Conclusion
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The Bush Administration will provide numerous opportunities for advancing
the religious and political agenda of the Christian Right. The free market
schemes that were pioneered in the past two decades-such as "outsourcing" government
services to private businesses, deregulation, and privatization-are being
replicated in the form of redirecting government social welfare resources
to "faith based charities," proposals to finance religious
charter schools, and vouchers for private religious education and even
home schooling. These redistributive Republican policies are also part
of the GOP's political pay-off to the Christian Right. The assignment
of Cabinet and sub-Cabinet posts to Christian Rightists is but the tip
of the iceberg of the political patronage a major Republican constituency
may reasonably expect. As a major power within the Bush Administration,
the Christian Right will enjoy exactly the benefits it needs to assure
its further institutionalization at all levels.
Frederick Clarkson is the author of Eternal Hostility: The Struggle
Between Theocracy and Democracy, (1997) and of the forthcoming Profiles
In Terrorism: Twenty Years of Anti-Abortion Violence, both from
Common Courage Press.
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