avoiding another sputnik
America's last major push against creationism started when Sputnik flew overhead, causing the government to realise that they had let the teaching of science slide, and putting them behind in scientific advances.
If ID is allowed to get a significant foothold, then the future for america is bleak. A refusal to accept Darwin leads inexorably to a rejection of the scientific method, which in turn leads people to reject the kind of education required to make further advances.
It is to be hoped that ID fails, not because religion should be rejected, but because the active seeking of blissful ignorance is bad for a population that wants to be competitive in the future.
The main hurdle to be overcome is that a lot of people have garnered significant power over segments of the US population through pushing science as the enemy. This in itself is a hypocrytical aproach, since those very same people use the products of science, the internet, mobile phones, cars, electricity and so on, whilst simultaniously renouncing the very sector of society responsible for such advances.