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.
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Top reviews from other countries
M_A_Carter
Great book with great insight
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 12, 2010
Ronald W. Maron
Neo-Christianity; the Dark Ages rewrapped with a pretty bow
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on February 9, 2010MR RAYMOND FW PHELAN
Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 12, 2016
