This is a little hard to believe from our born-again president, who initially used the word ''crusade'' to define America's fight against Islamic terrorists and who justified going to war in Iraq with nomenclature straight out of the Left Behind series by preacher Tim LaHaye.
Former Republican strategist Kevin Phillips writes in his new book American Theocracy that Bush's call to remove Saddam Hussein included ''jeering at the United Nations,'' proclaiming the evil of Saddam and pretending that democracy, not oil, was the motive. According to Phillips, that script followed nearly precisely what LaHaye had written in his Left Behind books (in which an evil antichrist rose to power within the United Nations and was headquartered in New Babylon, Iraq).
Not to say that we are at war in Iraq solely or even primarily because the president thinks it will hasten the end times. Just that it did not escape the administration's notice that certain ideas resonate with Left Behind's 60 million readers, of which an estimated 15 to 20 million are American voters.
This rapture-and-Armageddon crowd, more than any other group, make up the president's base, and he happily dances to their tunes. It is flatly disingenuous for Bush to claim that he never before considered the biblical currency of America vs. Iraq.
Phillips, who was a Republican star when he wrote The Emerging Republican Majority in 1969 and predicted the ascendancy of the party, is now the town crier, warning America about what is to come if the party remains in power.
According to Phillips, the dominating influence of fundamentalists and evangelicals on American politics has ''warped the Republican Party and its electoral coalition, muted Democratic voices and become a gathering threat to America's future.''
He echoes the words of Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., who despairingly declared in March 2005 that ''the Republican Party of Lincoln has become a party of theocracy.'' The transmogrification has resulted in backward policies on stem cells, global warming, disease control and evolution, as well as the rise of a dangerous American exceptionalism that says our country is chosen and acts on God's behalf.
When faith trumps reason, you get people in power like James Watt, the former Interior secretary under Ronald Reagan, who sought to exploit America's natural resources because, as he explained: ''My responsibility is to follow the scriptures which call upon us to occupy the land until Jesus returns.'' Many in the Republican base are actually encouraged by the despoiling of the Earth, the increase in tsunami and hurricane activity and any kind of conflagration in the Middle East. They see it all as signs of the Second Coming.
According to Phillips, the influence of religious fervor on political power has ushered in a period of ''American Disenlightenment.'' He says that when this ''crusading, simplistic Christianity'' is combined with a foreign policy grounded in ''petro-politics'' and supremely reckless fiscal policies - all of which have been promoted by Bush - it is a convergence that can bring down our great nation.
And for those who think this is only a phase and the pendulum is bound to swing back, think again. As demographer Phillip Longman of the New America Foundation points out in Foreign Policy this month, fundamentalism's growth is a long-term demographic trend worldwide.
The reason is simple, Longman says. The kinds of people and societies that embrace ''patriarchal religion'' simply outreproduce ''today's enlightened but slow-breeding societies.'' He says this cultural dynamic in fecundity explains America's drift away from secular individualism and liberal thought, and toward religious fundamentalism.
The 2004 presidential election clearly illustrates the trend. According to Longman, fertility rates among the states that went for Bush were 12 percent higher than those that went for Sen. John Kerry.
Children born to parents who embrace patriarchy, tradition, nationalism and rigid religiosity are highly likely to adopt these views and vote for the party that reflects the same values: Republican. The children of parents who are more cosmopolitan, progressive, individualistic and supportive of women's equality - the Democratic voter - will have never been born.
Kevin Phillips may be ringing the alarm that the Republamentalists are dragging this nation down. But pretty soon there won't be enough of us left to do much more than go along for the ride.
