Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party

by Max Blumenthal

Over the last year, award-winning journalist and videographer Max Blumenthal has been behind some of the most sensational (and funniest) exposés 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 exposé of the eccentric multimillionaire theocrat behind California's Prop 8 anti-gay marriage initiative, 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 sordidness 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.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Religion, History, United States, American History, Political Science

432 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2007

About the author

Max Blumenthal is an American author, journalist, and blogger. He is a senior writer for Alternet and formerly a writer for The Daily Beast, Al Akhbar, and Media Matters for America. He is the author of two books including Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party (2009), which appeared on The New York Times bestsellers list, and Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel (2013).

Blumenthal joined Lebanon's Al Akhbar in late 2011 primarily to write about Israel-Palestine issues and foreign-policy debates in Washington, noting, upon leaving in mid-2012 in protest of its coverage of the Syrian Civil War, that it "gave me more latitude than any paper in the United States to write about ... Israel and Palestine". He ended his association with Al Akhbar in June 2012, over what he viewed as the newspaper's pro-Assad editorial line during the Syrian Civil War that he said was spearheaded by Amal Saad-Ghorayeb.

Blumenthal contributes weekly articles to Alternet where he has been a senior writer since September 2014. He focuses on the deepening crisis in the Middle East and its role in shaping political dynamics and public opinion in the US, particularly the special relationship with Israel. He occasionally covers domestic issues such as corporate media consolidation, the influence of the Christian right and police brutality. His reporting from the Gaza strip in 2014 was developed into a book, The 51 Day War: Ruin and Resistance in Gaza.

Blumenthal's articles and video documentaries have appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Daily Beast, The Nation, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, Independent Film Channel (IFC), Salon, The Real News, and Al Jazeera English, among other publications.

Reviews

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book came highly recommended by Frank Schaeffer as in 'son of' Francis Schaeffer the father of the religious right.

As a person who has had to walk away from religion and church because of the hatred and bigotry that has surfaced since President Obama was elected I must say that this book only served to confirm many of the things that I saw were wrong with christian politics. Blumenthal delves into the Rusdoony/North dominion theology and how this has served as a catalyst to the religious right from legislation to burning and bombing abortion clinics and murdering abortion providers to the home school movement.

The one statistic that stood out was the fact that the STD and teen pregnancy rates are higher in areas that teach abstinence only sex education. Abstinence only education is the preferred method of the religious right wingers.

The book also covered in depth Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family and his interference in the government and legislative processes since the Bush Administration.

This book is a must read for any christian who votes on only the issues of abortion and gay marriage.

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strident conservatives, whom I've met in everyday life, have characteristically had difficult childhoods. I've noted abuse or alcoholism in their families and sometimes both. I had informally concluded conservatism was correlated with discipline which these wounded children need to get through their days and weeks. My theory is obviously shattered by outrageously undisciplined conservatives in the media and politics who seem to know no behavioral bounds and appear not to see their own hypocrisy.

John Dean's Conservatives without Conscience sheds light on the conservative phenomena. With a proponderance of data he shows that conservatism correlates with authoritarianism. Max Blumenthal takes this to a new level. He anecdotally describes other very disturbing parallels.

I was unaware that James Dobson of Focus on the Family made shows of the religious conversions of both serial killers David Berkowitz and Ted Bundy. (Bundy, before his notoriety, was a dirty trickster for the Republican party.) Why would he do this? Why would his supporters approve? Why does the Republican Party, attract so many gays and why do they stay in a party that undermines their civil rights? Why is it that the "family values" advocates don't walk the talk?

Blumenthal describes the psychology of the true believer with observations from both Erics Hoffer and Fromme. Many come from a culture of crisis. (This validates my observation of childhood abuse although not self-discipline). He describes a with a long line of public figures from Tom DeLay to Ted Haggard and their unhappy and crisis ridden childhoods. The child rearing philosoply that James Dobson promotes for his congregation is one of strict discipline (the sad results in his own household are hidden off stage). Blumenthal poses some ideas on the world views these conservative hypocrites and ideas on how dangerous to society this can become.

The title is too sensationalized for my taste. It belies a very substantive book.

[Todd Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the outside the deranged right with their spittle-flecked ranting, gun toting, abortion doctor killing right to lifers, legions of closeted homosexuals (who simultaneously decry gay marriage), and cravings for nuclear Armageddon appear to have the coherent wordview that you'd expect from a group of paranoid schizophrenics. "Republican Gomorrah Inside the Movement That Shattered the Party" explains the twisted logic that motivates what is left of the republican party ... and it's not a pretty picture.

I've appreciated Max Blumenthal's video reporting, but didn't know he could write (or that he had such a acidic sense of humor). Republican Gomorrah is both informative and hilarious (at least it would be if the consequences of having these people in power weren't so terrifying).

Terrific book.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s hard for many to remember that prior to 1980, with some exceptions, the U.S. had a relatively well functioning country with opposing political interests that could compromise. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it was progressing, even counting setbacks. For example, there was a breed of political animal called a liberal Republican. Among them were people like Nelson Rockefeller, a former governor of New York who later became Gerald Ford’s vice president. He loaned millions of dollars—in cash!—to support the legal costs of Martin Luther King, Jr. and others during the Civil Rights era and later forgave the debts. Another liberal Republican, Rep. John Anderson—for whom I volunteered—ran as an independent in the 1980 presidential campaign against Reagan and Carter. With the retirement of Sen. Mark Hatfield in the mid-1990s they became extinct. In the past twenty years, Republican moderates have slowly followed their path to oblivion. This trend has led us to where we now are: a Republican Party in which intolerance has not only thrived but taken political power at the federal, state, and local levels.

Arguably the most important influence on the Republican Party and American national politics over the past 50 years has been the rise of the so-called “religious right” and its consolidation of power. For my friends around the world who wonder how the U.S. has lost its collective mind, reading Republican Gomorrah is a good place to start to figure out why. I first read this book soon after it was published in 2009. Although it is more than ten years old, it seems more contemporary with each passing day. Blumenthal is the son of a prominent advisor to Bill and Hillary Clinton, but he is an independent, gifted voice driven by outrage of unfairness and intolerance. He tells this brisk story in three parts. In the first, he introduces the “founding fathers” of this movement, in the second he highlights many of the personalities and issues that were built on their platform, and in the third he explains how all these influences came together in the presidential election of 2008. Although Barack Obama won, the strategy has been refined. It can be argued that the election of Donald Trump, the advent of the American Dear Leader, owes virtually everything to this political movement. So how did we get here?

It all started when the ideas, but not the paths, of two very different men crossed. R.J. Rushdoony, the son of an immigrant who in 1916 escaped the Armenian genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire, was a theologian with a world view that did not include doubt. Rushdoony believed the greatest threat to freedom was communism and that many American societal and governmental institutions were compromised because they had diverted from the laws of God. Although he was never a member of the John Birch Society, he was sympathetic to their views, even their extreme racist and conspiratorial views. He promoted an agenda for the U.S. he called “Reconstructionism.”

According to Frederick Clarkson, a pioneering researcher of the Christian Right, “Reconstructionism seeks to replace democracy with a theocratic elite that would govern by imposing their interpretation of ‘Biblical law.’ Recontructionism would eliminate not only democracy but many of its manifestations, such as labor unions, civil rights laws, and public schools. Women would be generally relegated to hearth and home. Insufficiently Christian men would be denied citizenship, perhaps executed.”

He drew many adherents including Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, who would go on to become among of the most important figures in political rise of the so-called “religious right.” Their fundamental tactic was to identify and promote “wedge issues,” social and cultural ideas designed to “drive a wedge” between constituencies for political effect and gain.

Francis Schaeffer could not have been more different from Rushdoony. He was a free thinking, counterculture American pastor in Switzerland in the late 1940s who returned to the U.S. to found a commune that attracted many artistic and cultural icons. But the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe vs. Wade to legalize abortion, which he equated with infanticide, became the consuming motivation in the last decade of his life, a motivation that would indelibly change American politics. At first, his crusade against abortion fell on deaf ears, but soon he found adherents in the popular Christian evangelical movement, who saw it as related to President Carter’s attempt remove the tax exempt status of religious schools. By the time Schaeffer died in 1984, he regretted the turn that so-called “religious right” politics had taken, especially its strong stance agains homosexuality. His son, Frank, who was initially integral to build these alliances, has since abandoned the movement and become one of its most passionate critics.

Yet ideas and congregations were not enough to sustain the movement. It needed money, lots of it. One of the first was the reclusive billionaire heir Howard Ahmanson, whose “born again” experience led him to identify gay marriage as an evil that could destroy America. His money helped bankroll the Institute for Religion and Democracy (IRD), which pushed the idea, when the Iron Curtain fell, of “replacing Communism with homosexuality as its wedge issue.” Other big money “evangelicals” included Edgar Prince, who made his fortune in auto parts. His son Erik went on to become the founder of Blackwater, a private armed force that came to prominence in the Iraq War. His daughter, Betsy, married into the DeVos family, whose fortune was built on the multi-level marketing scheme Amway, to create an even larger financial empire. She went on to become a leader in the movement to privatize public education and currently is Donald Trump’s Secretary of Education. Other big money interests, among the most prominent today being the Koch brothers, recognizing how this constituency could act as cover, have added economic issues like less taxes, manipulating the tax code, and concepts like "balancing the budget," which is not as simplistically logical as it sounds, to the so-called "religious right" agenda. But Blumenthal's account doesn't stray in that direction. Other discussions like Capital Offense and All the President's Bankers are just two good sources for that aspect of the story.

But by far the most important person, the one who wove all these threads together into a political juggernaut, is James Dobson, who, although he leads a Christian non-profit that has tens of millions of followers throughout the world, has no formal religious credentials. He is a child psychologist who, in the 1960s, wrote about child-rearing that were the complete antithesis of Dr. Benjamin Spock. Spock’s best-selling ideas were centered on treating children with respect and giving them free reign to express their emerging personalities to realize their potential. Dobson equated this with what he interpreted as the chaos of the 1960s, which included both the popular responses against the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement. He encouraged parents to engage in corporal punishment, to scare them into “doing the right thing,” and demonizing behavior outside “traditional values.” Dobson’s organization, Focus on the Family, is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado and provides spiritual and material support for its members, known as “The Family.” His daily radio show attracts tens of millions of listeners who devotedly follow his advice, especially his political views and endorsements. Their political arm, the Family Research Council, is among the most powerful lobbies in Washington, DC, which provides direction on social issues and Supreme Court nominations.

Dobson has built such a strong following that Republican political careers can be made or broken on his word alone. Candidates from local levels to the presidency make regular pilgrimages to Colorado Springs to be on his show and get his approval. Blumenthal documents how Focus on the Family was integral to pushing anti-pornography policy during the Reagan administration. He has used notorious criminals to push his ideas of being “born again” as Christians to achieve “salvation” for their souls, “forgiven and redeemed by Dobson simply because they had confessed their evil deeds and professed a commitment to evangelical religion. The sincerity of their tales was never questioned…” Dobson supported efforts by Rep. Tom DeLay, the House Majority Whip of the late 1990s and early 2000s who wielded more power than the Speakers of the House, to force Washington lobbyists to hire Republican staffers who were committed to The Family’s agenda and manipulate the ten year cycle of congressional seat redistricting to artificially increase the representation of loyal Republicans in key states. “They love him because in DeLay’s America would stop gun control, outlaw abortion, limit the rights of homosexuals, curb contraception, end the constitutional separation of church and state, and adopt the Ten Commandments as guiding principles for schools.”

Elected officials loyal to Dobson’s views introduced bills to mirror his political agenda even when it was purely for symbolism as in, for example, a bill which would have “authorized Congress to impeach judges who failed to abide by ‘the standard of good behavior’ supposedly required by the Constitution. Refusal to acknowledge ‘God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government,’ or reliance in any way on international law in their rulings would also trigger impeachment.” Operatives like Tony Perkins, a former Louisiana state legislator who became the head of Focus on the Family in Washington, worked with anyone regardless of the hypocrisy it might involve. Lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who took tens of millions from Louisiana Indian tribes to lobby to create casinos, who funded think tanks and showered DeLay with gifts and travel, loved it when Perkins lobbied against the casinos. It meant he could get even more money to keep lobbying. Eventually Abramoff and DeLay went to prison in large part because of the illegalities of their operations.

"When I asked DeLay about his legal troubles, he cast his struggle in apocalyptic terms. 'Satan' is behind his prosecution, DeLay said, adding, 'Satan is behind the left.'"

Dobson’s acolytes also waged a culture war outside of politics. They embraced movies, for example, made by Mel Gibson because they could have greater reach around the world to promote their agenda.

"By presenting scenes of hearts exploded by arrows, skulls split by maces, and entire torsos bisected by broadswords, along with innocents burned, slashed and crucified, [Mel] Gibson redefined the aesthetic of authoritarian right-wing movements across the globe.”

Blumenthal writes many anecdotes of how members of the so-called “religious right” engaged in hypocritical acts, especially when it came to the issues of homosexuality and marital fidelity. Rev. Ted Haggard, whose church that attracted as many as 20,000 each Sunday just down the road from Dobson’s headquarters, who preached against homosexuality and gay marriage, was found to have visited a male prostitute in Denver for years. Conservative Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho, a reliable Dobson supporter, was arrested for soliciting gay sex in the Minneapolis Airport (should you ever travel there, it’s the men’s room across from the large Snoopy statue):

At the police station, [arresting officer] Karsnia subjected Craig to a withering interrogation. Craig was lawyerly to the point of self-parody, insisting that his bumping of Karsnia’s foot resulted accidentally from his “wide stance” on the toilet…Craig’s infamous phrase, “wide stance” instantly became the universal code phrase for Republican sexual hypocrisy.

And there was the infamous case of Louisiana senator David Vitter, another Dobson supporter, who after years of rumors in New Orleans, was found to have been a habitual client at two prominent brothels. In this case, Vitter’s “sincere” confession to Dobson and other evangelicals was enough to get him re-elected, but not enough to carry him a few years later to the governorship.

All this information lets Blumenthal to examine the effect of the so-called “religious right” on the 2008 presidential campaign. John McCain, the Republican nominee, was never a favorite of Dobson’s, but he knew he had to do something to the support of The Family. Two episodes are telling. One was McCain’s courting of John Hagee, a preacher who was a strong ally of Dobson and led a large church in Texas and a nationwide cable broadcast. McCain went to Texas to get Hagee’s endorsement, but that only brought scrutiny.

Hagee is a Christian Zionist who preaches that the prophecies of the Book of Revelations will unfold as soon as the Jewish diaspora resettles in ‘Biblical Israel,’ meaning all of Israel and the West Bank…According to Hagee’s reading of the Book of Revelations, the lodestar of End Times theology, when Jesus returns to Jerusalem, the Jews must convert to evangelical Christianity or suffer eternal torment in ‘an everlasting lake of fire.’ And liberals had better seek cover as well.

Hagee’s hate of gays and lesbians was not a problem. But when “Hagee’s declaration in 2006 that Adolf Hitler was used by God to force the Jews to Israel,” it was too much. McCain disavowed the endorsement. Dobson still needed to be appeased, he “signaled that if McCain were to select the right vice president, he might reverse his earlier vow to oppose him.” And that led the most unqualified person imaginable, Sarah Palin, the little known and poorly vetted governor of Alaska.

Despite a debut at the Republican National Convention that energized the base, Palin soon proved to be a horrible candidate. Simple interviews showed her to have shallow ideas and no understanding of the duties the presidency entailed. Although she supported abstinence over sex education, her teenage daughter was pregnant and unmarried. Palin became a joke, but her supporters cited her bringing a baby with Downs Syndrome to term as a qualification. As Blumenthal writes:

McCain had suffered torture in a North Vietnamese prison camp and given over thirty years of his life to public service, but he earned James Dobson’s vote only for selecting a running mate who decided not to abort her disabled child.

Even worse than that, Palin’s coarseness and penchant for authoritarian simplicity was probably her most lasting achievement. “Her detractors nicknamed her ‘Moose-o-lini’…” She did not increase the Republican voting base. She attacked the personal religious convictions of Barack Obama and it unleashed a racism that had been, for years, unacceptable in public discourse.

Instead of the suburban hockey moms the GOP hoped to attract by selecting Palin, those who filled swing-state fairgrounds and arenas to cheer the VP candidate were focused obsessively on issues and were sometimes openly racist. Not only was this not the portrait of a winning coalition—it was not much of a coalition at all—it became politically combustible. A few words of incitement were all it would take to turn the party base in a virtual lynch mob.

Although Obama won the election and was reelected in 2012, it could be argued that Palin opened a political Pandora’s box that paved the way for the election of Donald Trump, who took her tactics and turned resentment into a movement. As Blumenthal demonstrates over and over again, that resentment took decades to refine.

A recent reading of a Mark Twain’s Letter from the Recording Angel, a “report” an angel made back to his superiors in heaven, prompted me to pick this book up again. The angel, writing in 1887, made a distinction between “Professing Christians” and “Professional Christians.” The former quietly and humbly tried to live a life based on the ethics of the New Testament. The latter used the banner of Bible as a facade to hide behind. This is what now exists in the U.S. The Professional Christians of the so-called religious right like to call themselves “values voters.” In order to be taken seriously by the Republican Party as a candidate for state or national office, here are some of the “values” they must adhere to and proclaim:

Today one can’t even hope to become a serious Republican candidate unless the following views are unequivocal: to oppose homosexuality and gay marriage, abortion and contraception, any attempt to limit access to guns, public education, and secular public life. They must support Christianity above all other religions, demonize Islam, deny science to believe in a literal reading of the Bible—which means the world is 6,000 years old—to deny evolution, support the teaching of creationism and intelligent design, deny that humanity has had anything to do with climate change, and vilify racial and ethnic diversity. They must refute ideas that claim the U.S. is a global partner, as with the United Nations. Most misunderstood and underestimated of all, the most rabid members of the so-called “religious right” view their political opposition as un-American and, in some cases, motivated by Satan. The distillation of all of these ideas can be traced back to R.J. Rushdoony and Francis Schaeffer with the guiding hand of Jame Dobson.

The framers of the Constitution created a federal system, in theory, to remove as much of the day’s political passions as far away from governing as possible. The rule of fifty percent plus one vote to determine winners was meant to push as much political wrangling as possible into the electoral process. In turn, political parties became the bodies to sift out and consolidate core political positions. In a parliamentary system, that sorting out of energy can seep into—or dominate—governing itself. What the framers could not have foreseen is that the aggregating function of parties and partisanship could be dominated minorities of zealots. They felt that was place of the party system. What they really couldn’t have seen is that the majority would allow itself to be dictated to by those zealots at both the party and governing levels.

So, for my friends around the world, I hope you can now better understand what those of us who oppose the so-called “religious right” agenda are up against. It doesn’t make the era of Trump any more palatable, but, sadly, it helps explain why we’re in the mess we’re in. And it’s not just Americans on the losing end. It’s all of us around the world.

[Vesna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book (that I know of) that makes an explicit connection between Fromm's writings about authoritarian personalities and religious right in America. I follow politics fairly closely, and had some knowledge about evangelical movement, but this book is just so chock full of details which put this movement into a more complete perspective. It is not exactly a surprise that a lot of those born-again Christians are nuts, but perverts and wackos this author writes about are truly astounding. Personally, perverts do not bother me one bit, but when they are in position of power, and heavily influence politics, and my life, that scares the daylights out of me.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been saying for many years that religious fundamentalism of any stripe should disturb all thinking people. In "Republican Gomorrah," reporter Max Blumenthal plumbs the depths of the Religious Right and its growing involvement in GOP politics -- and shows just how the Christian Reconstructionists have taken over the party.

This well-sourced book (more than 60 pages of end-notes document every single issue Blumenthal brings to light) shows exactly how the GOP became the party that dehumanizes women, GLBT people, people of other faiths (read: non-fundamentalist Evangelical Christians) and people of color. At the center of the web, if you will, are the teachings of RJ Rushdoony and James Dobson, the latter of whom has no theological training at all. Both men are charismatic and authoritative speakers who appeal to a certain population: people who, most frequently from authoritarian backgrounds, do not want to apply critical thinking but instead are far more comfortable being told what is right and wrong and obeying without any further thought.

The psychology of this personality type bears some understanding, because I never could understand how certain people could not look at facts that contradicted their position. Once a particular "truth" is arrived at, no facts will change their minds. Blumenthal examines this personality type deeply, citing sources like Erich Fromm's studies. This is the type of personality we see buying into the "birther" movement and so on; once an authority figure has told one of their followers what to believe, the follower does so unquestioningly.

I did not want to put this book down. It is both a fascinating study of the GOP (which, in many cases, features "do as I say, not as I do" leaders) and its fundamentalist, doctrinaire followers. Not for the faint of heart, but definitely well worth reading.

[Mal Warwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plumbing the Depths of Republican Pathology

Not a day goes by that national news reports don’t prominently feature the “Tea Party,” the creation of former Republican Congressioinal leader Dick Armey and the wealthy Right-Wing donors behind him. Those of us who disagree with the fundamental tenets of this made-to-order “grassroots movement” — and that’s a huge majority of the American people — tend to gnash our teeth, roll our eyes, and perform other uncomfortable physical acts whenever we learn about some new outrage from this motley collection of dopes and lunatics.

It wasn’t always so, though. Remember the “Religious Right?”

Barely two years ago a young, award-winning journalist and blogger named Max Blumenthal — son of Sidney Blumenthal, late of the Clinton White House — published an examination of this earlier incarnation of Republican extremism. His book, Republican Gomorra, was a New York Times bestseller and was warmly welcomed by readers who had scratched their heads in consternation over the peculiar beliefs and irrational antics of this seemingly all-powerful movement as it moved to gain dominance in the Republican Party. Blumenthal’s psychosocial analysis, grounded in the work of Erich Fromm, delves deeply into the psyches of many of the movement’s leaders, most notably James Dobson of Focus on the Family and Rick Warren (yes, the Rick Warren who gave the invocation at Barack Obama’s inauguration). .

Now, don’t make the mistake of confusing the Religious Right with the Tea Party, which are uncomfortable bedfellows and mutually inconsistent in many key ways. For example, it was Dobson and his allies who were behind the ouster of Dick Armey from his leadership post on Capitol Hill, finding that the Congressman, whose priorities revolve around federal spending, was not sufficiently supportive of the social agenda of the Religious Right.

Blumenthal, bowing to Erich Fromm, likens the Religious Right to the authoritarian movements that seized control in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s. Dissecting the ideology and public practices of this allegedly “Christian” movement (which is hardly Christian in any meaningful way, so far as I can see), Blumenthal finds that its beliefs boil down to beating children into submission when young so that they will be obedient followers of the movement’s father figures as they get older. Not surprisingly, as Fromm so convincingly showed, this practice leads to numerous pathologies. It helps to explain why the Republican Party has been upended by so many lurid sex scandals in recent years. And if you think for one minute that this analysis is exaggerated, check out Dobson’s books (Dare to Discipline, The Strong-Willed Child).

This is a lively and fascinating book based on five years of interviews with the luminaries of the Religious Right, and it’s worth reading today despite the fact that its narrative ends with the election of Barack Obama. The Religious Right may no longer hog the headlines, but there’s no mistaking its continuing hold on so many of the levers of power.

(From www.malwarwickonbooks.com)

[Judie · Rating 5 out of 5]

We live in scary times. The extreme conservatives are afraid everyone who doesn't agree with them is a traitor going to destroy this country through tolerating more individual freedoms, such as divorce, abortion, homosexuality, and premarital sex. (At the same time many are looking forward to the apocalypse to carry the believers to Heaven while everyone else burns in Hell.)
The liberals are afraid that the Christian Right Wing is taking over the USA and that the individual freedoms which had been fought for then taken for granted here are going to be taken away.
REPUBLICAN GOMORRAH INSIDE THE MOVEMENT THAT SHATTERED THE PARTY by Max Blumenthal discusses those fears. It examines how the extreme right wing had gained control of the Republican party and has pushed its views into government by backing, with money and votes, candidates who agree with its positions.
He writes about people such as James Dobson who have a crippling hold on his adherents and uses it to coerce elected officials to carry out its demands. Its success is obvious by the number of conservative judges and justices appointed to federal benches and the candidates running for elected office.
The group (it refers to itself as the Family), requires everyone to adhere to its rules beginning with being "born again." Serial killers Ted Bundy and David Berkowitz were accepted because they confessed and showed remorse. (Those confessions were also sold to make money for Dobson.) Among elected officials, those who broke their marriage vows via affairs and/or prostitutes or told their wives they were divorcing them via telephone while the wives were hospitalized are acceptable if they repent. Anyone suspected of being a homosexual was OUT!!! The book tells how the movement became so popular and provides possible reasons for the mindsets of the leaders and followers. Many of the leaders were severely abused when they were children.
They have forced candidates to obey them backing their demands with the strength of money and voters.. Mitt Romney's altered positions from his days of Governership is one example; John McCain's accepting Sarah Palin to be the vice presidential candidate on his ticket is another.
Despite their emphasis on purity, the states with the highest number of extreme conservative voters and supporters are also the states with the highest divorce rates, number of teenage pregnancies, number of sexually transmitted diseases, and youngest ages for the first sexual experiences.
To understand how this group is trying to turn the USA into a theocracy and what that means to them, read the book.

[Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I picked up the book, I suspected that the focus might be to highlight the affect on society by ultra-religious conservatives, i.e., anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-secular, anti stem cell research, anti Planned Parenthood, anti-condom distribution in Aids afflicted Countries, etc., etc., etc. However, it's more a book which takes many conservatives to task for their individual failings. There are many included in Blumenthal's sights, including the Reverend Ted Haggard, Congressmen Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff, Mark Foley, Senators Larry Craig and David Vitter, and many others. So the book is much more about the weakness and failings of many of our Conservative leaders and leaders of the religious right, more so than the weakness or failings of the movement itself. However, if the leaders are shown to be phonies, it raises doubts about their beliefs in what they preach, and raises the question if their intent is to use their influence for their own ends of power and wealth.
There may well be a group of ultra-conservative Christians, Jews, and Muslims that agree that "shellfish and pork", "usury", or even shaving are forbidden, and could be punishable by death. While some of the most conservative religious believers may try to follow Bible teachings to their fullest, most Americans tend to look past many prohibitions which seem inconsistent with modern lifestyle. Try telling the modern American woman that "wives shall be ‘submissive’ to their husbands" (I Peter 3:1) and women aren't to "wear gold or pearls" (I Timothy 2:9); or "dress in clothing that pertains to a man" (Deuteronomy 22:5). The author makes a point that if the beliefs of the most conservative religious right over-influence our elected officials, the courts, and the laws they support, and the Republican Party adopts the religious platform of the most conservatives, many moderates not tied to these old traditions may be threatened and lost to the Party.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are several books trying to explain to "liberals" the mindset of the "conservatives." Blumenthal succeeds by connecting well-documented extremes of dysfunctional behavior among leaders of the "religious right."

What ties it all together is the culture of personal crisis that is at the core of the movement. This is deeply emotional stuff related to child abuse, drug addiction, rejection, depression, repressed sexual urges, etc. The "cheap grace," acceptance, and charismatic, authoritarian leadership of the "family" are attractive to people suffering from these situations. The "entrepreneurs of personal crisis" exploit this.

Extrapolating from the details in the book, one can better understand why the reactionary right uses political power to promote social policies that increase personal crisis even when these policies are ostensibly anti-Christian (war, elimination of the safety net, etc.). It also explains the opposition to science and other sources of reality-based information that might undermine their authority or prevent tragedies. Personal crisis is their lifeblood.

This is not to say that all "evangelicals" intentionally want to increase suffering, just that the current national machine embodiment of the movement is a vicious cycle, in the same way that our "health system" is designed to increase costs from treating illness, not to improve health. The movement at its base is no doubt composed of honest people seeking to help others, just as individual doctors want to do good for their patients. But it would seem that it has been similarly hijacked by sociopaths with different agendas.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blumenthal has compiled an in depth look at the Christian Right in his book "Republican Gomorrah". He profiles Dr. James Dobson's (Focus on the Family/Family Research Council) rise to power inside American politics while also treading into the psychological connections between authoritarianism and personal trauma. There are interesting discussions of Erich Fromm's "Escape from Freedom" as well as third stream evangelicalism, and the diciples of Rushdoony (a promotor of theocracy within the US). All in all, I would highly recommend this book. Is it partisan? Certainly. Does the author make some interesting sociological and political observations? Absolutely.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a general rule, I'm not a big fan of the Republican Party, or, in particular, The Conservative Right. But what I had originally accepted as The Party simply being ideologically opportunistic, what I'm reading suggests that Republicanism is no longer a political party, but has become a kind of Religion within a religion. And these guys are ruthless and want blood from their enemies. What's both startling (a a little frightening) is who, exactly, their enemies are, and, more disturbingly, WHY they are.

Scary and heartbreaking times we're living in.

[Katherine]

Incredible, terrifying interview about this book on "Fresh Air" 9/10/09. (I actually knew much of this already, but appreciated hearing an analysis of what's happened since Obama was elected).

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Erich Fromm's analysis of the Nazi mentality, of the authoritarian sado-masochistic type, forms the theoretical spine of this study of the influence of right-wing Christianity on the Republican Party. While there is some historical background and a great deal on the influence of Dobson's Focus on the Family, it all points to the 2008 election of Obama and on the notion that this alliance has not well-served the Republicans--a point which now, in 2021, is open to discussion.

Personally, I found the book to be informative and darkly amusing--a defensive reaction to some truly scary facts about this country--particularly in his lengthy accounts of the exposures of prominent Christo-Republicans inside government and the churches. I hadn't realized, for instance, that there were so many gay-bashing figures who themselves were ultimately exposed as gay.

[Sonny · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s probably risky business to read and review a book critical of the Republican party and the religious right, but let me explain why I chose to read this book. I am a fiscal conservative, but a social moderate. For a variety of reasons, I voted Republican for 40 years, until Donald Trump burst onto the scene—a vulgar man who does not even remotely represent my values. During the 2016 campaign, many leaders of the Christian Right not only excused Donald Trump’s boorish behavior but painted him as a great defender of Christianity. Jerry Falwell Jr. called Trump the “dream president” for evangelicals. I have been an evangelical since my college days—50 years ago. In reading this book, I wanted to understand how the Trumpian political insanity entered the GOP bloodstream. I have been especially troubled by the tendency for Republicans to believe and spread lies and conspiracy theories.

Max Blumenthal is an American journalist. His book Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement That Shattered the Party was a bestseller on both the Los Angeles Times and New York Times bestsellers lists. The work was inspired by psychologist Erich Fromm’s book Escape from Freedom, about the psychology of Nazism and authoritarianism. Fromm analyzed the personality of those "eager to surrender their freedom" via an identification with authoritarian causes and powerful leaders. Blumenthal argues that a "culture of personal crisis" has defined the American "radical right." He clearly believes that the GOP has become embraced by dysfunctional personalities.

Published in 2007, Blumenthal obviously doesn’t deal with the current crop of dysfunctional players in the Republican Party, such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Larry Kudlow, Ted Cruz, or Donald Trump. However, he does address many of the players on the right in 2007: former Alaska governor and vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, former House majority leader Tom Delay, Louisiana Senator David Vitter, lobbyist and businessman Jack Abramoff, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, political consultant and lobbyist Ralph Reed, Special Counsel to President Richard Nixon Charles Colson (aka Nixon’s “hatchet man”). Many questioned Sarah Palin as John McCain’s choice for vice-president. Presidential scholars said she was probably be the least experienced, least qualified person to join a major-party ticket in the modern era. DeLay was found guilty of money laundering and conspiracy charges related to illegal campaign finance activities. Senator David Vitter was caught in a prostitution scandal. Abramoff was convicted of several felonies, including mail fraud, conspiracy to bribe public officials, and tax evasion. Gingrich faced numerous ethics charges during his term as Speaker, one of which stuck. It was the first time a Speaker was disciplined for an ethics violation.

Blumenthal also addresses evangelicals who have played a key role in right-wing politics, men such as Pentecostal pastor John Hagee, Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) founder Pat Robertson, Moral Majority leader Jerry Falwell, and pastor Ted Haggard, who was caught in a relationship with a male prostitute. But he saves most of his venom for Christian author and psychologist James Dobson.

- “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."
- Max Blumenthal, Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement That Shattered the Party

Republican Gomorrah is an informative book. Blumenthal is right to note that the Republican base seems to be motivated by cultural resentment and anger because of the secular liberal trend in the nation. Unfortunately, Blumenthal is clearly not an impartial observer; he doesn’t even seem to try to hide his political sympathies. It is also apparent that he does not share evangelical beliefs. He scoffs at the notion of a religious conversion experience, suggesting that such conversions have ulterior motives. Blumenthal also overstates the precise nature of Dobson’s teachings. The author suggests that Dobson recommends that parents should inflict hurtful, excessive, physical punishment on their children. Although I have never cared for many of the politicians or religious leaders he criticizes, Blumenthal’s clear lack of objectivity makes it impossible to recommend this book even though I share many of his concerns about right-wing politics. In the end, I could not finish the book as the author’s personal biases became ever more apparent.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Political analysis that is both accurate and flippant has a limited shelf-life, and reading this book is like taking a long, painful, irritating trip down memory lane. I recommend it unreservedly to anyone who has the stomach to spend a few uninterrupted hours reading about the phenomenon of closeted gay Republicans and the back-room deals of huckster televangelists.

The book has some clear strengths. It provides some juicy gossip and is a quick, easy read. Max Blumenthal's views on GOP politics are represented without obfuscation or adornment. Max Blumenthal's psychological assessment of the link between homoeroticism and authoritarianism are unambiguously laid bare (ba da bing!). There is also a good amount of guerrilla journalism on display here; Blumenthal has put in significant time amongst the foot soldiers of the Republican grassroots. The drawbacks? The book relies heavily on front page scandals and obvious trends without factoring in oppositional positions or long-term historical analysis. Even casual political junkies won't be surprised by much on these pages.

All that considered, it's still a well-written polemic. Blumenthal isn't an Ann Coulter of the left (not even close); he largely eschews snotty asides and clever twists of logic. Instead, he barrels ahead with raw data and cogent argument. The narrative, however, is unmistakably determined by the worst aspects of conservative politics.

[Bglassman Glassman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Max Blumenthal might be offended if I compare him to Michael Moore, because there are some enormous differences between them. But the similarities are too great to ignore. They both wade into the situations they are exposing, and they are not afraid to expose some pretty tough characters. Moore has a film crew. Blumenthal has, as far as I can tell, only himself. But he's not afraid to ask tough questions, and he's not afraid to point out lies when he hears them. That's not a common trait in reporting these days, unfortunately.

It's as important to understand the roots of the extreme social conservative movement in the U.S. as it is to understand the foundations of radical Islam. Both groups foment anger and even hatred among those who feel they are disenfranchised, but that is true of almost every political movement. What makes the extreme social Right and the militant Islamist movements alike, and different from most others, is their success at harnessing the faith of the faithful. Republican Gomorrah tells that story with terrific insight as it applies to the extreme Right in the US. But a thoughtful reader cannot help but spot the parallels, and cannot help but wonder if, at some level, the ideologues in both camps aren't stealing from each other's playbook.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

In college a friend of mine, who was an ardent Calvinist, told me to read Rousas John Rushdoony, but I never got around to it, and forgot about him. Until I read Blumenthal. According to Blumenthal, he current mindset in the conservative right began with Rushdoony, a son of an fugitive from Armenia, who believed in setting up a state based on Jewish law. For example, he advocated stoning adulterers and homosexuals. Not a compassionate Christians. From his writings other people got ideas about reforming America according to their ideas of Christian ethics.

Blumetenthal starts with Rushdoony and goes through a series of Christian politicians up to and including Sarah Palin. He cites James Dobson as being the person who controls the religious right. Politicians have to pay tribute to Dobson before they can move up in the ranks. He tried to tell Bob Dole what his priorities should be, and Dole walked out on him.

These people are not evil people, but for the most part, just ethical and political bumblers. Consequently, the Republican Party is being run by a bunch of narrowly focused people who think if Americans ban abortions and make sure gays don't marry, God will bless our country.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting, though somewhat depressing, read, focusing on the highly dysfunctional James Dobson of "Focus on the Family" and his takeover of the congressional Republican caucus, and Bush Administration, to the extent that both dared do nothing without his direct approval.
First part chronicles chronicles the rise of Dobson (who strongly advocates regularly beating children) and his allies; the second part highlights scandals of Vitter, Craig, etc., giving few new details, but highlighting the born-again movement's hypocrisy and political expedience, concluding in a profile of the sheer nuttiness (and potential danger) of The Palin Gambit - the "witch" her Kenyan pal had bragged about driving from his town was actually a caretaker of several orphans, still living in the town, held in high regard by the locals.

[Lou Schuler · Rating 3 out of 5]

As much as I respect Max Blumenthal for fleshing out his premise that Christian far-right politics is based on personal trauma and self-loathing, I found myself wishing for less of a polemic and more of a straight-ahead journalistic expose.

Maybe the story is incompatible with that kind of reporting. And maybe the people who need to read this -- those who support a Christian-right agenda -- wouldn't read it no matter how neutral the author's voice seemed. All I know for sure is that the people who will read it, like me, are solidly opposed to authoritarian governance and the conjugation of church and state.

I have to settle for a solid, entertaining, and occasionally frightening glimpse into the world of the men and women who so easily and skillfully manipulate (and occasionally fleece) their flocks.

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

I should probably characterize this book as a horror novel. It was truly terrifying in its depth and scope. I listened to this audiobook on my walks and I am sure many people looked at me as I screamed and got sick to my stomach listening to it. The scary thing is it is all true.

Mr. Blumenthal was exhaustive in his research and scope on this subject. Republicans, libertarians, and conservatives should all take note and read this. They need to know what is happening in their party. Democrats and liberals should also note how easy it is for a group to compromise their ideals and be hijacked by an extremist force. Look at Iran and other jihadist groups. They didn't start as extremists.

An excellent and fascinating read.

[AC · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good critical survey of the capture of the Republican Party by the Christian Right.

I'm listening to an audio version of this book while I drive... It's sound, even if the story has been told before -- it is polemical, of course... but to quote from William S. Burroughs, the paranoid often is only the man who has all the facts....

I think this is the full text, though I'm not sure. http://www.wbez.org/audio_popup.aspx?...
h/t to Roger Ebert's sometimes fascinating twitter stream.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting book about the big players for the Christian Right, but the author had an obvious bias against Christianity which hurt his credibility somewhat.

[Jason Presley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having grown up in a household where there were always several Dobson and Colson books on the shelf, I am now unsurprised by much of what I found in this book, chilling though it was to read. As this book ends around the time of the end of President Obama's first term, it is very easy to follow the devolution of the Conservative movement and the GOP from that time to the present. Sadly, these days the popular media outlets don't do the kind of research and journalism required to present a piece like this, so the country at large doesn't hear any of this. And in the rare occasions they do hear it, it comes from a crackpot who mixes facts with nonsensical hyperbole so the truth gets lost.

Now, I more fully understand the Clintons' claim of the "vast right-wing conspiracy" that I had always dismissed as just more political fear-mongering. They actually had a point, they were just terrible at articulating it in a way that didn't invite ridicule.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starting, basically, with Eisenhower, and going through the bizarre McCain-Palin thing, this documents the dysfunctional relationship the GOP has had with democracy since melding with Christian nationalists and other moralists. Like many I raise an eyebrow at the now not unfamiliar case of the prominent homophobe caught in a gay sex scandal. This documents a colorful history of that and tried to explain it, such as :

In 1996, Henry Adams, Lester Wright, and Bethany Lohr, psychiatrists and researchers at the University of Georgia, investigated the link between homophobia and repressed homosexuality, surveying over fifty self-declared heterosexual males on their opinions of gays. The subjects were then separated into two groups: homophobic and nonhomophobic. Both groups were shown gay male pornography and were monitored for signs of sexual arousal. (The results appeared in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association.) The study revealed that by an overwhelming margin, the subjects who registered the largest increase in penis circumference—those most aroused by gay pornography—also held the most homophobic opinions. The remarkable findings of this experiment suggest a clue to why the modern radical right, the most homophobic political movement in American history, has become a sanctuary for repressed gay men.

[Damian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, along with Chris Hedges "American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America" are essential reading for those unfamiliar with the ideology and and contours of thought of the Evangelical, dominionist Right.

[Hunter Ricketts · Rating 5 out of 5]

This taught me that when someone hates gay people it’s because they are one

[Pang · Rating 3 out of 5]

I heard about this book while listening to a program on NPR called Worldview. The host was interviewing the author. The topic was really interesting to me. The book, however, gave me a different impression in the end. I guess I was expecting the book to be different than what it is. To me the book was a little more than a glorified gossip column. BUT it sure was a juicy gossip column! It talked about the hypocritical lives that a lot of leading Christian right figures were leading. Majority of them had string of fail marriages, but yet they came out against gay marriage because the union should be kept between a man and a woman, even if it was to be a dysfunctional one. That's still acceptable in God's eyes. Some of them were also closeted homosexual, acting out on repressed emotional trauma according to Blumenthal. Some of the figures Blumenthal cover in the book included James Dobson (the central figure), Ted Haggard, David Vitter, Larry Craig, Sarah Palin, Newt Gringrich, etc.

I couldn't believe some of the things that these people believe in. The background and details.

According to Frederick Clarkson, a pioneering researcher of the Christian right, "Reconstructionism seeks to replace democracy with a theocratic elite that would govern by imposing their interpretation of 'Biblical Law.' Reconstructionism would eliminate no only democracy but many of its manifestations, such as labor unions, civil rights laws, and public schools. Women would be generally relegated to hearth and home. Insufficiently Christian men would be denied citizenship, perhaps executed." (20)

"The persistent 'conservatism' of American politics and society is rooted in large part in the physical violence done to children," [Phil] Greven wrote. "The roots of these persistent tilt towards hierarchy enforced order, and absolute authority--so evident in Germany earlier in this century and in the radical right in American today--are always traceable to aggression against children's wills and bodies, to the pain and the suffering they experience long before they, as adults, confront the complex issues of the polity, the society, and the world." (62)

Blumenthal talked about Newt Gringrich's political career, that it was at a stagnant because it didn't get the blessing from James Dobson due to Gringrich's many fail marriages and extramarital affairs. He then went on the radio show hosted by Dobson and made a confession. After that he received endorsement from Dobson and, thus, the backing of other Christian rights. This was similar to how Ted Bundy got in the good side of Dobson, because he accepted Christ and blamed pornography as the reason for his behavior.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German clergyman executed by the Nazis for publicly opposing Hitler and denouncing church leaders who acquiesced to his rule, had a phrase for this phenomenon. He called it "cheap grace." "Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like a cheapjack's wares... The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut-rate prices... In such a Church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin." (95)

When these people were caught with their "sins," they hardly ever took responsibility for their actions, according to Blumenthal. When Ted Haggard's story of his gay escapades came out in public, a Calvinist minister Mark Driscoll of the Mars Hill Church of Seattle, Washington said that Haggard's behavior was due to the fact that "Haggard's wife had become too fat... It is not uncommon to meet pastor's wives who really let themselves go... They sometimes feel that because their husband is a pastor, he is therefore trapped into fidelity, which gives them cause for laziness. A wife who lets herself go and is not sexually available to her husband in the ways that the Song of Songs is so frank about is not responsible for her husband's sin, but she may not be helping him either (232)." Seriously?

While it was entertaining to read the details of these people's lives (and I mean "details"), it got old for me. Yes, these people are hypocrites with some crazy and wild ideologies. I get it. I was looking for something more (not sure what), and it didn't really deliver for me.

[Rk Wild · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hypocritical Theocrats Exposed (so to speak!), October 31, 2010

Ever want to see what the origin of the "End Times" of democracy looks like? Would you like to experience an intolerant, enslaving, human rights-less theocracy? How would you like all this at the hands of self-annoited moralists who, through astounding examples of hypocrisy, work ardently to hide their own ethical failures then resort to moral relativism when they can no longer control the story? Kind of sounds far-fetched, doesn't it?

But it's the U.S.A. today, and Mr. Blumenthal painstakingly ties together the linkages between the philosphical, psychological, and monetary sources of any such theocracy and the elected and non-elected power-brokers occupying our legislatures, government agencies, and halls of justice lo these past 3 or so decades. To be clear, Mr. Blumenthal does not so directly describe the demise of American democracy as above. However, he provides an ample number of relevant data points that a reasonably objective reader might be forgiven for interpreting as an eye-opening, if not outrightly dangerous, trend in American governance.

One thing Mr. Blumenthal does conclude, early and often, is that the Republican Party is deep within the sway of these theocratic forces. Right there at the end of the Introduction, penned as the 2008 election results were being tallied, he writes "The characters I have profiled may not represent a majority in terms of sheer numbers, but through their combined power, they reflect the dominant character of the movement -- and by extension, of the Republican Party they have subsumed." Well, here we are a mere 2 years later, and looking at the political candidates offered by the right during the 2010 elections, it appears the movement continues to gain numbers AND strength.

Note for Kindle users: there are 313 detailed end-notes at the end of the narrative, and not one of them is linked to the text. Actually, the paper-bound versions of the book don't appear to provide note-numbering in the narrative either. Mr. Blumenthal's work is so rigorously supported, that any such numbering/linking would likely get in the way of the reading experience. There's also a nice index in the back, and it, too, is not linked. But Kindle users can merely highlight the index entry they want and obtain context-oriented search results from the entire text in a few moments. Very nice.

[Byron · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book you were hoping someone would write about the Republicans. It's explains why the party has become overrun with religious nuts, and why they keep getting caught up in gay sex scandals. Meanwhile you don't see Democrats getting caught browsing rentboy.com, cruising the men's room at the airport in Minnesota and what have you nearly as often, despite the fact that there's more gay Democrats than Republicans. As Blumenthal breaks down in this book, it's not just that a lot of Republicans are driven into the closet, because homosexuality is not tolerated in Christianity, which leads to pursue riskier behavior than they would if they living out, relatively normal lives. It's that people who subscribe to conservative political views are more likely to be gay than their liberal counterparts. The homosexuality leads to the conservatism. You might be familiar with the study where homophobes and regular people were hooked up to machines, Clockwork Orange-style, and subjected to gay pornography. You can guess which group popped a rod. But in a bizarre twist, getting caught, say, taking advantage of teenage male participants in the congressional page program doesn't necessarily preclude you from being a member of the religious right. It's all in how you respond once you get caught. Oddly enough, people who are obviously gay, get caught, and respond by redoubling their effort to restrict other people's personal freedom have more credibility in that world than people who just played by the rules all along. It's all part of the sick psychology behind born again Christianity. Republican Gomorrah breaks down how this all ultimately led to John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running partner in the '08 election, and the clusterfuck that eventually became - presumably the most ridonkulous thing that could possibly happen. We can only hope that it was.