Election 2004 The Days After
	A Message from Political Research Associates November 17th, 2004 The presidential election of 2004 will keep political analysts sorting out its real meaning for some time. Many people have focused on trying to figure out why John Kerry lost. More to the point, from PRA's perspective, is how and why did George W. Bush win? We already have seen many interpretations of the exit polls. Most common is the idea that voting patterns indicate a polarized electorate with a major split over moral issues like gay marriage and abortion. Is the electorate really so neatly divided into Red and Blue states as the mainstream media and the pundits tend to portray it? And are these the real issues that drove the election?
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• Onward Christian Soldiers? PRA's Nikhil Aziz discusses the Christian Right -- its influence in U.S. politics--and what we can expect in the next four years. From the Against the Grain radio program.
• It Wasn't Just (Or Even Mostly) the 'Religious Right' by Steven Waldman and John Green
• Empire Christianity vs Liberation Christianity by Ruby Sales, Founder and Director of SpiritHouse
• Dominion Theology by Sara Diamond
• Christian Reconstructionism by Fred Clarkson
• Faith Matters: George Bush and Providence by Andrew Austin
• Bush's Messiah Complex by Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive
• Understanding how the Christian Right was mobilized into the anti-abortion movement.
• Religion and Politics in the United States: Nuances You Should Know by Chip Berlet
  
  

These two books by PRA staff have particular relevance to the recent election:

Mobilizing Resentment by Jean Hardisty

Right-Wing Populism in America by Chip Berlet & Matthew N. Lyons

A Call To Defend Democracy And Pluralism
	The Blue Mountain Working Group November 1994 This ten year old statement by progressive U.S. social movement activists was ahead of its time. It speaks to progressive concerns over the 2004 elections. "We are a group of individuals interested in joining with others to rebuild a multi-issue movement for progressive social change that can assist in informing and organizing broad coalitions to reverse the ominous rightwing backlash currently sweeping the United States..."
	Read this statement