The Religious Right Is Terrified and On the Run

Posted by Steve Benen, Washington Monthly at 10:40 AM on May 15, 2009.

A month ago, James Dobson conceded that the religious right movement has effectively lost the culture war, but he and his like-minded allies are going to keep trying. "We're not going anywhere," Dobson told Sean Hannity. "[T]he war is not over. Pendulums swing and we'll come back. We're gonna hang in there and, you know, it's not going to be a surrender."

That was last month. This month, Dobson sounds utterly hopeless.

"I want to tell you up front that we're not going to ask you to do anything, to make a phone call or to write a letter or anything.

"There is nothing you can do at this time about what is taking place because there is simply no limit to what the left can do at this time. Anything they want, they get and so we can't stop them.

"We tried with [Health and Human Services Secretary] Kathleen Sebelius and sent thousands of phone calls and emails to the Senate and they didn't pay any attention to it because they don't have to. And so what you can do is pray, pray for this great nation... As I see it, there is no other answer."

The context of this was Dobson's disgust with the House-passed hate-crimes bill -- which he refers to as "utter evil" -- that has drawn the ire of the religious right.

It's the sound of a culture warrior realizing the culture has passed him by.

Right Wing Watch added, "Dobson says he's 'never seen a time quite like this' and I have to agree because I have never seen the Religious Right as utterly terrified as it is at the moment."

Tagged as: religious right, dobson

Steve Benen is "blogger in chief" of the popular Washington Monthly online blog, Political Animal. His background includes publishing The Carpetbagger Report, and writing for a variety of publications, including Talking Points Memo, The American Prospect, the Huffington Post, and The Guardian. He has also appeared on NPR's "Talk of the Nation," MSNBC's "Rachel Maddow Show," Air America Radio's "Sam Seder Show," and XM Radio's "POTUS '08."