What the Cold War did was provide a fairly clearly defined enemy and it's easy to organize around that.

What's interesting is the populace movement of fundamentalism is starting to mirror that approach that elite fundamentalism has long had of trying to have influence across the political spectrum.

The Cold War was really the great struggle of the 20th Century and it shaped American political life from top to bottom.

Fundamentalism is a 20th-century phenomenon, but that kind of religious fervor actually has not always been associated with conservative goals.

There are real radical Muslim groups out there that really are pretty villainous. You don't have to make them up.

The politics of that year [2004] are old now, but the problem remains the same, the real culture clash of American life. It's between the essence of fundamentalism - paternalism, authority, and charity - and the messy imperatives of democracy, "the din of the vox populi" once derided by Abram Vereide. It's the difference between false unity, preached from above, and real solidarity, pledged between brothers and sisters - the kinds who are always bickering.

My favorite forgotten President in American history is James Buchanan, who in defending really robust and sharp-elbowed debates said, "I like the noise of democracy. I like the sound of people in the streets making noise."