Hysterical lurch back into America’s Puritan past

Are Americans regressing? You have to wonder. Michelle Bachmann aspires to be next year’s Republican candidate in the presidential election. Here she is sounding forth about Hurricane Irene: “I don’t know how much God has to do to get the attention of politicians. We’ve had an earthquake, we’ve had a hurricane. He [that is, God] said, ‘Are you going to start listening to me now? Listen to the American people, because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid-obesity diet and we’ve got to rein in the spending’.”

Allan Massie: Hysterical lurch back into America’s Puritan past