right in the 1970’s owes little to the abstruserntheology, obscure liturgical controversies,rnand head-spinning politicalrntheory with which so many conservativerneggheads occupied themselves in thern1950’s and 60’s. What its emergencernhas to do with is a sociopolitical phenomenonrnthat is far broader and farrnmore significant as a world-historicalrnforce than either organized conservatismrnor the religious right itself perceives.rnThe “religious right” is merely therncurrent incarnation of the ongoing MiddlernAmerican Revolution, a cultural andrnpolitical movement that has underlainrnthe political efforts of the Americanrnright since the end of World War II. Despiternwhat many right-wing sages wouldrnlike to believe, that movement never hadrnmuch to do with their perennial holyrncow, the free market, but rather withrnthe perception that the white middleclassrncore of American society and culturernwas being evicted from its historicrnposition of cultural and political dominancernand becoming an exploited andrnrepressed proletariat. It was this perception,rnrudimentary as it was, that largelyrnunderlay the political movementsrninvolving Father Coughlin, Huey Long,rnand similar figures in the Depression andrnlater Senator McCarthy, whose anticommunistrnradicalism is explicable onlyrnas a vehicle for Middle American resistancernto the ruling class that had by thern1950’s displaced the traditional bourgeoisrnelite of the nation.rnSince the end of World War II, thernAmerican right as a mass political forcernin the United States has been driven byrnthree successive causes. The first, anticommunism,rncarried not only McCarthyrnbut also Dwight Eisenhower andrnRichard Nixon in the 1950’s, thoughrnEisenhower merely piggy-backed on thernsynthesis of anticommunism and MiddlernAmerican class and ethnic consciousnessrnthat Nixon and McCarthyrnhad so brilliantly forged. The second,rnopposition to the civil rights revolutionrnbased mainly in the South and later inrnnorthern white working-class suburbs,rncarried Barry Goldwater, George Wallace,rnand (again) Richard Nixon, thoughrnMr. Goldwater never understood whatrnhe was leading and continues to this dayrnto imagine that it was a movement forrn”individual freedom” (a delusion thatrnhelped him lose the support of northernrnworking-class voters) rather than a socialrnconvulsion for the preservation ofrnclass, ethnic, and cultural dominance.rnThe third cause of the right is nowrnand has been what was called in thern1970’s the “social issue” and in the 90’srnthe “cultural war,” and, far more explicitlyrnand effectively than the eariier anticommunismrnand bourgeois individualismrnespoused by the right of the 50’srnand 60’s, it focuses on resisting thernerosion of traditional morality and therntraditional middle-class social and economicrndominance the morality codified.rn”Cultural” issues were indeed present inrnbut remained largely tangential to thernright-wing efforts of the earlier decadesrnand emerged as prevalent concerns onlyrnin reaction to the cultural assaults of thernI960’s and afterwards. The most obviousrnway to defend a moral code isrnthrough religion, and the most obviousrnpeople to defend it are religious leadersrnand their followers. Hence, religionrnemerged logically as the appropriaternvehicle for the expression of MiddlernAmerican moral, social, and culturalrncounterrevolution.rnWhat follows from this analysis of thernreligious right as it exists today is thatrnwhat ultimately drives its adherents isrnnot religion in the ordinar)’ sense. Whatrndrives them is the perception—accuraternin my view—that the culture their religionrnreflects and defends is witheringrnand that withering portends a disaster forrnthemselves, their class, their country,rnand their civilization. Religion happensrnto be a convenient vehicle for their otherwisernunartieulated and well-foundedrnfears. But while it is a convenient vehiclernand a more effective one than those thatrncarried the right in earlier days, it is notrnthe most effective vehicle the right couldrnhave.rnThis is not to say that the religiousrnright is composed of hypocrites who usernreligion for political ends. With the possiblernexception of most of its morernprominent leaders, it is not. Most adherentsrnof the religious right are sincerelyrnand seriously religious; but you canrnbe sincerely and seriously religious withoutrnbeing political and without beingrnpolitical in the fashion of the religiousrnright. It is not religion that drives; it isrnthe legitimate frustrations of a socialrnclass that has been bludgeoned and betrayedrnby its established leaders for morernthan 50 years.rnReligion is not the most effective politicalrnand ideological vehicle for expressingrnand publicly vindicating thernfrustrations that animate the MiddlernAmerican Revolution because the Christianityrnof the right simply does not encompassrnvery many Middle AmericanrnLET US KNOW BEFORE YOU GO !rnTo assure uninterrupted delivery of CHRONICLES please notify us in advance.rnSend change of address on this form with the mailing label from your latest issuernof CHRONICLES to:rnSubscription DepartmentrnCHRONICLES P.O. Box 800rnMount Morris, Illinois 61054rnMrnVrnIrn.:^’rnGrn?rnDECEMBER 1994/11rnrnrn