[niteowl77]

However, religion (or Christianity, at least) has been virtually eliminated from the public square and has so little influence or importance in our society anymore that we’re not likely to get a religious demagogue.

Correct.

Nonetheless, lots of "conservatives" habitually long for one.

Mr. niteowl77

[livius]

I’m not sure it’s true that conservatives long for a religious dictator.

However, one of the problems in the conservative world is that there was a tendency to pitch things to a reliable voting bloc, which was, for a long time, the Evangelicals. They were not interested in much of anything except a candidate’s “walk,” as they call it, and were not very policy oriented. But they did vote, so the pitch was made to them on religious grounds.

The Evangelicals have pretty much broken down as a voting bloc. Even on social issues, they are much less committed than before, and since they were never policy oriented (big government, small government, they really didn’t care), there’s no hook for them.