KavkazCenter - American Theocracy

American Theocracy

IN American Theocracy, Kevin Phillips, a longtime strategist and political consultant at the highest levels of the Republican Party, issues a stern warning that the days of America as the world's sole superpower are rapidly coming to an end and that we can expect an imminent decline in American fortunes.

Although a true conservative, Phillips parts company with the neo-cons who have hijacked the Republic Party and lists three factors that he believes foretells the coming demise of American power and prestige. These three factors are deftly summarized as "the peril and politics of radical religion, oil, and borrowed money in the 21st century," a summary that also serves as the subtitle for his book.

The first section of the book, entitled "Oil and American Supremacy," deals with the myriad problems afflicting America because of its overdependence on petroleum. Phillips notes that, like other crumbling empires of the past such as Great Britain, Holland, and Spain, America has failed to adapt to the need for a new energy source. In support of his contention, Phillips notes that Americans consume 25% of the world's available energy, even though America has only 05% of the world's energy resources, and that 1998 saw America having to import over half of the petroleum it used. Compounding this problem, Phillips reports that the energy infrastructure of the United States is rapidly aging.

Increasing demand for petroleum, rapidly depleting American oil reserves, and an aging energy infrastructure all contribute to runaway inflation in oil prices, resulting in the price of a barrel of crude skyrocketing from under .00 per barrel in 1970 to prices hovering around .00 per barrel today. Thus, America's fixation with oil and gasoline directly contributes to a weakening of America's financial stature.

It is not the case, however, that America's preoccupation with oil only affects America's economy. Phillips cogently argues that it also directly impacts on presidential elections and on American foreign policy. In support of the former, Phillips presents extensive polling data indicating that in the 2004 election frequent drivers tended to vote for Bush, drivers of gas-guzzling vehicles overwhelmingly voted for Bush, and drivers of energy-efficient hybrids voted five to one for Kerry. With regard to directly foreign policy, Phillips argues that such major decisions as the military incursion into Somalia and the invasion of Iraq were heavily influenced by considerations involving the oil reserves of those two nations.

The second section of the book focuses on the radical Christian Right and how its Doomsday theology influences presidential elections and adversely affects domestic and foreign policy decisions. It is Phillips's contention that the Republican Party has become a hostage of the Evangelical, Fundamentalist, and Pentecostal wing of Protestant Christianity and that much of the voting differences that separate Red States and Blue States can be attributed to the percentage of voters in those states who subscribe to the Christian Right and its agenda.

Focused on an End Times theology in which the so-called "elect" of God will be spirited away to heaven right before the return of Jesus Christ to earth and the resulting Armageddon, the Christian Right wants to bring that "Rapture" to fruition by shaping world affairs. In particular, much of the Christian Right believes that the Rapture can only occur after the reconstitution of the Biblical state of Israel, the creation of a "New Babylon," and the building of a new Jewish Temple on the site presently occupied by the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosques. As such, the Christian Right advances a radically Zionist agenda and promoted the war in Iraq, two features of American foreign policy that have done untold harm to America's status and prestige around the world.

Phillips proposes that one other foreign policy objective of the Christian Right is to make America's War on Terror a war against Islam. In support of that conclusion, Phillips quotes Richard Cizik, the vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals: "evangelicals have substituted Islam for the Soviet Union. The Muslims have become the modern-day equivalent of the Evil Empire."

Finally, Phillips notes that the Rapture theology of the Christian Right negatively influences American domestic policy. As an example, Phillips notes that people who are primarily focused on an imminent ascension into heaven are quite willing to live like there is no tomorrow and are not going to be very concerned about husbanding and conserving the world's petroleum reserves, researching and developing alternative energies, and minimizing the financial debt that is being passed along to the next generation of Americans.

In the third section of his book, Phillips bemoans the ever increasing public and private debt that is plaguing America. The national debt in 2004 was a staggering 7.8 trillion dollars, making America the largest debtor nation in the world. Consumer debt more than doubled between 1980 and 1990, and by 2004 American households were spending .04 for every dollar they were earning.

Complicating this bleak financial picture, American manufacturing has been declining year after year, with American GDP being largely propped up by the financial service sector of the American economy. For example, the financial sector accounted for 20% of the GDP in 2000, while manufacturing accounted for only 14.5%. By 2004, the financial sector accounted for almost 40% of all American profits, a figure that may be four times as large as the profits contributed by manufacturing.

Coming in at 462 pages of tightly developed argument and myriad charts, tables, and statistics, American Theocracy is a scholarly presentation of the minefields in which America now stands. It is a book that every concerned and informed citizen should read.

(Dr. Dirks is the author of: The Cross and the Crescent; Abraham: The Friend of God; Understanding Islam: A Guide for the Judaeo-Christian Reader; and The Abrahamic Faiths. He is married to the co-editor of Islam Our Choice: Portraits of Modern American Women. All five books are available by writing to dirksjf@yahoo.com.)

Source: DailyMuslims