As opposed to, say, RNC speaker Pat Robertson, who said Disney's "Gay Day" would result in a meteor hitting Orlando?

Do you think this asshat imam is even remotely as influential as Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and their fellow Republican fundies?

The GOP is still, by and large, the party of choice for religious nuts.

The occasional counter-example doesn't prove anything other than the fact that the Dems also have moronic theists in their ranks.

I would take our religious nuts over their religious nuts every day and twice on Sunday (or Saturday, depending on your affiliation).

The left is this country is forming alliances with radical Muslims just as the left in France has done. This alliance has been a disaster for Jews in France and the same will happen here.

Is this bad ? Yes. But by this "company you keep" kind of logic we would have no use for Niger Innis and the gang at CORE, Mayor Rudy, Jim Nicholson who at the time was in charge of the RNC and Orrin Hatch for the whole Austrian Nazi Jorge Haider fiasco back on MLK day in 2000.

Jake, I don't think the left and radical Muslims can ever be the powers in the US that they are in France for a number of reasons. I don't think the American political tradition is as radical as the French or that we are more tolerant of outside ideas or ideals. I simply don't accept that the American people in this day and age will lay down to the nihlism as, alas, France did. Even for all the open borders and politicall correctness undermining our distinct cultural identiy, I think most Americans remain, on the whole, decent people, ready to fight for their ideas, ideals and values, especially when the fight is in their own backyards. While we may not care what goes on around the world, we do care what goes on down the street.

Are you sure that was an Islamic imam who said those things ?
It sure sounds like something that Dhimmi Carter, Pat Buchanan, or Jim Baker would say !

By the way, Joe, you oughta listen to Dennis Prager talk about the difference between the histories of American Christianity vs. European Christianity in their respective attitudes toward Jews.
The difference is night and day.
I don't know if you're aware, but Pat Robertson is an enormous supporter of Israel, and Jews in general.
I'm 'guessing' that the imam in question is not.

The only problem with your flawed analogy is that whatever nefarious alliance with the "religious right" you're imputing to the Republican Party has no pratical impact upon the rest of society, whereas the red-green alliance between deluded, hapless Marxists and politically opportunistic Islamists does.

Just ask Keith Ellison-the fruit of Islam-or catboy George Galloway.

Gerard:

"whatever nefarious alliance with the "religious right" you're imputing to the Republican Party has no pratical impact upon the rest of society"

Are you out of your mind?

HPV vaccine.

Stem cell research.

Gay marriage.

Right-to-die.

Legal abortion.

Teaching kids that evolution and "intelligent design" are equally credible.

I don't think that amounts to "no practical impact".

Religious nuts on the Left are a tiny minority; on the Right, they are a sizable minority.

BBIAS:

Dennis Prager is an apologist for Christian nutcases who believe he is going to hell unless he converts.

I am aware of Pat Robertson's zionism; a broken clock is still right twice a day.

Of the topics you listed their has only been debates. Nothing you listed has been impacted.

HPV vaccine: still available
Stem cell research: still happening
abortion: still legal, still available

Right-to-die & Gay marriage has never existed before, so how can the lack of them now be "impacting" on society.

The bans on gay marriage are the closest you can come to claiming an impact, but you are wrong to blame them solely on the religious right. If you check the statistics in the states that passed laws to ban gay marriage and you'll see that the number of people voting to ban gay marriage are too large to be just "religious fanatics."

Joe,

I'm not sure how many of those issues tie directly into the "religious right". I'm pretty much an atheist and I have problems (for various reasons) with gay marriage, assisted suicide, and roe v wade. If the religious right dissappeared today I don't think all the issues on your list would go away.

ccs178:

Preventing changes, or impeding progress (i.e. blocking new stem cell research funding and bogging HPV down in politics) counts as in "impact".

You're right that the lack of gay marriage cannot be solely blamed on the religious right. What I mean is that, without the religious right, those issues wouldn't even be up for debate.

Thankfully, we are not dominated by the religious right (contrary to what some Lefty blogs seem to think), but they are numerous, well-organized and fairly effective in pursuing their vision for America.

For the small percent of the population that is religious right they have a big influence.
Probably the most influentual group relative to size in the country.

I thought that was the JOOOOOOOOOZ! ;)

Bah. The religious right only has that kind of influence in the minds of NYT editors. The issues I listed earlier are positions taken by more than half the electorate. The power you're ascribing to the religious right is the power of the majority (frustrated by the courts, in some cases).