Clearly there is a problem.
An expert perspective of a by and largely unrealized problem.
Sometimes it is simply better to present the work of others who have demonstratively produced a superior explanation about what should, by now at least, be becoming a clear and obvious problem. Robert J. Rei, May 16, 2023.
From the preface:
Scholarly literature focuses on technical aspects, voter mobilization, coalition building, and demographic correlations. Outside of scholarly books and journals, the CR [Christian Right] is generally decried as reactionary and authoritarian, committed to establishing a theocracy and constituting an American Taliban. The analysis of the CR, both scholarly and in the media, either misses key aspects of its underlying motivations or mischaracterizes its supporters. What I find instead is a coalition of interest groups whose leaders are deeply dedicated to democratic ideals.
The CR in America, however, does not compete for political outcomes within an assumed liberal or pluralistic democratic framework. Rather, its leaders make value judgments based on differing assumptions on how democracy should be executed. These value judgements then inform their pursuits. What develops is a portrait of a movement that is essentially democratic but fundamentally illiberal. The CR does successfully mobilize, inform, and instruct, but not with the intention of subverting democracy. Rather, its leaders value the function of democracy while rationalizing its institutions with differing assumptions. These assumptions, when combined, form a normative framework that constitutes a separate democratic theory. Page v.
Christodemocracy is not unitary but finds its place along the expansive continuum of democratic categorical labels. Within a single democracy, several separate democratic theories coexist and compete for actualization. Christodemocracy is one understanding of democracy prevalent in American policies. Those that subscribe to its assumptions view the tenets of liberal or pluralistic democracy as foreign and threatening to their national identity in much the same way lovers of liberal democratic tradition castigate Christian conservatives as internal threats to American ideals. Page vi.1
Recommended reading accompaniment:
Publisher’s Note: November 22, 2024.
Seventeen days have now passed away since Election-Day-Zero was transpired, transacted, and ultimately transgressed against America’s Election Security Integrity; as you are reading this right this moment, please be aware that digitized information of all types found online are susceptible to disappearing at any given time, it is the nature of the beast—the eco-system that all who hear my voice must travel through to meet my word echoing silently into the voids of a wilderness of mirrors.
Now step forward into the future and read where I am now.
Hudson, Gabriel S. Christodemocracy and the Alternative Democratic Theory of America’s Christian Right. New York: Palgrave Macmillan imprint, Springer Nature (Publisher), 2016