‘Deep America’ wins
The electoral victory of US President George W. Bush shows that «deep America» – unknown and abhorrent to liberal citizens of the USA and Europe – is the predominant political force in the most powerful country in the world… An analysis of the election results will attribute Bush’s sweeping victory to the fact that the country is in a state of war, that security has become an even more burning issue than the economy, or that Protestant evangelists have acquired a major say in American political life. These explanations, and similar ones, are put forward by people who are not aware of – or who do not want to acknowledge – that in the 1950s America had already entered its fourth «Great Awakening,» characterized by «Evangelical Protestantism» and a gradual alienation from Europe. The Republican Party’s presidential nomination of Senator Barry Goldwater in 1964 changed the entire political landscape of the USA and Goldwater’s subsequent declaration that extremism in the defense of freedom is not punishable seriously shook the the American and European establishments… In contrast to Greece, where the conservatives overlook the need to shape an ideological framework, US conservatives started forming Republican ideology from the late 1950s – a stance that remains in total opposition to that of the liberals…
