Elite fundamentalism has always going to be involved with a certain set of conservative interests, but certainly not exclusively Republican.

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

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

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.

The Family is the oldest and arguably most influential religious political organization in Washington.

Elite fundamentalism has always been on the corporate side of things.

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