American Theocracy

American Theocracy

American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century (ISBN 0-670-03486-X) is a 2005 political commentary book by American political writer Kevin Phillips. The book is a harsh critique of the past forty years of the Republican coalition in U.S. politics. He "presents a nightmarish vision of ideological extremism, catastrophic fiscal irresponsibility, rampant greed, and dangerous shortsightedness."

Phillips points to three unifying themes holding this coalition together. First, its tie to oil and the role oil plays in American and world events. Second, to the coalition of social conservatives, Evangelicals and Pentecostals in this Republican coalition. Finally, he points to the "debt culture" of this coalition, and to a coming "debt bubble" related to the debt of the U.S. Government and U.S. consumers. He argues that similar issues have been prevalent in the past, when other world powers, such as the Roman Empire and the British Empire declined from their peaks and fell into disarray.

While working as a strategist in the presidential campaign of Richard Nixon, Phillips wrote "The Emerging Republican Majority." In that book, Phillips predicted the formation of this very coalition that he criticizes in his current book. In "American Theocracy," he admits that while these "mutations," as he calls them, could have been predicted, he did not foresee the extent to which they would develop and dominate the coalition he helped put together. The last chapter of this book references his first work, and is called "The Erring Republican Majority."