Taliban same as 'Religious Right?'

Democrats appear to be considering a provocative campaign theme for 2002. They might be gearing up to depict the Religious Right -- more generally, the right end of the Republican party -- as an American equivalent to the Taliban. A vote for the Democrats, then, would be a vote for tolerance and freedom of religion, conscience and choice. That's the plan, at least.\nA Democratic memo circulated last December foreshadowing the campaign strategy. Howard Fineman reported in Newsweek that it's designed to "draw an outraged response from the president. Then Democrats would have Bush just where they wanted him: in a firefight at home." The president won't be the only one outraged.\nWhen Democrats unsuccessfully tried this theme in 1994, it caused a pervasive sense among Christian conservatives that they were under attack -- that ruling political and cultural elites were ignoring or ridiculing them and their values -- and caused them to turn assertive. The result cost Democrats both houses of Congress. Will a war on the "Religious Right" be more effective in light of the Taliban and Sept. 11?\nWashington Times writer Gregory Pierce observed that The New York Times appears to be helping already by referring to Islamic radicals as "the Religious Right."\nBut are the Taliban really "right-wing?" Right-wingers traditionally oppose overbearing, centralized state control. They tend to want less government, not more.\nIf forced to categorize an Islamic state, like the Taliban's Afghanistan, it makes far more sense to label it "left" than "right." After all, it was a totalitarian regime. Totalitarian regimes, by definition, maintain strong centralized control over people's lives. That's the same thing leftists and socialists do. In socialist and totalitarian regimes, the government has more control.\nPainting the political "right" (religious or not) as evil is nothing new. Every so often, especially from so-called "academic" political science professors, I'm told that Nazis were right-winged, too. But the same logic applies in that Nazis, or National Socialists, were all about more government and more regulation.\nTry finding a liberal who had an uncomplicated answer to the question, "Except for all the murder, war and genocide, what exactly is wrong with Nazism?" Every conservative I know can answer that without pause. Every liberal I know has to think for at least a moment.\nThe Taliban and Nazis have a lot in common, and conservatives of all stripes bear no resemblance to them and would have no problem listing their evils. Unfortunately, the real meaning behind "left" and "right" gets lost with Democratic leadership that throws around terms and insults without regard to truth.\nThe irony of it all is that the Democrats' new war on the "Religious Right" is made in the name of tolerance. Perhaps I'm working from a different dictionary, because the election strategy bears no resemblance to tolerance in my book. Clearly the idea shows no tolerance toward Christians or right-wingers. In other words, the Democrats will tolerate anything, as long as it aligns with their beliefs.\nIn the end, waging war on the "Religious Right" might well be seen as the intolerant campaign it is. Going to the polls to vote Republican -- maybe even joining a Christian Right organization -- would again be a way of defending an identity and expressing defiance to hostile groups.