The Eclipse of Catholic Fusionism

The argument that America is at risk of theocratic domination has always been hyperbole -- a rallying cry rather than an analysis of our political situation. Even as the nomination of a Supreme Court justice stirs up liberal fantasies of The Handmaid's Tale, the threat of a genuine "theocracy" seems rather far off. But there was a time when the fear of "theocracy" resonated more broadly because it captured, at least partially, something real in American politics. At the height of the Bush administration in 2006, Damon Linker's The Theocons: Secular America under Siege found an audience among those ready to be spooked by the thought of an impending sacred dystopia (as well as a few on the right, upset at Linker's perceived inaccuracies). The most curious thing about the theocracy scare of 2006, though, was not that theocracy loomed on the horizon for worried liberals or for Linker himself (a former First Things editor familiar with the intellectual currents of religious conservatism). What was impressive was that -- in spite of their tussling over terms -- plenty of the people he had set out to criticize believed, in a certain way, that Linker was right.