genocide for followers of minority groups and non-conforming members of their own religion.” I’m not sure this is accurate, even for the minuscule number of actual Dominionists. But the disturbing thing is the way this and other Left-leaning sites use logical sleight-of-hand to tar ordinary evangelicals with the madcap musings of a few fevered “Dominionists.”

These attitudes probably represent between 15-30% of America, but they author hid behind group membership to make his point.
posted by Brian B. at 11:51 AM on December 25, 2007

This will wenceslas.
posted by rokusan at 12:04 PM on December 25, 2007 [1 favorite]

If you're in the mood for pain, Absalom, take a roll around in the rest of the NRO's editorials. I THINK the article he's talking about is this one, though the NR, like most RW media, isn't real big on sources, quotes or footnotes (It's available on EBSCO.
I particularly like this bit:

• NRO: "And let’s stop calling traditional Christians fascists."
• Harper's:"I can't help but recall the words of my ethics professor at Harvard Divinity School, Dr. James Luther Adams, who told us that when we were his age, and he was then close to eighty, we would all be fighting the "Christian fascists.""(Only use of the word 'Fascist' in the article.)

posted by Orb2069 at 12:09 PM on December 25, 2007

Ooh! They're going to "demolish what's left of American Democracy and set the stage for Christian Fascism"!

I *love* home improvement!
posted by tkolar at 12:20 PM on December 25, 2007

Maybe if we all stand around commenting on how bad this conversation will end up being, no one will ever actually start having the really terrible conversation that is about to take place here?
posted by shakespeherian at 12:21 PM on December 25, 2007 [1 favorite]

My first exposure to Huckabee was an interview on MSNBC where he was asked for his views on abortion. He spoke for about seven minutes, without saying the word "woman" once. Which is creepy enough, but the bit that gave me the real crawlies is how he said "womb" or "in the womb" every couple sentences. Pretty revealing, as far as his perception of women goes.

Back then I thought, "Thank god this nub hasn't a prayer of getting the nomination." These polls out of Iowa right now make me bloody nervous. I doubt a Huckabee presidency would become a Dominionist regime, like the article suggests, but I'd hate to give him the chance, all the same.

This does make me think of how proud my Dad's made me over the past couple years. When I was still living with him, we'd argue about politics a lot -- he was fairly right wing, and I never have been. But it looks like eight years of Bush have finished off most of his right-wing ideas better than squabbling with me ever could have. Last time we had dinner, he told me about how creeped out he was by a megachurch service he saw on TV, that featured footage of tanks, fighter planes and waving flags to accompany the hymns celebrating the prince of peace.

Basically, I'm hoping enough thinking Republicans like my Dad get repulsed by the path the party's on, and vote against them in the years to come.
posted by EatTheWeek at 12:34 PM on December 25, 2007 [3 favorites]

Well, it would be helpful if someone could show up and post some sort of hyperbole suggesting that far from being the looney fringe, these were the heart and soul of American Christians.

Until then we're pretty much stuck.
posted by tkolar at 12:36 PM on December 25, 2007

Give it time, son. Give it time.
posted by shakespeherian at 12:45 PM on December 25, 2007

The area where I live is a bit of a hotbed for Dominionists, and is home to a pretty prominent Dominionist movement leader, Gary DeMar. Mother Jones took a pretty good look at this guy about a year ago.

Maybe it's just that because of where I live I'm exposed to these creeps all the time, but I can't help but take the threat of Christian theocratic fascism seriously. I don't think they're quite in the American mainstream just yet, but they're sure as hell working on it. The fact that a guy as far out there as Mike Huckabee can run for President and be taken seriously is a pretty damn ominous sign in my mind. I sure as hell hope I'm wrong.
posted by deadmessenger at 12:47 PM on December 25, 2007 [2 favorites]

Wow, it continually amazes me how motivated people can use the last real idealogy left to control people. It is more amazing that Europe was ruled by Christian nations for a period of time known as the "Dark Ages," that lead to wars lasting into the triple digits, and a whole slew of Jews (and Muslims) dead. But of course, that's not what this Christian nation would be like, right? It is not as if the people who built the nation specifically addressed this very issue. As in this nation was rather revolutionary at the time for being so secular.

In any case, I am glad I am not Jewish, as those people always get the bad end of the stick when things like this happen.
posted by geoff. at 12:51 PM on December 25, 2007

These people scare the shit out of me.
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:10 PM on December 25, 2007

Just to get the terminologies correct : Sectors of the US Right
posted by adamvasco at 1:14 PM on December 25, 2007 [1 favorite]

These people scare the shit out of me.

Me too. I can't believe the crap they invent about Christians is accepted at face value!
posted by Horken Bazooka at 1:20 PM on December 25, 2007

If Huckabee is elected (or finds another route to the Presidency, as Bush did), we will find ourselves saying about the Bush and Huckabee administrations what Iraqis said about the misery of the Saddam years and the American occupation: "the student is gone; the master has arrived."
posted by jamjam at 1:22 PM on December 25, 2007

I don't quite see Dominionism as very mainstream yet. Chris Hedges is right that the "right-wing establishment" is scared of Mike Huckabee actually winning, but I think the answer lies more with how poorly electable Huckabee is in the mainstream.

He's a person with "nice guy" vibes that says all the right things for evangelical Christians, but that's about it for qualifications. As a governor he practiced some rather loose monetary policies, which would offend the fiscal conservatives just as George W. Bush has. As a presidential candidate he is endorsing some rather radical concepts... such as the Fair Tax, which MHO would probably tick off those who don't rely on income (eg the entire AARP). He has zero international experience (leading to some strange defense and international policy statements as well), which I know sits very poorly with neo-conservatives. His "culture wars" stuff goes beyond George W. Bush as well, and while a sizable minority lap that stuff up, it doesn't sit very well with many areas of the country.

My impression is that all the dirt we've seen on Huckabee has come from the mainstream GOP; for good reason, as the Democrats would be licking their chops. Comparisons I've seen of Huckabee to McGovern in 1972 are, in my opinion, spot on should Huckabee somehow win.
posted by soundwave106 at 1:26 PM on December 25, 2007

What's the difference between Huckabee and you standard right-winger? They all talk about god all the time. The right wing is afraid of him because he's much more of an economic liberal, while being a social conservative. It has nothing to do with religion. But the fact that they talk about religion in their critique it's unnerving, i.e. "If these conservative nuts thing he's to religious, he must really be a freak!"

The last Evangelical Minister to be president was Jimmy Carter. It's entirely possible for people be evangelical Christians and support secular government, although obviously a lot of them do believe in religious government.

So is Huckabee just a economic liberal being bashed for being religious by a terrified corporatist wing of the republican party? Or is he truly a religious nut.

I don't really care. He'll be easy to beat in the general. And he would represent the utter and crushing defeat of the Bush-elites of the Republican Party. Not only would they lose the country, they'd even lose their party. They'd be done, finito, at least for a couple years.

McCain would be the most difficult to beat, and Guiliani would be by far the most dangerous if he won the general election. Romney is ridiculous but he doesn’t seem interested in anything other then stroking his own ego. His presidency wouldn't be too horrible and he would be easiest to beat.

But Huckabee seems like he's be the least horrible (especially on foreign policy and immigration) and the easiest to beat and most naive.
posted by delmoi at 1:33 PM on December 25, 2007

Everything awful and terrible for America is now concentrated in one party it seems. But, liberals don't indoctrinate, instead relying on common sense to win the day. So sad.
posted by Brian B. at 1:41 PM on December 25, 2007