My, oh my. How the mighty have fallen. What disasters have befallen the Christian right. In the 1990's to the early 2000 years, if you were a Republican candidate and wanted an imprimatur of endorsement, you went to the Trump tower to kiss the Donald's ring. In the 70's and early 80's if you were a Republican who wanted an official imprimatur of endorsement, you had to kiss the "Moral Majorities" ass.
Started in 1979 by overpaid, Jesus wheezing televangelist Jerry Falwell, the Moral Majority quickly became a preeminent power player on the Republican political landscape, at least as powerful if not eclipsing the NRA in terms of raw power. It advocated a return to a moral, "Christian government" of the United States of America, as envisioned by the "Christian founding fathers". Screw the fact the the founding fathers wished no such thing, going to great pains to explicitly define the delineation of the church and the state in the new republic, PR wins out over all. During the Reagan presidency they ruled supreme, and all and any Republican candidates with any wish of succeeding had to bow to the Moral Majority holy grail. At the tail end of the Reagan years, donations dried up, the country just wasn't all that infatuated with the idea of "Christian Sharia Law" anymore. In 1989 the Moral Majority finally disbanded, but that didn't stop Jerry Falwell from taking a victory lap in the dissolution announcement in Las Vegas when he proudly proclaimed to all and sundry that;
Our goal has been achieved…The religious right is solidly in place and … religious conservatives in America are now in for the duration.
And he was right. Christians in catacombs learned the benefits of networking long before there were cell phones or the internet. They had the groundwork in place, they had the recognition of the Republican party and they had communications. What more did they need? Even without the official "tag line" they were a force, and continued to threaten any Republican candidate, especially nationally that did not meet the Christian "purity test". They continued to hold sway in the Republican party like no other entity other than the NRA,
But then the cracks appeared in the dam. The first crack was the Women's rights movement, which directly contradicted the fundamentalist credo that the man was definitely superior to the woman. They fought that effort tooth and nail, and despite the shrill imprecations of shills like Phyllis Schafly who were perfectly satisfied with their downtrodden status, guess what? The damn women won! And then came the gay rights and marriage equality movement. A cataclysmic battle such as this for the soul of humanity has not been seen since the Christian Crusades! Every last drop of Christian blood, and righteous Christian treasure was poured into this life and death struggle for the soul of our beloved "Christian America". And guess what. Teh icky gayz won, with the willful collaboration of 5 of those 9 national nags in black mumu's on the Supreme Court.
And look at the poor Moral Majority now. Thrown to the curb with yesterdays newspapers and other recyclables. Desperately scratching and clawing to try and maintain some source of national relevance and importance through dodgy and thoroughly unconstitutional "Right to Religious Freedom Acts", and equally pathetic groveling for "Religious Accommodations" to allow them the luxury of continuing to continuing to exert their selfish bigotry over their fellow citizens.
So, Rest In Peace the Moral Majority of America. And the rest of us blinkard Philistines will not miss you one little bit.
Thanks as always for reading!