But at the same time, the Religious Right was slowly starting to taper off in the late 90's but then the rise of Dubya and 9/11 temporarily gave them a boost in power and energy, but it was a case of winning the battle in the very short-term and losing the war in the long-term
Everyone making comparisons with the Religious Right keeps leaving out a key aspect of the same time period: the rise of Political Correctness. That wasn't an invention of the right, it was a self-censoring language attack from the left, and it was the first step in making sure you couldn't talk about
certain uncomfortable things that were common knowledge.
Back in the 80s-90s, while corporations went PC mode, comedians literally built entire careers off of being non-PC as a counter-culture movement. Bill Maher's show rejecting the concept,
Politically Incorrect, started in 1993. PC sentiment sometimes included not offending Christians, back when it was still don't-offend-anyone instead of don't-offend-protected-classes. But the censorious impulse on the Left clearly matched that of the Right, in tandem with each other.
It used to be if you ran afoul of PC, you issued a PC apology and moved on. Now, the left is far beyond PC, to the point where even suggesting an offensive viewpoint
exists is enough to cancel your entire life. The apologies aren't enough for them any more.
The insanity you're seeing now didn't grow out of the Religious Right's tactics (they had their own separate issues). It was
always a language control movement from the left.