Ramesh, I think it’s an exaggeration to say that conservatism has been
“crippled” by its lurch to the church. This may change, but electorally
at least that has been very far from the case (upto now). I’d also be
surprised if many conservative-leaning agnostics (I can’t speak for
atheists, devout folk that they are, they tend to worry more about such
things) are bothered one way or the other about all the piety on display
at the top of the GOP. I do think, however, that it’s true that
conservatism is being changed (to use a more neutral word) by the
greater role that an explicitly religious activism is playing within it.
Specifically, it’s easy to discern a strain of conservatism emerging
(and within the GOP and the administration it has emerged a long way)
that more resembles european Christian Democracy (or, in its more robust
forms, Gaullism) than the small government, skeptical, ‘leave me alone’
conservatism that brought so many into the fold and which (for what it’s
worth) I, for one, prefer. Does that matter? We’ll see, but I suspect
that it might start to: check back after the November elections