Beware The Religious Right Boogeyman

It's the bedtime story liberals use to frighten their fortunate-to-be-born. The terrifying tale told to temper their tendency toward independent thought. "Beware, my children," they say in the dark of night. "Beware, beware, the Religious Right. They'll force you to birth your babies. They'll tell you there's such a thing as right and wrong. They'll talk, talk, talk about God. Beware their numbers, for they are legion."

Admit it, scary stuff, eh? The problem is that there is no such thing as the "Religious Right." Yes, there are religious voters. Yes, there are right-wing voters. But an organized Religious Right? It's a figment. A modern day boogeyman created to do what all boogeymen are created to do: Frighten, form and fixate all those who believe.

I'm not the first to make this observation. In her bestselling book, Slander, Anne Coulter explains:

Like all propagandists, liberals create mythical enemies to justify their own viciousness and advance their agenda. There is no bogeyman that strikes greater terror in the left than the apocryphal “religious right.” The phrase is a meaningless concept, an inverted construct of the left’s own Marquis de Sade lifestyle. It functions as a talismanic utterance to rally the faithful against anyone who disagrees with the well-organized conspiratorial left.

OK, so she spells "boogeyman" differently than I do, but lose the Marquis de Sade hyperbole and she has rightly identified liberals' foremost windmill to joust . . . wait, I'm mixing hyperboles. Regardless, rest assured that when the Left needs a foil to further their faith they will resurrect the fictitious Religious Right.

Take, for example, the recent passage of California's Prop 8 that banned same sex marriage in the state. After the measure won the cry went out that the Religious Right had launched a campaign of distortion to undermine the vote. As reported in New America Media, "The Christian right out-organized the No on 8 Campaign."

The Christian right in California made a strategic shift in sharpening its “family values” focus on sexuality and marriage. This shift is likely to be effective for the long term political objectives of the right, which include an assault on the legal protections against discrimination for LGBT people. The broader agenda that the Christian right will continue to pursue will promote Christian nationalism, an ideology that seeks to use laws and regulations to promote fundamentalist Christian values on the nation. This is an agenda that seeks to eliminate the constitutional wall separating church and state.

Ooooh, that's scary.

A CBS editorial then reported that it was the "Christian-right apparatus, long hampered by nativism and racism" who were able to muster the troops and push the proposition through. Sounds convincing. Those fundamentalists (ever the description of "The Religious Right") used their enormous political machine and won the day . . . but wait, wait a minute, who actually voted for Prop 8? Was it all those white, evangelical snake charming followers of Pat Robertson (a supposed "Religious Right" leader who actually endorsed gay-rights & pro-choice Republican candidate, Rudi Guiliani)? I mean, California is more blue than Kato Kaelin on labor day. Obama crushed McCain with 62% of the vote, yet Prop 8 passed -- and it did so on the back of Obama supporters. 70% of African Americans voted yes on Prop 8, 52% of Latinos gave it the nod as did a majority of older voters, all groups that voted mostly Democrat elsewhere on the ballot. So as far as the actual vote, it wasn't the Religious Right after all.

Of course, facts don't really matter to the Left. They simply prop up their boogeyman like El Cid and claim that the nearly omnipotent Religious Right were so well organized in California that they used the old Judaeo mind trick to fool the masses (though oddly, only on this particular issue if you buy what the left is peddling). And their scary story might make sense if California were the only State where it happened. But gay marriage tends to be defeated when put to vote, even in my home state of Michigan where the Religious Right is less organized than a stoner during exam week. Need proof? The Great Lake State voted Blue for Gore, Kerry and Obama, has elected two Senators with a "D", and voted for a left-wing Governor so many times that only term limits will save us from the economic disaster she has wrought.

But gay marriage isn't the only issue where the Left eerily tells tales of the spooky Religious Right. They claim these evangelical fundamentalists are behind the anti-abortion movement, despite the fact that the Catholic Church is the loudest religious voice in that din. Liberals attempt to petrify you that the Religious Right wants to ban the teaching of evolution in schools, even claiming that this was Sarah Palin's closet skeleton, despite the fact that she proposed the teaching of evolution along with creationism, saying "Teach both. You know, don't be afraid of information. Healthy debate is so important, and it's so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both." It's a perspective 81% of Americans agree with . . . but again, the facts just don't matter. To the Left, it's this mythical Religious Right. And naturally, according to Liberal storytellers, it is the nefarious Religious Right who is behind prayer in public schools, despite the fact that, again, a magical 81% of all Americans endorse the idea. You see, it doesn't matter if most Americans support it, if non-evangelicals support it, if traditional Democrat voting blocks support it . . . if the liberal elite is against it they will invent a villain, and their favorite fabricated foe is the Religious Right.

I have to confess what I truly love about all of their campfire antics is that the left tends to ignore the role churches play in democratic politics. Can you imagine if Dick Cheny had given his first speech as a vice presidential nominee from the pulpit of a Methodist church like John Edwards did? And how about the fact that for the first time in history officials at the Library of Congress are soliciting churches for copies of sermons that focus on a presidential inauguration --namely, the Jan. 20 inauguration of Barack Obama? If only the Religious Right had more pull, maybe there'd be a collection of Sermons like that for Dubya. Ah, but facts don't matter.

Beware, beware the Religious Right.