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Republican Gomorrah: Inside The Movement That Shattered The Party (2010)

by Max Blumenthal(Favorite Author)

3.93 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1568584172 (ISBN13: 9781568584171)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Nation Books

review 1: 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 policie... mores 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.
review 2: I just read this book, though it came out almost two years ago, and having done so I'm surprised that it didn't make a bigger splash. It provides a coherent account of the rise of the religious right in the Republican Party, mapping the psychological terrain that makes their brand of authoritarian politics at once so powerful and so destructive. It's a compelling story with a cast of characters that just needs swords and armor to be right at home in Game of Thrones. The book's framing its story in terms of the self-destruction of the Republican Party unfortunately dates it a bit, but otherwise this is a very timely examination of the political and spiritual forces that are still riding high on the American right. less

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