Exagerration

Hysterics such as Naomi Wolf constantly claim dissent is suppressed, conspiracy and cover-up the norm, unjustice an epidemic and war a subterfuge in George Bush's fascist America. Trouble is, they never can cite actual examples. I agree with Norman Geras: "Dictatorship in America ain't gonna happen any time soon"--even under the Democrats.

MORE:

Did I speak too soon? The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC) is alarmed about Catholic doctors and hospitals that won't perform abortions. Like many on the left, the RCRC decries supposed sectarian coercion--but would substitute secular compulsion, says Mark Tooley:

The RCRC guidelines specifically lament that Roman Catholic guidelines for church health care services are an "explicitly sectarian theological statement" rather than "universal assumptions." . . .

In truth, RCRC claims its own particular brand of religious pluralism is the final adjudicator of religious truth. It asserts that access to abortion is a "religious right" that no human law can abrogate. . . But the RCRC version of infallibility harkens to 20th century notions of unrestricted self-will and radical autonomy. In short, if the self wants it badly enough, whether an abortion, a sex change operation, or an assisted suicide, it must not be denied, and all others must facilitate the demand, no matter their own qualms.

RCRC is afraid of a supposed theocracy run primarily by Roman Catholics, with assist from Southern Baptists and other religious dogmatists. But RCRC of course prefers its own, far more coercive theocracy, arbitrated by Unitarian social justice activists, whose inerrant doctrines, unlike those of traditionalists, are constantly and faddishly under revision.

Another congregation member at the "First Church of St. Dowd."