The great blue/red schism that has launched a thousand columns and blog posts, has spawned a pair of matching apparitions staring at each other in the mirror. On the red side of the looking glass we have the fearsome bogeyman of the Christian Right, on the verge of turning what’s left of our democracy into a fundamentalist theocracy. On the blue side is the multicultural monster of political correctness devouring Christmas and all other symbols of what was once a great Christian nation.
I realize that what with post-election exhaustion, holiday doldrums, and millions of bloggers joining in the punditry competition, good material is hard to come by, and we are all forced to grasp at whatever straw men are to hand. Keeping the public passions aroused is a never-ending, mostly thankless task.
But com’n people, we have to do better than these vaporous phantasms. A fractional relaxation of paranoia, and they vanish into thin air. The Christian Right of Jerry Fallwell, Pat Robertson, and the Moral Majority made its bid for power years ago, and failed. They’ve been in slow decline ever since. They have their constituency, but it’s as large and enthusiastic as it’s ever gonna be, and it’s not big enough to be more than a colorful thread in the rainbow tapestry that is America.
On the other hand, the pathological aversion to giving offense that has caused the word Christmas to be banned in public, and creches to be removed from the public square, is silly, but it is not a threat to America’s Christian foundations. Eighty percent of Americans identify themselves as Christians. Christians are not an endangered species. Nobody is taking the Christ out of your Christmas. You can cover your house and yard with blinking mangers, shepherds, and wise men, to your heart’s content. Cards that say Merry Christmas are still available. They may even be marked down. The Passion was a huge money-maker.
Perhaps a holiday season moratorium on pumping up the dichotomy, is in order. A temporary cease-fire until after New Year’s. In the meantime maybe we can fill the empty space with thoughtfulness, a little vamping until ready to resume the struggle.