HAS THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT TAKEN OVER THE GOP?

Here is an excerpt from Leonard Pitts Junior's column, Christian right raises eyebrows.

That realization crept over me much as Christian fundamentalism has crept over American life: steadily. The movement has made itself the primary ideological engine of the Republican Party, climbing to power from school boards to state legislatures to Congress to the White House.

And along the way, books were burned and banned. Religion masquerading as science elbowed its way into classrooms. Legislation requiring recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance became law. Pharmacists, citing religious objections, refused to fill prescriptions for birth-control pills. A lawmaker suggested unmarried pregnant women be prohibited from teaching. ...

Thirty-nine percent is not exactly a majority. And for the record, another 39 percent think the Christian right has just the right amount of influence. Still, as USA Today points out, the numbers represent a change from previous polls in which roughly equal numbers thought conservative Christians wielded too much power or too little. Now "too much" leads "too little" by two to one. (Freep.com, 04/13/05.)

The author is referring to the following Gallup poll (Public disliked Schiavo intervention):

By more than 2-to-1, 39%-18%, Americans say the religious right� has too much influence in the Bush administration. That's a change from when the question was asked in CBS News/New York Times polls taken from 2001 to 2003. Then, approximately equal numbers said conservative Christians had too much and too little influence. (USAToday.com, 04/06/05.)

Listen to Mara Liasson's story, Political Fallout from the Schiavo Case.

From Stephen's post, No More Big Tent:

The Republican Party's big tent seems to have been folded up. No more federalism. No more disagreement on Senate procedures. No more secular science. Instead, we have... Blowhard's Ark. How about you? Will you join Blowhard and his good blogger family in the GOP's new ark? (BTW, one of the animals over there on the right will join him I'm sure.) (Politburo Diktat, 04/17/05.)

So, will the South Park Republicans and the "evil scoffing bloggers" have a chance in taking back the control of the GOP? Check out TheocracyWatch.org. (Hat tip to the Secular Foxhole.)