Essentially they are using the political system to change legislation that affects everyone, not just the fundamentalists. Hence the theocratic tendency.
I politically wise move on their part. I could never understand why folk claiming to Christians would be so anti things like universal health care, welfare systems and removal of guns. That seemed to be the antithesis of what I thought it was all about. But if you want to wield control you have to keep people down and deny them hope. I'm not sure how that works but I guess it is the old, the only hope you have is some kind of miracle, there is no free health care so only God can heal you and He clearly does so via this charlatan here. There is no welfare system the only hand outs you'll get are via this charlatan here and he's only giving out if you say the right things.
I guess that is why in the States there is that clear link between poverty, lack of education and religion. A link that is conspicuous by it's absence here (if you went into an RC church when I was little it was lots of Irish folk, ten, fifteen years ago when I was playing the education system it was full of relatively educated middle class people). The game the US fundies are playing looks similar to the way the RCC behaved in the ROI. It kept people down with outdated moral laws about contraception and sex and ignored poverty and ignorance. That has rightly backfired on it. Tho I'm not sure that will happen in the US?
The fundamentalists have left the Republican Party as dysfunctional, driven by ideology and lacking the pragmatism to wield power effectively. Worse still the fundamentalists have created a political and social environment for public debate where opinion and appeals to emotion rank above intellect, reason, rationality and facts. The family values they claim to promote have precious little to do with family values at all and much more to do with inward looking paranoia, anti-intellectualism and a massive persecution complex.
Yes but appeals to emotion work far better. Look at UKIP, appealing to peoples fears that their culture is being lost. Using a recession to blame immigration and providing fuel for religious fundamentalists to thrive. Islam in many places in the UK has started to go backwards for example. I can't help feeling UKIP and Daily Mail style rhetoric help that.
But nobody can give a clear intellectual answer to the question of what would happen economically if we did leave the EU. I haven't a clue.
Look at the language used by CMI, AiG et al. When it is pure emotional claptrap about morals and lack of fairness and appeals to discrimination by big 'atheist' scientists then they get loads of responses. If it is something 'scientific' (in the loosest possible sense of the word) they get hardly any.
We are starting to see fundamentalism in this country as we've gone into recession. I'm not sure why. Maybe cos it's the only thing that offers certainty? Maybe it's the only emotionally intelligent thing to cling to when you don't have anything else. Wage freezes have hit a lot of people hard, likewise benefit cuts. Lots of people are relying now on food banks run by churches, mosques, gurdwaras and temples. Some of those providers will be fundamentalist and will use it to proselytise. It'll be interesting to see how things go cos for the first time in eons an economic upturn is not benefitting everyone. It is only benefitting those at the top.
I think religion does need to speak out against it far more clearly and publicly. There are a lot of creationists who are creationists purely and simply because they've been bullied into that position. The creationist groups are taking that stance more and more. If you can't believe in Genesis you can't effectively believe in Jesus (tho how that logic works escapes me). If a few sane Christians start speaking out more clearly and stating more firmly that nothing could be further from the truth - there might be a chance to reverse it.
I know the battle won't be won by scientists because if it could be it would have been won years ago. Creation 'science' is so obviously crap it makes homeopathy look good.