by Casey N. Blake

I recommend Paul Baumann's review of Damon Linker's new book, The Theocons: Secular America Under Siege, in the current issue of Washington Monthly. Linker previewed his argument in "Without a Doubt," in the April 3, 2006 issue of TNR. Baumann argues that Linker's book is a "tendentious" and "frequently cartoonish" polemic against Father Richard John Neuhaus, editor of the conservative journal First Things, where Linker himself was an editor from 2000 to 2005. Baumann disputes Linker's portrait of Neuhaus as a fundamentalist theocrat and argues that The Theocons exaggerates his significance within the conservative Catholic movement at the expense of other Catholic intellectuals who have moved from left to right since the 1960s. More important, Baumann makes the case that Linker's endorsement of a purely secularist approach to politics actually plays into the hands of Neuhaus and others who insist that an allegiance to the Republican party follows naturally from religious commitments. Baumann writes, "Linker thinks the explicit disavowal of religious-based moral claims should be a prerequisite for entering into the political debate. He's wrong, both philosophically and historically." The waning of Catholic support for liberal Democratic candidates since the 1970s is one of the most important developments in recent American history. It's a trend that's unlikely to be reversed by demonizing Neuhaus and a handful of other "theocons."