The USA is certainly not a theocracy. In fact I would think that what people now see as disturbing are actually groups towards the fringe of society who express what would have been commonplace thinking in the 1950s. What you see as ultra-conservative was centrist not so long ago.
As for the assertion that Christ was a liberal....I don't think he ever said he was a liberal. I think people like to define Jesus to put him on their side. I see a person a Jesus who is quite elusive, to conservatives and liberals. "Liberal" may be a good term in that he definitely allowed people to choose---whether or not they wanted to follow him, or even to kill him. He did not impose morality by any force. And yet, I would disagree with liberal Christians who take this stance of his as a liberal attitude about morality--ie that Jesus was saying everything is completely ok from free-love, and homosexuality, to following other faiths. The general morality of the Bible (of which Jesus said a pen-stroke shall not disappear) would be labelled conservative by most people today. So I think in another sense, you could point to him being quite a conservative. The difference is this conservatism is one of individual choice, and not one forced upon others. IE he was not promoting free-love when he said "Let him without sin cast the first stone". He was promoting mercy toward sinners, because everyone is a sinner. He was not condoning adultery, because in fact he later told the woman to "sin no more". I would say that Jesus would piss off the liberals just as much as the conservatives. The liberals because he still does preach conservative (not that conservatives hold the monopoly on them but that leftists would call them such) values (not the do what thou wilt, if it feels good sentiment), and to many conservatives because he did so without forcing it upon anyone else.
As for fear-mongering, I think it is something which is done equally by both sides--left and right. And each side fears the others free speech. One labels the dissent of one side as anti-Americanism or pro-terrorism. The other side makes frequent accusations of bigotry. Where the right can be very reactive in terms of international issues, I find myself equally afraid of the left these days, because they are the side which would put restrictions on speech (even though it may be true) because it could cause offense to a minority. And I also do not agree with the leftist idea of creating equality by engineering the end result. Take for instance the idea of imposing gender parity in parliament. Can you not see how illogical this is? I fully expect someone to reply with "Hey, you mean you think it is illogical for women to be in politics".....but there is another reason. Do you understand this?
The left is not liberal, because it attempts to socially engineer society. If you disagree with this you are labelled bigot, racist, misogynist, etc. The left plays Grand Inquisitor just as much as the right.
