"everyone owned a color TV by 2001—and the internet was becoming a viable option for the adventurous"
If you are going to write about stuff you are too young to remember you'll need to do more research. Everyone who had a desk job in 2001 was using the internet every single day. Maybe in 1995 it was only "an option for the adventurous."
Well since I lived downtown, I can tell you from first hand experience that we had no BROADCAST TV in NYC. So, unless you had cable, which me and many of my friends did not have, you did not know what was going on. OTOH to the OP, the internet was quite functional and accessible, dial up notwithstanding.
> It was not yet obvious, in 2001, the evangelical Christian right would become a defining force in the GOP, the cohort of voters all ambitious Republicans would have to flatter, cajole, and ultimately deliver for. These voters were clear-eyed about the stakes of each election cycle, gravitating to candidates who promised to change the make-up of the Supreme Court and overturn hated decisions, like Roe v. Wade.
Not having been alive in the '80s I can't confirm this from firsthand experience, but my sense is that the Christian right's hijacking of the GOP happened under Reagan, and more strident/artsy liberals of the era were very loudly decrying what they saw as an evangelical takeover of the US government. Angels in America has a scene where right-winger Joe literally monologues out the GOP's plan to do an end-run around public opinion via courtpacking while using a urinal. Frank Zappa spent the last decade of his life railing against what he saw as theofascism. Etc, etc.
Bush the Younger's innovation, far as I can tell, was assisting the abortion-clinic-bombing demographic in a rebrand ("compassionate conversatism" - bring your own snark).
It's fair to say it began with Reagan. More what I wanted to convey is that the Christian vote, even by 00, hadn't entirely sorted into the GOP. Bush was an obviously Christian president, and took things to a new level.
This is a pretty decent synopsis of the moment, but I have to take issue with the notion that "It was not yet obvious, in 2001, the evangelical Christian right would become a defining force in the GOP...' If anything the opposite is true. This simple dynamic was glaringly obvious in the wake of the spectacle of the Lewinsky "scandal." You can make a pretty strong argument that Gore lost because of this moralism.
By 1996, the merger that had blossomed under Reagan between the Christian nationalists, the plutocrats, and the foreign policy hawks was in full swing. It was pretty clear the hyper moralist wing was running full speed towards ascendency, no matter what the David Brooks' of the GOP might have fooled themselves into believing. The only real shock was decades later watching Trump become their spokesperson. But I suppose if you grew up as I did watching the crocodile tears from the likes of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, even Trump's profound narcissism and hypocrisy was anticipated.
I’m really enjoying this essay, and looking forward to the next installment.
thank you! I've got a few more pieces (kind of in this vein) that will be out soon
"everyone owned a color TV by 2001—and the internet was becoming a viable option for the adventurous"
If you are going to write about stuff you are too young to remember you'll need to do more research. Everyone who had a desk job in 2001 was using the internet every single day. Maybe in 1995 it was only "an option for the adventurous."
Ha, that's pretty true. The internet was how I knew what was happening on 9/11 since tv stations were all down in NYC.
False. TV stations covered 9/11 as it happened. Go check!!!
Well since I lived downtown, I can tell you from first hand experience that we had no BROADCAST TV in NYC. So, unless you had cable, which me and many of my friends did not have, you did not know what was going on. OTOH to the OP, the internet was quite functional and accessible, dial up notwithstanding.
> It was not yet obvious, in 2001, the evangelical Christian right would become a defining force in the GOP, the cohort of voters all ambitious Republicans would have to flatter, cajole, and ultimately deliver for. These voters were clear-eyed about the stakes of each election cycle, gravitating to candidates who promised to change the make-up of the Supreme Court and overturn hated decisions, like Roe v. Wade.
Not having been alive in the '80s I can't confirm this from firsthand experience, but my sense is that the Christian right's hijacking of the GOP happened under Reagan, and more strident/artsy liberals of the era were very loudly decrying what they saw as an evangelical takeover of the US government. Angels in America has a scene where right-winger Joe literally monologues out the GOP's plan to do an end-run around public opinion via courtpacking while using a urinal. Frank Zappa spent the last decade of his life railing against what he saw as theofascism. Etc, etc.
Bush the Younger's innovation, far as I can tell, was assisting the abortion-clinic-bombing demographic in a rebrand ("compassionate conversatism" - bring your own snark).
It's fair to say it began with Reagan. More what I wanted to convey is that the Christian vote, even by 00, hadn't entirely sorted into the GOP. Bush was an obviously Christian president, and took things to a new level.
There has never been an end to Empire. Those who lust for the power and glory of Empire are chameleons.
This is a pretty decent synopsis of the moment, but I have to take issue with the notion that "It was not yet obvious, in 2001, the evangelical Christian right would become a defining force in the GOP...' If anything the opposite is true. This simple dynamic was glaringly obvious in the wake of the spectacle of the Lewinsky "scandal." You can make a pretty strong argument that Gore lost because of this moralism.
By 1996, the merger that had blossomed under Reagan between the Christian nationalists, the plutocrats, and the foreign policy hawks was in full swing. It was pretty clear the hyper moralist wing was running full speed towards ascendency, no matter what the David Brooks' of the GOP might have fooled themselves into believing. The only real shock was decades later watching Trump become their spokesperson. But I suppose if you grew up as I did watching the crocodile tears from the likes of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, even Trump's profound narcissism and hypocrisy was anticipated.
Fair - I think Bush took it to new levels, but certainly stuff like this began germinating under Reagan