Matt Taibbi Quotes
Mike Huckabee represents something that is either tremendously encouraging or deeply disturbing, depending on your point of view: a marriage of Christian fundamentalism with economic populism.
Taibbi, Matt. The Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics, and Religion. Spiegel & Grau, 2008, p. 145.
What was particularly unusual about this quote was that Cronkite had always been so circumspect about his own political views and opinions and rarely expressed personal criticism of any group or movement. When he was the national anchor for CBS News, he was so non partisan that he became the “most trusted man in America.” By 2007 however, most of the radical religious right had organized a serious movement which unlike other self interest groups which wanted to expand their rights or benefits, much of the radical religious right strove to curtail the rights of other Americans who differed from them as to religious interpretation, concepts and role of government, sound family structure and relationships, gender equality, sex, and personal freedom.
He was referring to the Evangelical Protestants who had skillfully dominated on cultural and religious matters the Republican Party.
He was reacting to the Republicans in Congress passing a special law for a single right to die case in Florida. Ironically Danforth himself had always been considered a conservative and he also was an ordained Episcopalian minister.
While Jones and Falwell were both fundamentalist, conservative Christians, Jones was very concerned that the Falwell propensity for being active in partisan politics would undermine Christian duty and faith as political compromises are always made and alliances require not attacking or criticizing political allies. Jones wanted Christians to be comfortable attacking the Republicans when they were morally deficient just as well as Democrats. He thought that Falwell’s approach was tempting for Christians but would undermine and destroy the integrity of Christians in America. Hence Falwell was dangerous.
Bush, himself a born-again Christian, made religion in general and fundamentalist Christian values in particular, a major driver of policy making in his administration, subjugating science, medicine, research and social policy to the prevailing views of the evangelical and other fundamentalist Christians. He also claimed that God spoke though him as President. See {589627}.
Matthew C. Taibbi is an American author, journalist, and podcaster. He has reported on finance, media, politics, and sports. He is a contributing editor for Rolling Stone, author of several books, co-host of Useful Idiots, and publisher of a newsletter on Substack.
