Remember, the twisted fever dreams of racists, nativists, religious fanatics, and tinhorn fascists are only a sideshow. There's more to the culture wars than banning abortions, gay marriage and Darwin, Its about a nostalgic return to the late 19th century.

What is really at stake here is the economic agenda that underlies it all and that is tapping into these pathologies. I don't want to live in a country where the New Deal is rolled back, the safety net is gone, social welfare disappears, health care, old age pensions and education are privatized, unions are non-existent and a regressive flat income tax and sales tax pays for the prisons and aircraft carriers, while corporate and capital gains taxes are banished altogether for the benefit of the job creators.

Oh, and lets not forget, safety, employee and consumer protection, and environmental regulations will be just a memory. And we will wink and look the other way while illegal aliens are encouraged to come here and take American jobs--provided they work dirt cheap and cause no trouble on pain of deportation.

These are not ideological consequences, or the product of runaway religious fundamentalism; they are the inevitable result of economic pressures unrestrained by human empathy and common decency. Its the Gilded Age all over again, but this time administered with computers instead of scriveners.