The demise of the reactionary theocratic regime in the Republic of Ireland was the result of four developments: membership in the EU, which encouraged the movement of people and ideas; improvements in communications technology; the exposure of rampant abuses within the Catholic Church; and horror stories in which women were denied appropriate medical treatment due to the country’s strict abortion restrictions.
I mention this because the ROI of yore is, to a large extent, the model for today’s American reactionaries. They are attempting to put the genie back in the bottle, starting with abortion rights, at a time when the Catholic and Southern Baptist hierarchies have already been discredited, and organized religion is on the wane. America is at the forefront of globalization and technological change, and the same kind of medical horror stories are inevitable. In the long run, therefore, the American reactionaries will also fail; the only question is how much damage they will do in the interim.