Trajanus
Paranormal Adept
I don't think an outright legal theocracy could be imposed here, although I think there are people who'd like to try. A society where both within and outside the government there's discrimination against religious minorities (and the non-religious)? I think we're pretty close to that now.
No I don't think so. In the hierarchy of US values, liberty trumps religion, and the latter is slowly waning as more people abandon faith, or a specific denomination. Look at the grave shortage of catholic priests. As secularization continues fewer people find religion important enough to be worth sacrifices like celibacy.
---------- Post added at 10:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:31 AM ----------
And yet, a very small bunch of guys flying aircraft into buildings utterly changed the face of America overnight, and arguably led to such atrocities as the Patriot Act and outrageous surveillance, and created a world dominated by the "age of terror."
When people are faced with a threat - real or manufactured - they turn to government for help, whether it's actually warranted or not. People become sheeple.
Lol, I don't doubt for a second that authoritarianism is possible here. But while religious nuts can create a crisis which brings us closer to authoritarianism, the form it'll take won't be theocracy. We're too secular for such a system.