The LA Times offers a disturbing piece about groups in and around the Washington Republican evangelical elites who are indoctrinating "a new generation of leaders who will answer not to voters, but to God." What's specifically frightening about these wingnuts is the way, according to the Times, they are dedicated to the proposition that "compromise is a sin." An foundational element of civil politics is the willingness compromise -- without compromise, the only other way to resolve differences of opinion or belief is through violence. And when confronted by people who hold such views, whether wingnuts in Washington or Al Qaeda, is with violence in return.
Voltaire, an original liberal, understood and embraced the paradox that one thing a liberal, tolerant society could not be asked to tolerate was intolerence. This insight led Voltaire to conclude that the only solution to the problem of orthodox religion was to smash it. Uncompromisingly. Amen.
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