Gelerntner on Truman and Bush

Great paragraph from David Gelerntner in the Weekly standard:

“We underestimate the extent of Truman's Christian, Bible-centered piety--in part because historians underestimate it. But if you listen to Truman, the Bible is there on the soundtrack. (He ended his first talk to Congress: "I humbly pray God in the words of King Solomon, 'Give therefore Thy servant an understanding heart to judge Thy people, that I may discern good and bad: for who is able to judge this Thy so great a people?'" He concluded his opening message to the brand new United Nations: "May He lead our steps in His own righteous path of peace.") Bush's piety will always be remembered in terms of Al Gore's disgraceful description of the president's faith: "the American version of the same fundamentalist impulse that we see in Saudi Arabia, in Kashmir, and in many religions around the world." But for Truman and Bush both, faith counted heavily when the storm broke and they had to steer straight in mountainous seas.”

The culture war is not about the right rising up by about the left leaving the center. The Bible centered morality of the Republicans is not there invention, it was just common sense before the 1970s. The fundamentalism that Gore derides was the common language of the US up until the candidacy of the George McGovern.

And talk about bigotry? Nuance? Bush=Komehni because they are both religious? How about Kerry=Stalin because they are both secular?