the country. We’ve got presidents making political decisions based on the Book of Revelations, Larry. The Book of Revelations.”
He settled back to catch his breath and watched Rydell for a reaction before pressing on. “We were a great country once. A rich country the rest of the world envied. Then they put a guy in there who thought Russia was an evil empire and thought we were living through the prophecies of Armageddon. They got us a guy who found Jesus but can’t read a balance sheet, and they’re out there running the country down to the ground and waging wars in the name of God and getting our boys blown to bits, and half the country’s still marching into church every Sunday and coming out with a big smile and waving the flag of their redeemer nation—”
“I know you’re angry about Jackson,” Rydell interrupted, the face of Drucker’s deceased son suddenly flashing up in his mind and making him aware of what was really fueling this, “but—”
“Angry?” Drucker growled. “Oh, I’m not just angry, Larry. I’m fucking furious. And don’t get me wrong. I’m not one to mollycoddle our troops. A soldier’s job is to put his life on the line for his country. Jackson knew that when he signed up. But our country was not at risk here. This is a war that never should have happened. Never,” he bellowed. “And the only reason it did was that we had an incompetent fool with daddy issues and a messiah complex running the show. And that can’t be allowed to happen again.”
Rydell leaned in closer. He knew how much Drucker had loved his son, knew of all the grand plans he’d had for him. He had to tread carefully. “I’m with you on this, Keenan. We’re on the same page here. But what you’re doing is—”
Drucker headed him off with a quieting hand and nodded like he knew what Rydell was about to say. “We can’t allow this to go on, Larry. They’ve got it so politicians can’t get elected these days if they say they believe in Darwin. They’ve turned a college degree into a stigma and ‘elitist’ into a dirty word.” His eyes narrowed. “In the America of the twenty-first century, faith trumps competence. Faith trumps reason. Faith trumps knowledge and research and open debate and careful consideration. Faith trumps everything. And we need to turn that whole mind-set on its head. We need to bring back a respect for fact. For knowledge. For science and education and intelligence and reason. But you can’t reason with these people. We both know that. You can’t have a political debate with someone who thinks you’re an agent of Satan. They won’t compromise, because to them, compromising means compromising with the devil, and no God-fearing Christian would want to do that. No, the only way to put an end to this is to make it embarrassing for people and for politicians to flout their faith. We’ve got to take that tool away from the guys who’re using it to win elections and advance whatever agendas they have. We need to make it as embarrassing to say you’re a creationist as it would be if you said you still support slavery in this day and age. We need to sweep religion into the dustbin of political discourse, just like we did for slavery. And we have to do it now. The country’s caught in a voodoo trance, Larry. You’ve seen the numbers. Sixty percent of the country believes the story of Noah’s Ark is literally true. Sixty percent. There are seventy million Evangelicals out there—a quarter of the population, attending a couple of hundred thousand evangelical churches, most of which are run by pastors who belong to conservative political organizations, and these guys are telling them which way to vote. And the people are listening, and they’re not voting for the guy whose policies make sense. They’re not voting for the guy with the brains or the vision. They’re voting for whoever will help them improve their standing when they get to the pearly gates. And it’s getting worse. This delusion is spreading. There’s a new megachurch opening every other day. Literally every other day.”
Drucker fixed Rydell with blazing intent. “You think global warming is around the corner? This threat’s already here. We may have dodged the bullet with this election, but they’re still out there, they’ll be back, and they’ll fight twice as dirty. They look at it as a