Theocracy vs. Democracy in the Bush Administration (Book Notes: Religion, Politics, and the Christian Right)

Does the Bush administration believe in democracy, or does it have a stronger and more fundamental belief in theocracy? It would be nice if they were firm supporters of democracy, but there is a great deal of evidence that the ultimate commitments of many administration officials have rested more with theocracy. Are we governed by politicians who don't believe that the people are sovereign?

In Religion, Politics, and the Christian Right: Post-9/11 Powers in American Empire, Mark Lewis Taylor writes:

In Bush's first term, John Ashcroft had brought into the highest judiciary office of the land a strong version of American exceptionalism and also certain theocratic aims. In a speech at Bob Jones University, Greenville, South Carolina, he intoned: "Unique among nations, America recognized the source of our character as being godly and eternal, not being civic and temporal... We have no king but Jesus."

It would be difficult to understate just how incompatible this view is with the American Constitution and American law, but this is the man President Bush first chose to enforce American laws and the Constitution. Sadly, John Ashcroft was not himself an exceptional case except perhaps for stating more openly and directly things which were usually expressed more subtly. I have to wonder if the relative silence from such people is a tactical effort to hide their true agenda from the American people, or a sense of embarrassment because they know that they adhere to something most people reject?

 

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