As he's a liberal, a Bush-hater and a NY Times columnist, it's worth noting that Peter Steinfels thinks reports of theocracy on the rise in America are way overblown:
The idea, increasingly voiced by left-of-center activists and Intellectuals, that religion is the driving force of the administration’s policies and the leading threat to American democracy is exaggerated and misplaced....
Yes, there's extremism out there, says Steinfels. Unfortunately, it afflicts secularists too:
They draw bold and broad lines between empiricism, science, tolerance, rationality, and democracy, on the one hand, and faith, theology, revelation, persecution, irrationality, and authoritarianism, on the other; and they assign whatever they like or dislike to one side of the divide or the other. This dualism disregards rational dimensions of faith and theology ... and neglects the historical reality that the modern world of empiricism, science, and Enlightenment reason has produced its own irrational nightmares.
Treating the moral questions that agitate conservative Christians as obviously settled beyond all reasoned argument does not just target theocrats. It sprays bullets widely into the ranks of moderate evangelicals, conservative Catholics, and even many centrist and liberal believers.
Just as a matter of interest, Steinfels was one of the first left-of-centre commentators to write seriously about neo-conservatism. I have a lengthy extract from that book buried in my study. Must dig it out some time soon.