A new poll by the Daily Kos/Research of 2,003 self-identified Republicans, 83 percent of whom indicated that they either would definitely vote or would vote in the November 2010 Congressional elections, reveals strong strains of Christian nationalist ideology.

In many respects, the base of the GOP reveals that it is God's Own Party. The question left unanswered by the data is whether or not Republicans would support a Christian theocracy. While I originally believed the data suggested that the Republican base were adherents to soft dominionism, I believe the case can be made that there is the outline of proto-Christian Reconstructionism that can be derived from the data.

There is the suggestion of a totalitarian impulse in the data. Christian Reconstructionists, as I will explain later, are totalitarian with their overarching goal of taking "dominion" over all aspects of American society.

James Scaminaci III then proceeds to match up views covered in the poll with Christian Reconstructionist positions. Readers will, of course, have to take it on faith that Scaminaci has a clear understanding of Christian Reconstructionism but, as the numerous installments of his subsequent series on the origins of the Tea Party movement demonstrate, he does.

The fact that Playboy's recent Rogues of K Street is currently being touted as cutting edge insight into the movement rather than Scaminaci's Origins of the Tea Party series is indicative of the factually-starved nature of much of contemporary American political discourse.

Whereas readers have to take Playboy's Tea Party story on faith, Scaminaci's Tea Party series provides facts and footnotes, and references people who have established reputations studying and writing on the Christian right and American far-right. Scaminaci's extensive analysis covers the libertarian, Christian Reconstructionist, white supremacist, and other strands that make up the Tea Party movement, and he's careful to make nuanced distinctions.

It's the difference between impressionistic pop-journalism and hard-edged academic analysis. What powers the Playboy Tea Party story is an alleged interview with a K-Street political operative said to be orchestrating the Tea Party movement from Washington, DC. There's probably some truth to the picture, but it's largely anecdotal so for all we know it could well be a hoax.

As a background note, many of the authorities on the Christian right, Christian Reconstructionism, and the far right mentioned in James Scaminaci III's Origins of the Tea Party series have contributed writing to Talk To Action including Talk To Action Co-Founder Frederick Clarkson, Chip Berlet, Michelle Goldberg, and Leonard Zeskind. For a list of Talk To Action stories relating to Christian Reconstructionism, see here