Politics & Power Quote by Pat Robertson

“Systematic erosion” is doing the heavy lifting here: it frames cultural change not as debate or drift but as sabotage. Robertson’s intent is mobilization. By casting the situation as an organized campaign, he converts a messy pluralist society into a storyline with villains, victims, and a clear mission. “Problem we have in America” wraps a partisan grievance in national diagnosis, inviting listeners to treat his theology as civic common sense.

The subtext is boundary-setting. “Religious values” is deliberately broad, but the sentence quickly narrows the definition of legitimate religion to “our Christian heritage.” The move is rhetorical bait-and-switch: start with “religious” (which sounds inclusive and benign), then land on “Christian” as the default owner of the “public square.” That phrase matters. It implies that public life has a rightful religious character that is being wrongfully stripped, not simply that private faith is being disrespected. In Robertson’s framing, neutrality isn’t neutrality; it’s expulsion.

His choice of antagonist - “certain liberal groups” - is equally strategic. Vague enough to encompass courts, media, academia, and activist organizations, it creates a flexible target that can absorb any unfavorable ruling or cultural trend. It also recasts liberalism as coercive, not permissive: the “expunge” verb suggests censorship and cleansing, a moral panic word with historical muscle.

Contextually, this sits squarely in late-20th-century Religious Right politics, where fights over school prayer, abortion, and church-state separation were packaged as an existential contest over America’s identity. The line isn’t merely nostalgic; it’s a claim of ownership, aimed at turning cultural anxiety into political solidarity.