[lit-ideas] Re: The Religious Right Isn't What It Used to Be

The New York Times article to which this link points is long but well worth reading.
It's a good article. The christians had a good run: they stirred up quite a bit in the last 20-30 years.
But that was a one-last-hurrah: when the USA changed from industrialization to a globalized service economy, people were dislocated. Trying to establish meaning, they tried to reestable the old certaincies: bible, family, and conservative values.
But that couldn't last. It's hopeless to build "family values" politics when families have literally disappeared. The classical family model has a father who makes the household's income while mom stays at home and raises the kids. In California, less than 7% of households match that model. More than 50% of households are single; most women work. "Family values" have no reality.
The fight against globalization didn't even get off the ground. Ross Perot warned about that great sucking sound. Pat Buchanan gave it a try. But every other politician lined up with the party line, and that line was drawn by corps. Academics and intellectuals pointed out that either the USA globalize or become marginalized. That was the end of Fortress America.
With globalization, the USA has become JAC: "just another country." The Germans control the Euro and the Chinese control the dollar. China's economy is coming like the mother of all tsunami. The largest American industry will be just a small item in China's economy, quite simply because there are 1.3 billion Chinese. I wonder what the USA will look like in 20 years. US companies will partner with or be bought up by Chinese companies. The CEO will be Chinese and the decisions will be made in China.
The USA was the global leader in consumer electronics up to the 70s. No more. Look at cell phones. The USA lags far behind in both the technology, the business, and consumer use. Rural India has better cell phone service than large US cities.
The christians will not even remember the good ol' days, just like we've completely forgotten the small town life of America in the 50s, with Main Street and so on. The small town christians will disappear, like the "farm vote" has disappeared.
The christians and the rightwing made a great effort to control the direction of the USA. Ironically, the more the conservatives tried to defend the USA, the more damage they caused because they tried to disconnect the US from the global economy. The christians lost on their family issues because the USA became a part of the globalized consumer economy. The rightwingers lost because they made such a disaster in Iraq. The global economy is far bigger than those. 

yrs,
andreas
www.andreas.com 
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