I've been trying to point out the fact that the "tea party thing" (about the federal government, one world conspiracy crackpottery) is symbiotic with the religious right thing (the Council for National Policy/Christianity as a front group crackpottery.)
As evidence I gave a largely anecdotal story about how evangelical organizations in my home state of Minnesota were organizing bus trips to D.C. last year--to protest Obama's health care reform. No mention of the Jesus angle in the media coverage, just Michele Bachmann and GOP legislators welcoming the crowd, some bearing the Holocaust imagery.
But the symbiosis is there: the tea party thing is a recent surface manifestation and press angle, the Council for National Policy and its affiliate "family" organizations are the permanent conspiracy mongering feature.
Here is the latest connection between the tea party thing and the evangelical conservative elite thing:
Michele Bachmann, quoted on the official blog of Americans United for Separation of Church and State:
Bachmann In Overdrive: Minnesota House Member Favors Church Electioneering
March 10th, 2010
By Sandhya Bathija
Church Politicking
Entangling politics with religion – as Bachmann thinks we should do – only ends up exploiting our houses of worship.
U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann said on "Hot Tea" radio yesterday that she is sick of "radical leftist organizations" that "intimidate Christians" from speaking about politics from the pulpit.
Bachmann called for Congress to repeal the federal law that prevents all 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations, including houses of worship, from endorsing or opposing candidates.
"We need to repeal that," she said, "and give Christians back their First Amendment rights to free speech in the church."
http://blog.au.org/...
Fair enough: most people who've been reading these diaries know that Bachmann's a creature of the evangelical conservative political machine. (That's "the Council for National Policy" that I'm always writing about here; google "Council for National Policy" and the names of last round of Republican presidential candidates, examine the results that are from legit news service, and you will get some idea of the power of this organization that you never heard of.)
Alright, so Bachmann's their protege (one of many) and that fact is passed over in the tons of media coverage Bachmann receives. Here's the next "big news": this message, the one Bachmann's giving here--is related to the tea party thing. The CNP and evangelical right share a conspiratorial, "we're being persecuted" world view with the tea party guys--and Bachmann represents both of them, a darling in both movements.
Thus: symbiosis, unnoticed by the tradional media, is real. Go the source, the web page of the organization where Bachmann made her call for erasing constraints on electioneering in churches:
http://www.hottearadio.com/
Their Facebook links go to places like http://www.teapartypatriots.org/
Tea party, tea party, tea party--but Bachmann is there delivering a message about tearing down the wall of separation between church and state. Why? Because she understands that calling for that doesn't alienate small government types in the tea party movement--rather, it's the sort of message that attracts them.
As I say: Bachmann is a darling of both movements, and the reason that she can be is that the movements are symbiotic--one is supportive of the other, though you won't find them making official statements to that effect. (There is no profit for tea party organizers in publicizing the religious angle and alliance; they are trying to attract the votes of the angry, whatever their religious faith. Why limit the "movement" and alienate some of the "Glenn Beck" guys by publicizing it as a "Christian" thing? So the ideological and political affiliations remain inside baseball on the right.)
The "it's all a conspiracy" pseudo-libertarian dimension is being coopted and exploited by the "it's all a Satanic conspiracy" wacky sectarian aspect. Thus you will hear a pro-tea party slant on your local conservative evangelical radio station, when they discuss public affairs.
The reason I think this is important (and will remain important for the rest of my lifetime) is that liberals and progressives don't understand it.
No, not "the fact that the tea party has a lot of crossover with the religious right;" no, not the fact that "Bachmann's a creature of the national evangelical conservative political machine." Those things are only important for understanding the politics of our day.
The important thing to understand about the American politics of our lifetimes is that the "religious right" is actually a discreet/particular organization, organized and acting like a third major political party--with structures and personnel and a hierarchy. That is how professional media should cover it--instead of focusing on individuals like Bachmann or James Dobson or Tony Perkins, they should be covering the organization and informing their audience of the existence and activities of the organization.
They're not. That's why this organization (with its origins in the discredited, conspiratorial John Birch Society) can be so successful for decades at a time. The names have changed (Moral Majority, Christian Coalition, Council for National Policy) but the elites remain. And as long as voters aren't informed about this elite, as long as they continue to spread disinformation in the name of Christ to secure political power--conservatism will survive as a kind of a harmful grass roots religion of irrationality and resentment. As long as liberals and progressives focus on the manifestations of the conservative disease and not on this discrete/ particular cause: they will remain ignorant of the the sources and survival of right wing power, and will continue to be mystified by the chronic "resurgences" of conservative power.