It Hasn't Happened Here (Yet): The Obstacles to a Christian Democratic Party in the United States

While the French Revolution of 1789 divided European polities along religious lines in the ensuing decades, the English-speaking world, including the United States, was largely bypassed by the turmoil it engendered. Consequently, while Christian democratic parties developed in postrevolutionary Europe, parties in Great Britain and the US divided along more pragmatic lines. Now, however, the increasing polarization of the American electorate along religious and partisan lines has brought a French-stye divisiveness to that country's political life. While this would seem to provide fertile ground for the growth of a Christian democratic party, such a phenomenon will become viable only if structural, cultural and practical obstacles can be successfully overcome.