Survey results from "The 2004 Political Landscape;' Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, released November s, 2003 and available at http :/ I people-press.org (accessed July 28, 2008).
One who would and does deny the political impact of the religious right is An Coulter, in Slander. Coulter argues that the religious right is a "mythical enemy" created by liberals "to justify their own viciousness and advance their agenda; 211. "Loathing of the religious right has become an end in itself;' she writes, "a consuming passion. Liberals denounce Christian conservatives for being moralistic, for imposing their morality on others, for not separating morality from politics, and for bringing religious zeal to public life-and then work themselves into a frothing frenzy of righteous, moralistic zeal over their own moral excellence for being so rational, calm, and detached;' 24 7.
Some of the best studies in this large and fascinating field include Apostolidis, Stations of the Cross, and Harding, The Book of Jerry Falwell.
Baugh, The Battle for Baptist Integrity (Austin, Texas: Battle for Baptist Integrity, Inc., no date). Copies may be requested by fax: (512) 327-0944.
14: Frum, The Right Man, 238.
15 Fineman, "Bush and God;' 22 f.
16 See Jane Bennett's and Michael Shapiro's introduction to The Politics ofMoralizing. They write: "The diagnosis of moral depletion-defined as a loss of shared values-makes the most sense in relation to an ideal of cultural life as an organic whole whose parts tend toward a state of equilibrium;' 2.
1 7 Thus, Susan Neiman, powerfuly rereads the history o f continental philosophy as a struggle with the reality of evil in the world. See her Evil in Modern Thought. 1 8 See Zizek's discussion in The Ticklish Subject, 290-97.
1 9 See, for example, Morrow, Evil. This colection o f short pieces o n evil is less an investigation than a set of lists, reflections, and narratives of pain and horror to establish the permanence of evil and the importance of recognizing "evil for what it is;' 13. A typical claim: "Evil is the most powerful won;I in the language, and the most elusive;' 7.
20 Morrow, "The Real Meaning of Evil;' 74.
21 For an account of performative contradictions, see Habermas, Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action, especialy 79-92. For a discussion of the symptom as "a particular elem�nt which subverts its own universal foundation," see Zizek, The Sublime Object of Ideology, 21.
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NOTES TO CHAPTER FOUR