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Originally Posted by Senori  What basis do you have for believing that 2012 will be about religion? I'm really curious. Do you have any basis for believing that "the hegemony of Christianity" is going to become the top issue of 2012, over issues like the economy and the probably-still-occurring War on Terror? Or is it just wistful thinking? |
The War on Terror will be settled in 2008. It'll have become a background issue by then, as we'll be out of Iraq. The economy will be an issue, but secondary to the continuing shrill harshness of the Christian Right. They're getting louder and louder, and their defeat in '08 will be portrayed as entirely due to the Iraq issue. Iraq won't be an issue in '12. The economy will be mostly secondary to the various social issues (abortion, gay marriage, etc) that are primarily religion-centric.
It does not surprise me that the main civil rights issue of the day is one where civil rights conflict with religious beliefs. Pretty much all the other civil rights issues (regarding granting rights to groups- I'm not referring to free speech in general here) have been resolved. America's been on the fence between religion and freedom for a long time, and sooner or later the country is going to come down solidly on one side or the other- eventually the Supreme Court, the Presidency, and Congress will be aligned strongly enough to get it done. The rising pitch of the Right and the current political trends lead me to think it will be sooner- the Iraq war is a deviation from the trend in question, and by 2012 that will likely be a non-issue. I suspect that whichever side America eventually lands on will be all but irreversible.