Religion is Not Overpowering Our Politics

A fine essay by Nate Hochman in the New York Times makes a compelling argument and should not be missed. Its thesis, in brief, is this: "The conservative political project is no longer specifically Christian," Hochman writes. "This new politics has the capacity to dramatically expand the Republican tent. It appeals to a wide range of Americans, many of whom had been put off by the old conservatism's explicitly religious sheen and don't quite see themselves as Republicans yet. As the terms of the culture war shift, Barack Obama's 'coalition of the ascendant' -- the mix of millennials, racial minorities and college-educated white voters whose collective electoral power was supposed to establish a sustainable progressive majority -- is fraying, undermining the decades-long conventional wisdom that America's increasing racial diversity would inevitably push the country left."