In his October 2006 his statement on the election, Leonard Peikoff urged voting for Democrats rather than Republicans based on an analysis of their respective driving philosophies. He wrote,

In essence, the Democrats stand for socialism, or at least some ambling steps in its direction; the Republicans stand for religion, particularly evangelical Christianity, and are taking ambitious strides to give it political power.

Socialism–a fad of the last few centuries–has had its day; it has been almost universally rejected for decades. Leftists are no longer the passionate collectivists of the 30s, but usually avowed anti-ideologists, who bewail the futility of all systems. Religion, by contrast–the destroyer of man since time immemorial–is not fading; on the contrary, it is now the only philosophic movement rapidly and righteously rising to take over the government. Given the choice between a rotten, enfeebled, despairing killer, and a rotten, ever stronger, and ambitious killer, it is immoral to vote for the latter, and equally immoral to refrain from voting at all because “both are bad.”

He concluded his statement by saying that, “If you hate the Left so much that you feel more comfortable with the Right, you are unwittingly helping to push the U.S. toward disaster, i.e., theocracy, not in 50 years, but, frighteningly, much sooner.”

In response, many people denied — even scoffed at — the possibility of theocracy in America.

Yet less than a year and half later, Mike Huckabee — a devout fundamentalist Christian who explicitly promises to make socialist policy based on fundamentalist Christian faith that drives his decisions — is a serious contender for the Republican nomination for president. As if that’s not telling enough, in a prepared speech in Michigan, he said:

I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution. But I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the Living God. And that’s what we need to do — to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view of how we treat each other and how we treat the family.”

Here’s the video:

Even if Mike Huckabee doesn’t win the Republican nomination, more explicit calls to entwine government with Christianity should be expected in 2012.

My point? In less than two years, the natural course of politics in America has proven Dr. Peikoff right about the prospects of theocracy in America, “not in 50 years, but, frighteningly, much sooner.” Frankly, I wish the definitive proof offered by Huckabee’s candidacy had trickled in rather more slowly.

(As for the much-asked question, “But shouldn’t we vote for the better Republicans?”, you can find Dr. Peikoff’s reply to that and more in his fifth podcast, starting at 2:50.)