Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party

by Max Blumenthal (Author)

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ISBN-13: 978-1568583983

ISBN-10: 9781568583983

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Over the last year, award-winning journalist and videographer Max Blumenthal has been behind some of the most sensational (and funniest) exposes of Republican machinations. Whether it was his revelation that Sarah Palin was "anointed" by a Kenyan priest famous for casting out witches, or his confronting Republican congressional leaders and John McCain's family at the GOP convention about the party's opposition to sex education (and hence, the rise in teen pregnancies like that of Palin's daughter), or his expose of the eccentric multimillionaire theocrat behind California's Prop 8 anti-gay marriage initaive, Blumenthal has become one of the most important and most constantly cited journalists on how fringe movements are becoming the Republican Party mainstream.

Republican Gomorrah is a bestiary of dysfunction, scandal and sordidmess from the dark heart of the forces that now have a leash on the party. It shows how those forces are the ones that establishment Republicans-like John McCain-have to bow to if they have any hope of running for President. It shows that Sarah Palin was the logical choice of a party in the control of theocrats. But more that just an expose, Republican Gomorrah shows that many of the movement's leading figures have more in common than just the power they command within conservative ranks. Their personal lives have been stained by crisis and scandal: depression, mental illness, extra-marital affairs, struggles with homosexual urges, heavy medication, addiction to pornography, serial domestic abuse, and even murder. Inspired by the work of psychologists Erich Fromm, who asserted that the fear of freedom propels anxiety-ridden people into authoritarian settings, Blumenthal explains in a compelling narrative how a culture of personal crisis has defined the radical right, transforming the nature of the Republican Party for the next generation and setting the stage for the future of American politics.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Journalist Blumenthal documents the movement of conservative evangelicals from the political wings to center stage, delving into the psyches of those who now lead a Republican Party "fixated on abortion, homosexuality and abstinence education; resentful and angry." Guided by Eric Hoffer's 1951 cult classic The True Believer ("Faith in a holy cause, is to some extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves,") and Eric Fromm's 1941 psychoanalytical study of the Nazi movement (Escape from Freedom), Blumnthal suggests that childhood abuse has shaped the personalities of key leaders, including Focus on the Family guru James Dobson. Blumenthal is at his best examining these characters up close, including presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich and his born-again conversion; John Hagee, a Pentecostal pastor who lauded Hitler for "forcing the Jews to Israel"; Sarah Palin, whose political aspirations first came to her as part of a religious conversion; and evangelical pastor Ted Haggard, a self-proclaimed spiritual warrior caught in a relationship with a male prostitute. For those who enjoyed Jeff Sharlet's Capitol Hill exposé The Family, this makes a spicy follow-up.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"With scarcely more than a pith helmet, a notebook, and a tattered copy of Escape from Freedom, Erich Fromm’s great study of authoritarian psychology, the dauntless Max Blumenthal set forth years ago to explore the dank forests of American Christianism. Now he has returned to civilization, bringing back a fine collection of shrunken heads and a riveting account of a religio-political subculture that’s even weirder than you thought it was. Republican Gomorrah is an irresistable combination of anthropology and psychopathology that exerts the queasy fascination of (let’s face it) something very like pornography."

—Hendrik Hertzberg, senior editor, The New Yorker

“A brave and resourceful reporter adept at turning over rocks that public-relations-savvy Christian conservative leaders would prefer remain undisturbed.”
—Rick Perlstein,

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1568583982
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Nation Books (September 8, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781568583983
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1568583983
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 13 years and up
Grade level ‏ : ‎ 11 and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.48 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,748,439 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,445 in Political Ideologies
- #1,582 in Political Parties (Books)
- #2,216 in Political History (Books)

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Richard E. Hayes

THE FEARFUL FLIGHT FROM FREEDOM

Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2017

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REPUBLICAN GOMORRAH: INSIDE THE MOVEMENT THAT SHATTERED THE PARTY (2009) by Max Blumenthal

G. W. Bush won the Republican nomination in 2000, despite a sorry life history : "With his willingness to trumpet the personal crises that led him to Jesus, Bush was able to connect to the new Republican base in a way few politicians before him had done." (252) "... the 25 percent of the public that still approved of Bush's leadership by the end of his second term represented the backbone of the Republican Party. Indeed, by 2006 the Republican Party had been so thoroughly subsumed by the Christian right, and so well purged of most of its moderate elements, that the insufficiently religious primary frontrunners entered the race [in 2008] with severe handicaps." (253)

[After eight years of President Obama, which raised the fever of the political white conservative evangelicals, this handicap remained true of the crowd of candidates for the Republican nomination in 2016, who were defeated by the most vulgar candidate, neither notably religious or Republican, who understood that the base was motivated by cultural resentment and anger at both parties and at the secular liberal trend of the nation. The rise of Trump is further evidence of the collapse of a once great principled party. ~~ my comment]

This deeply researched and engrossing book explains how it happened. All the big movers in the political white conservative evangelical movement, and their feuds with each other, and their shocking sexual and financial scandals, and their cynical bargains with political operators loaded with plutocrat money, are reported here, and though I followed these developments fairly closely at the time, I learned a lot of startling and informative details from this bold book, and from Blumenthal's use of Erich Fromm's book "Escape From Freedom" as a source of understanding.

5 people found this helpful

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James Kalomiris, The Peripatetic Reader

Rotten to the Core, But not this Book

Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2016

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This is a very informative and entertaining book. The reporting is unassailable, exhaustive and incisive. It traces how the Republican Party descended to the schizoid state it now finds itself, and confirms what many have long suspected about the conservative fringe wherein lie the Moral Majority, or Religious Right leaders — that they are a bunch of unapologetic, blatant hypocrites. Or worse. Author Blumenthal named his book “Republican Gomorrah” for a reason, because below the holier-than-thou surface of many of these politicians, they each hide their own tawdry, lurid, sordid, and decidedly un-holy life.

Blumenthal’s book can be considered a period history of the Republican Party in late 20th Century, through roughly 2008, an expose into the sleazy lives of certain Republican party leaders, or as a case study of the authoritarian, fascist, mind.

This sorry tale centers on James Dobson and his organization Focus on the Family. At worst the book depicts James Dobson as an outright fraud and charitably as an opportunistic huckster. FOTF, his organization, is portrayed superficially as a nonprofit organization whose goal is to promote religious goals to the family, but in reality acts as a crypto-clearinghouse to vet anyone interested in a career in politics. It is important to pander to Dobson and FOTF, because their approval means tapping into the substantial votes from conservative Evangelistic voters.

A good example of FOTF’s function is seen in the career of Tom Delay. Known for years in Washington as “Hot Tub Tom” for his playboy and boozing lifestyle, Dobson approached Delay when it became politically expedient, Delay “saw the light,” repented, declared himself a Christian, and found political success. Delay’s career crashed and burned afterwards due to many other factors, but primarily from being implicated in the Jack Abramoff scandal.

The book describes an almost endless array of like-minded characters from the political past, some largely forgotten, some still with us. For example, David Vitter, Senator from Louisiana. Vitter got caught literally with his pants down by frequenting notorious brothels in New Orleans twice sometimes three times a week. He survived thereafter only because, with his tail between his legs, he crawled before Dobson and FOTF, pledged allegiance to them and behaved himself afterwards. Or Larry Craig, who was to plead guilty to a charge of soliciting in a men’s restroom, only to unsuccessfully withdraw his plea, but did not or could not pander to Dobson or FOTF and thereafter lived in obscurity. Or the well-known and once-powerful Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House. He married his High School sweetheart, and constantly philandered her throughout his marriage, only later to seek a divorce to marry a staffer with whom he had been having an affair, his present wife, by serving the divorce papers on his wife while she was in the hospital for cancer treatment. What a guy.

These and the other personages in the book have one common denominator — James Dobson, FOTF, and the several think tanks, councils and other splinter organizations under his control.

The word “hypocrisy” inadequately describes the mental processes here at work. What is also involved is sado-masochism, narcissism, submission, denial, and other characteristics of the authoritative personality. From time to time Blumenthal will interject commentary, not his own, but extracts from other psychological and sociological studies, to explain the authoritative mind and the mindset of this movement, notably from Eric Fromm.

The most bizarre facet of this dysfunctional mindset is its stance on sex. On the one hand this movement is staunchly, vociferously, anti-gay, pro-traditional marriage. On the other hand, however, there is a strong homoerotic articulation of the values in some of the fringe offshoots of the Dobson/FOTF branch, which served to inform a pervasive covert homosexual subculture in the political landscape of the conservative movement. The book documents the casualties from the numerous gay sex scandals which were uncovered in the 1990s and 2000s — Larry Craig, Ted Haggard, Mark Foley, the Congressional Page scandal, to name the most prominent. Dennis Hastert, the former Speaker of the House following Gingrich, is mentioned in this book, but his own gay sex scandal has only recently come to light and had not yet surfaced at the time this book was written.

Such is the self-delusion inherent in this mindset that one conservative leader was quoted in the book as saying that hypocrisy is a good thing!

To be fair, Blumenthal does not (nor does this reviewer) hide his political sympathies. Blumenthal appears however to overstate the precise nature of Dobson’s teachings. For example, Dobson does not recommend that parents should inflict hurtful, excessive, corporeal punishment on their children, contrary to the impression created in this book. Dobson recommends that the punishment should be just enough to “get their attention” and not cause psychological trauma.

But while Dobson’s teachings may be exaggerated, the extent of his influence and the internal rot in the conservative movement, engineered by those teachings, is not. Blumenthal’s book shines a light into a political landscape most of the electorate does not know or would care to notice.

5 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

A Little Disconcerting At First...

Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2011

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I'm really glad that I bought this book. In it Mr. Blumenthal takes his wealth of biographical notes and illustrates the interconnected relationships between many of the most politically active evangelicals and their organizations.

With the myriad right-wing, religious associations coalescing to propel dominionist adherents to broader and higher positions in our government I feel a need to know more about these politicians, their staffers and their consultants. Most of all I would like to know more about their sponsors.

The most zealous of the religious supremacists would like to crush my constitutional right to liberty in the United States of America and tell me what to do. I'm even sure that many of the persons mentioned in this book have working plans for someone like me, either to force me to believe the biblical translations their leaders subscribe to or to purge me from every inch of American soil they control and dominate.

Thank you Max for letting me know what you know. The book may be trashed by people who feel their leaders' designs threatened when Americans hear these stories but if their goal is to gain power and then persecute me I want to know all I can before deciding who to vote for.

11 people found this helpful

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M_A_Carter

Great book with great insight

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 12, 2010

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This is an excellent book. Blumenthal explains in great detail the history of some of the Religious Right's most powerful backgrounds and how their histories are affected by sexual encounters. The contradictory nature of some of the movement (for example, some pastors rant about homosexuality being evil and yet hire gay men for sex) makes you think how ridiculous they can be. Greatly recommended for anybody who is interested in the evangelical influence in the Republican Party and how corrupt it is.

2 people found this helpful

Ronald W. Maron

Neo-Christianity; the Dark Ages rewrapped with a pretty bow

Reviewed in Canada on February 9, 2010

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Riveting, revealing and frightening !! The author has clearly defined the reasons behind the present demise of the USA. In a period that covers more than the past decade, the extremists of the 'Christian' community have highjacked the common ground (and the common sense)of the American political system and have created a dogmatic and hate-filled aura which has enveloped the US government. With the likes of James Dobson, Chuck Colson, Pat Robertson, Sarah Palin, etc... we no longer are involved in a healthy dialect over what is best for the American public. Instead we are engrossed in divisive lectures about how 'evil' are those who do not take an anti-abortion, anti-gay stance against these social issues. The fervency of these religious zealots have convinced the poorly informed 25%+ of the American public that all of the problems in our society are caused by the turning away from Old Testament Biblical tribal rules and not because of the misuse and mismanagement of the office of the presidency over the past three decades. While these 'leaders' love to state that the secular population has 'made a deal with the devil', they, in turn, are the ones who actually have. They have turned their pulpits into Republican recruitement platforms by stating that this is the only political party that will overturn Roe vs. Wade, make homosexuality a crime and stop stem-cell research. All the while ministers are making their sales pitch to their congregations, the Republican party is laughing all the way to their swearing-in ceremonies. They have NO intention of overturning the present laws! It is the existence of these statuates that drives the Neo-Christians to the polls which, in turn, get the Republicans elected. This is the party of the corporations and NOT the party of human rights. It has been this way since the mid '60s and will remain so in the future.

This is a MUST READ for anyone who has paid any attention to the obvious shift away from humanistic and social values over the past three decades to the dogmatic and cruel principles that are before us now. No longer is there any discussion about a 'Great Society" or a 'War on Poverty'. Instead we now listen to the religious crackpots and their well known spokesmen lecture us about how 'we' and our 'sins' have caused the flooding of New Orleans, high unemployment rates or the disaster of 9/11. Their rhetoric has progressed to the point that we are now fighting 'holy' crusades (as GW Bush referred to them) against the 'evils' of Islam. Instead of actually being the 'light on the hill' for others to follow that we were led to believe we were, we now are a country with 3rd World foreign policies.

The number of negative comments I will get back on this review will be quite high. But, then again, book evaluations are meant to be honest reviews of content and not popularity contests between readers. It will be done, however, by the minions from the Neo-Christian right who, while never having read this book, will strike out in the manner that their misled 'leaders' would expect them to.

9 people found this helpful

MR RAYMOND FW PHELAN

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 12, 2016

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No dramas and well recommended.

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Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party

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