Davison's Doodle

Government Shutdown: A Clash of Fundamentalisms

An interesting article by a pastor and professor at Chicago Theological Seminary on the divide in this nation.

Government Shutdown: A Clash of Fundamentalisms
by Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite | The Washington Post | April 6, 2011

As a government shutdown over the 2011 budget looms, some regard this as politics as usual: a game of “chicken” between political parties. I believe something far more fundamental is at stake. The closer this shutdown comes, the clearer the differences become. What we have is a “clash of fundamentalisms,” two radically different visions of America and two radically different sets of values that undergird these positions. This is the greatest ideological battle of our time, I think, and why there is such extreme polarization in politics today.

The ideology of current conservatism, in my view, is actually not individualism either. Individualism, as the equal dignity and worth of each human being, is an Enlightenment philosophy that helped create the political system we call democracy. Rather, the current conservative view is regressive; it is a return of tribalism as a reaction to the increasing American racial, ethnic, and religious diversity. This diversity of race, ethnicity and religion, and its inclusion in “We the People” as symbolized by the government, is perceived as a threat to a myth of American identity as white, Christian and middle class. The pattern of the conservative budgeting reveals this—those who most need government services are the poor, i.e. those who are not considered members of the “tribe” that has been dominant in America for so long.