The Theocon Menace
Linker writes:
One of the reasons I backtracked from the argument I made last week is that, thanks in part to Ross Douthat’s tough response, I came to see that I had been unfair to Andrew Bacevich in assimilating him to a theocon-like project of radical constitutional, regime-level revisionism. Still, I wonder: What about Patrick Deneen, Daniel Larison, and the other writers listed by Rod Dreher here: Do they merely wish (as Ross suggests) to engage in an extra-political project of cultural renewal? Alternately, do they hope to lead a political movement within the liberal political system? Or do they instead view their searching critique of contemporary American life as necessitating a break with the liberal regime itself? That is, are they seeking to work within the system or to overthrow the system? And if it’s the latter, what alternative regime do they propose? In a word, what precisely — concretely, politically — does a cultural critic like Patrick Deneen want?
Well, first and foremost to offer up commentary and criticism on cultural matters.
One thing that unifies all these writers and thinkers is their rather obvious removal from direct politics, as Ross pointed out already. I’m a little baffled that Linker brings this up, and in such overtly dramatic tones. Perhaps this is simply symptomatic of Linker’s overall theory of a dangerous, theocratic takeover of the American Republic–an inherently dramatic notion in and of itself.
Certainly there are those within the American religious right who wish to see Christian laws and ethics woven into the American legal system. Similarly, there are secularists who wish to utterly do away with any semblance of God or religion in the public sphere. Most Americans, however, fall somewhere in the middle. Few people worry terribly that our pledge of allegiance includes the words “under God” or that a reference to said Deity is found on our money. Wanting to use the word “Christmas” in public schools when referring to that Holiday is hardly an attempt to overthrow the American secular regime. I would say, to the contrary, doing away with any religious references at all actually does a great deal more harm to the public system than it does good, and that if anything it enflames the culture wars unneccessarily. [Read more →]
February 20, 2009 1 Comment
