The greatest danger to the United States is the religious right, as this article on Tom Delay’s threats against our independent judiciary amply demonstrates. The article reports that one proposal of the conference in question was that Congress ought to “pass bills to remove court jurisdiction from certain social issues or the place of God in public life.” In other words, these folks wish to gut the separation of church and state in First Amendment by preventing the courts from ensuring that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

Lovely.

I found the article found via TIA Daily, which notes:

The good news, such as it is: at least all of this is coming into the open now, before the looming battles over the president’s judicial appointments (including, possibly, to the Supreme Court). And the religious right’s threats are so obvious an attack on the American system that they are likely to produce a backlash, stiffening the backbones of a few Senate Democrats and undermine public support for Senate Republicans.

Although I do think that the sheer clarity of the threat now is good, I worry that Tracinski is overestimating the Democrats commitment to secularism, rule of law, and an independent judiciary. After all, did any principled Democrats stand up against the phony “culture of life” in the battle over Terri Schiavo? From what I saw, they were scared into silence, despite opinion polls which indicated overwhelming opposition to the shenanigans of the religious right and support for withdrawing Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube. Additionally, Hillary Clinton’s eagerness to jump into bed with religion doesn’t offer much hope for the future of secularism in the Democratic Party. Yet maybe the Republicans will suffer in the next election, if indeed the religious fanatics are misjudging their base.

This country desperately needs a powerful, principled, and pro-American voice for secularism… but I fear that time is growing short.