This James Wolcott post has an interesting view behind the veil of the Right Wing Power Elite's angry expressions of piety, appearing on schedule right about the Christmas season.

Wolcott quotes with approval from John Derbyshire of the National Review, who skewers the hypocrisy moving many conservative intellectuals to support "Intelligent Design."

Saith Derbyshire (of neo-con Irving Kristol):

"Here we have a guy who plainly doesn't believe in God, but who thinks that well-padded intellectual elitists like himself ought to evade the issue in public for fear of demoralizing the proles and perhaps jeopardizing some padding thereby. I can't think of anything nice to say about that; and in fact, the only things I CAN think of to say would not be suitable for a family website...
"These are the people who are pushing 'intelligent design' in the conservative movement. Not only am I glad and proud to have spoken out against this preposterous hoax, I wish I had done so more forthrightly. These are people filled up to their meritocratic nose-holes with contempt for ordinary people. That's conservatism? Ptui, I spit."

Yes, John, spit long and hard.

Walcott sees the same hypocrisy in the "War on Christmas" meme pushed by various Fox News blowhards, and he too is correct. But it goes further and deeper than that - this theme of the "noble lie" is the essence of the modern "conservative" political movement.

It ties back into a theme raised in some discussions at TPM Cafe regarding a new book, "Off Center: The Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy." It is truly the age of politics-as-marketing - and it's marketing with no rules. It's all about perception, not truth, and you can say what you want about the other guy. That is what all of this "culture war" crap is all about. Feed people disinformation about what your policies do, then distract them by pounding on divisive, negative, and irrelevant themes. "Yeah, more tax cuts will be great for the economy ... AND THOSE LIBERALS HATE CHRISTMAS!!!!! ... AND GOD!!! ... IN FACT, THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS JUST A COVEN OF LESBIAN ATHEIST TRAITORS!!!!!!!!! AND WE HAVE PICTURES!!!"

Spit long and hard, John.