Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement That Shattered the Party

by Max Blumenthal Narrated by William Hughes

Overview

This is a crackling, spicy, and investigative portrait of the freaky and theocratic fringe elements within the conservative movement who are now calling the shots in the post-Bush GOP-and a roadmap to understanding the politics of personal crisis and redemption that unites them.

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 than just an exposé,*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, extramarital affairs, struggles with homosexual urges, heavy medication, addiction to pornography, serial domestic abuse, and even murder.

Inspired by the work of psychologist 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.

Editorial Reviews

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.
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Product Details

BN ID:	2940169833621
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	10/06/2009
Edition description:	Unabridged

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