It used to be said that Democrats were so much better at governing because they believed in it and had created a class of professional politicians. Young Democrats would go off to the Peace Corps to gain experience or become active in local or national movements for whatever social cause attracted them.

That certainly cannot be said today. It's the Christo-Republicans who prepare themselves to rule, and they start earlier and stay later. Where do they start? In home school. According to Hanna Rosin in the New Yorker, "about a million and a half children, as many as two-thirds of whom are thought to be evangelicals, are taught at home."

From there it's on to Bob Jones University or Patrick Henry College, which "In the last days before the 2004 Presidential election, ... excused all its students from classes, because so many of them were working on campaigns or wanted to go to the swing states to get out the vote for George W. Bush."

These people arrive in the workplace very disciplined and fully indoctrinated—

... when students enroll at Patrick Henry, they sign a ten-part statement of faith, agreeing that, among other things, Hell is a place where “all who die outside of Christ shall be confined in conscious torment for eternity.” The curriculum for the first two years follows a “Christian Classical” model—basically, Western Civ from a Biblical perspective. Students read Plato, Aristotle, Virgil, Locke, Shakespeare, Milton, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Beckett. They also study Euclidean geometry and biology; the school uses a standard science textbook, but the professor, Jennifer Gruenke, who also has a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, tells students that the earth was created in a week. For the last two years, they switch to a “vocational” model, and receive credit for internships and research projects. Elisa Muench, for example, took a class on how to analyze polls, and is preparing a senior project on political realignments. Most of the students major in government; the few literature majors tend to be girls.

Graduates easily find positions in the White House or in congressional offices. Or they may be assisted into media roles, as was done for the late bloomer Guckert/Gannon. A network of right-wing organizations and thinktanks, privately funded for the most part (so far), stand ready to find the optimal placement for this new talent.

I've had a number of conversations lately with people who consider themselves to be liberal or progressive but who are not in any way activists. For most of them their point of view seems to be that the politics of the United States has gone through a number of swings from liberal to conservative, and that the present era is no exception. While in religious matters they may be agnostic, they have an untutored faith in the great Pendulum in the Sky, which they think is about to reach its zenith, only to usher in a more liberal age.

I hope for all our sakes that they are right, but I do not believe so. The Christo-Republican cadres are here to found the new Reich, and they have the training, skills and discipline to do it.

Follow-up post
Word of the Day (7/13/05)