Why does the Republican base behave that way? Republicanism IS their religion.

[backscatter712]

That's the point of this article. Republicans don't just use religion. The Republican party IS the religion.

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/09/goodbye-to-all-that-the-lofgren-thesis.html

The Dish covered the remarkable web essay of Mike Lofgren, but I didn't comment myself because it so closely follows my own argument in "The Conservative Soul" and on this blog, that it felt somewhat superfluous. But I want to draw attention to the crux of the piece, because if we are to understand how the right became so unmoored from prudence, moderation and tradition and became so infatuated with recklessness, extremism and revolution, we need to understand how it happened.

It is, of course, as my shrink never fails to point out, multi-determined. But here is Lofgren's attempt at a Rosebud:

How did the whole toxic stew of GOP beliefs - economic royalism, militarism and culture wars cum fundamentalism - come completely to displace an erstwhile civilized Eisenhower Republicanism?

It is my view that the rise of politicized religious fundamentalism (which is a subset of the decline of rational problem solving in America) may have been the key ingredient of the takeover of the Republican Party. For politicized religion provides a substrate of beliefs that rationalizes - at least in the minds of followers - all three of the GOP's main tenets.

That too is my view: that the GOP, deep down, is behaving as a religious movement, not as a political party, and a radical religious movement at that. Lofgren sees the "Prosperity Gospel" as a divine blessing for personal enrichment and minimal taxation (yes, that kind of Gospel is compatible with Rand, just not compatible with the actual Gospels); for military power (with a major emphasis on the punitive, interventionist God of the Old Testament); and for radical change and contempt for existing institutions (as a product of End-Times thinking, intensified after 9/11).

The memetic virus that is fundamentalist Christianity has mixed its RNA together with the RNA of the GOP's memes, to form a virus with the toxic, Randian political memes of the Republican Party: "Cut spending and deregulate to fix the economy!", "Global warming is a hoax!" "God created the world in six days!" "We must blow brown people up over there, or they're blow us up over here!"

So now if you challenge something like the global-warming-is-a-hoax story or austerity-based economic policy, you get the same reaction from them as if you just said "Jesus doesn't exist." The facial expression instantly changes, just like the movie The Exorcist, and the defense mechanisms, evolved for thousands of years protecting the Christian religious virus, kicks in, and you get attacked for your political and economic views just as if you just committed religious blasphemy.

Before long, they're be trying to burn us at the stake every time we commit political heresy.

And people wonder why atheists like me have been trying to get more people to take the red pill...

[EstimatedProphet]

1. Substitute "cult" for "religion" and I absolutely agree

[backscatter712]

2. What's the difference between a cult and a religion?

The mainstream religion has more real-estate...

[EstimatedProphet]

3. Yes, in part

"Religion" is established, mostly. It has its own dogma. Cults also tend to be more personality-driven - which is why in particular I think they are more dangerous. Cult leaders are famous for letting their standing go to their heads. Get a bunch of people together who are fully dedicated to the whims of one person, and it will become almost impossible for that one person to not abuse the power it gives him.

[backscatter712]

4. Case in point: Benedict XVI...

I'd say the Roman Catholic cult fits your definition perfectly.

[EstimatedProphet]

5. Yes, at times it does

Catholicism really can act cultlike. Quakerism, Unitarian Universalism, Buddhism...not so much.

[backscatter712]

6. Well, yeah, though I'd argue that the chill flavors still hold the seeds for the nasty flavors.

I've hung out with Buddhists here in the states, and yes, they're very cool people, not dogmatic at all.

Go to Sri Lanka, and you might run into Buddhists who aren't so nice, who would kill you for not adhering to their flavor of Buddhism.

Universal-Unitarianism and Quakerism are both derivatives of Christianity, and we all know about the nasty varieties that are trying to bring Christian Sharia to the U.S.

As an atheist, I'd assert that the common point about all religion, and religion-like movements like the Republican religion I brought up in the OP is that they all at least to some extent, indoctrinate their members in dogma, and tolerate and spread beliefs that aren't really true. Even the Unitarian-Universalists do this, but to a very small extent, and despite the fact that their policies discourage indoctrination.

Granted, if I really decided I wanted to go to a church, I'd go to a U-U church.

[EstimatedProphet]

7. But you can't hold Quakerism responsible for Dominionism

It doesn't matter if they have the same origins. There were no Quakers at The Crusades, nor are there Quakers trying to force fundamentalism on the US, or following Dominionism (Christian Sharia). It's just not happening. If that were legitimate, we'd all be guilty of causing The Holocaust.

However, to get back to my original point, academically religions are different than cults, most importantly because of the focus on a personality. Personality takeovers happen in religions sometimes, but they end up being the guiding aspects of cults, and is a big reason why they are so destructive. And I would say that the twin superhuman mythologies of Ayn Rand and Ronald Reagan are the real reason this country is rotting.

[backscatter712]

8. Back on topic. I'd certainly agree that the leadership of the GOP fits with the cult-leader style.

Pat Robertson and the other televangelists certainly use the cult techniques, and they've been on the forefront of merging fundie Christianity with the GOP political machine. He's a lot of the reason why talking about combating global climate change is considered to be blasphemy among ~30% of the population.

Rick Perry is certainly cultivating his own little cult of personality. Out of all the GOP candidates, he's the scariest.

[EstimatedProphet]

9. That he is

It is really scary when people like that take charge. The good of the whole becomes the good of themselves. Bush, although he was a spoiled little jerk that was totally incompetent as a dogcatcher let alone being president of the United States, at least never went down that road. I think he lacked the raw ambition. Perry has that ambition.

[backscatter712]

10. Yeah. Perry, not to mention Bachmann and Palin aren't even trying to hide their Dominionism.

Republicanism has merged with fundie Christianity - political dominance has become a commandment, which Perry intends to implement by any means necessary.