Had a thought cascade just now inspired by the two posts on this thread:

1) Members of fundamentalist religions (including conservative Catholicism) gravitate to those religions because they (the individuals) possess a deep authoritarian longing which is fulfilled by an authoritarian religion telling them how to live their lives.

2) Catholics have a Glorious Leader in the form of the Pope who combines religious and secular power in a deeply satisfying alpha male package.

3) Protestants, however, are deprived by their dogma from satisfying their need for a strong individual at the apex of a religious hierarchy, and historically have had to settle for following lesser demagogues at the sect level.

4) American religious conservatives tend to gravitate toward politics, especially Presidential politics, because it offers them the possibility of electing their own quasi-Pope, like George Bush, who's willing to back up religious dogma with temporal power. Or at least, one who promises to do so in order to get their votes, a pledge that can never be entirely ignored once elected.

Plausible?