Over the last year, award-winning journalist and videographer Max Blumenthal has been behind some of the most sensational (and funniest) exposes of...
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Sep 29, 2011
Mal
rated it: 
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 wheneve More...
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 wheneve More...
Sep 05, 2011
Thomas
rated it: 
This book traces the development of the religious right as a political movement. Blumenthal leaves us in no doubt as to his point of view, and he doesn't hesitate to dwell on the more salacious details of evangelical leaders' private lives, so it can't be thought of as a balanced, dispassionate account. However, he gets some important things right. I would hate for an outsider to get the idea that all evangelical Christians in the USA are like the people he discusses here, but this form of Chris
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May 29, 2011
Kelly
rated it:
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 More...
The book has some clear strengths. It provides some juicy gossip and is a quick, easy read. Max Blumenthal's views on More...
Oct 31, 2009
David
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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 abo
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Oct 13, 2009
Bglassman
rated it:
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 repo
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Sep 12, 2010
Lynn
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This book was interesting, but I kept asking myself "compared to what?" I'd love to hear some stats comparing the hypocritical Republican sexual transgressions with those of the Democratic party or even non-evangelical Republicans.
The book never claimed to be a public policy study about ethical breaches, so I can't really fault it for not being one, but I would have loved it if it was!
Also, I would have appreciated if the author had done more comparison betwe More...
The book never claimed to be a public policy study about ethical breaches, so I can't really fault it for not being one, but I would have loved it if it was!
Also, I would have appreciated if the author had done more comparison betwe More...
Sep 30, 2010
Manussawee
rated it:
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. Major
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Oct 30, 2009
Donna
rated it:
This book should be a wake-up call for America about the colossal mess we've gotten ourselves into by being too tolerant and politically correct. We've treated any looney philosophy that calls itself a religion as respectfully as if it made sense. We've stood in silence while cheats and liars and con artists get elected to public office again and again, protected and forgiven by the powers that be so long as they make a good show of repentance. We've permitted religious extremists like James Dob
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May 02, 2010
Ray
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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 DeLa
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Jan 23, 2012
Lou
rated it:
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 th More...
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 th More...
Oct 24, 2009
John
rated it:
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 hig More...
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 hig More...
Mar 03, 2010
Stefanie
rated it:
Max Blumenthal writes a penetrating, if meandering, indictment of how the Evangelical Right led by James Dobson strong armed a take over of the Republican Party. Much of the book focuses on the hypocrisy of the leaders of the movement - contrasting behavior with rhetoric with a special emphasis on sexual mores (closeted gay men who led anti-gay legislation are highlighted.) He attempts to correlate early childhood abuse of key players with the sado-masochism theories of Erich Fromm which detra
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Dec 27, 2009
travelerblue
rated it:
Dewey 324.2734
Blumenthal delves into the 'religious right' take over of the Republican party. Buzz words like 'anti-gay' and 'anti-abortion' have taken over the more serious issues. Blumenthal points out that the 'new' party finds it easier to blame the devil than to take personal responsibility. e.g. all of the sex scandals involving the political leaders of the party. But, if the offending party cries and 'repents,' he will be taken back into the fold. Interesting also, the 'spare t More...
Blumenthal delves into the 'religious right' take over of the Republican party. Buzz words like 'anti-gay' and 'anti-abortion' have taken over the more serious issues. Blumenthal points out that the 'new' party finds it easier to blame the devil than to take personal responsibility. e.g. all of the sex scandals involving the political leaders of the party. But, if the offending party cries and 'repents,' he will be taken back into the fold. Interesting also, the 'spare t More...
Oct 04, 2009
Grace
rated it:
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 More...
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 More...
Oct 05, 2010
Timothy
rated it:
An interesting look at some hidden political (and religious) relationships. While the author did good work in compiling this information, he needed to be more familiar with some of his subject matter. He makes several errors that could have been avoided with research. For example, at one point he refers to Wesley as a Calvinist. Oops! There are several more of these boo-boos, but it doesn't hurt the general thrust of the book. Especially interesting (to me) are his examples of the lengths to whi
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Oct 03, 2009
Vesna
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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 astou
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Apr 14, 2011
Ali
rated it:
This book basically looked examined the fundamental hypocrisy in the Christian Right and how they gradually gained more and more power in the Republican party, shunning out conservatives that did not believe in their values, ending with the Obama elections. It made a clear point about the discrepancy between the private lives of many of these big evangelical figures and what they advocate. However I'm pretty sure you could find a very similar thing if you investigated the Democrats, something th
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Sep 27, 2009
Ownbymom
rated it: 
I am very ambivalent about this book. It had at least one minor factual error that would have been easy to correct, and its presence challenged the authority of the author for me. And although the psychological focus was set up nicely at the beginning with Eisenhower's focus on Fromm, I was never convinced about the psychological connection. However, the discussion of the philosophical underpinnings of the "Christian Right" was fascinating. I had never even heard the name Rushdoony
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Oct 31, 2009
Richie Jay
rated it:
An entertaining and eye-opening look at the sordid history of right-wing zealotry/politics in the United States.
Although, personally, while I found Blumenthal's recurrent thesis about the sadomasochism of the far right to be entertaining, I think he missed a lot of good opportunities to tie together his anecdotes with a stronger message about the bible-thumping, fear-mongering, and scape-goating that right-wing religious and political leaders use as cynical (but effective) tools to l More...
Although, personally, while I found Blumenthal's recurrent thesis about the sadomasochism of the far right to be entertaining, I think he missed a lot of good opportunities to tie together his anecdotes with a stronger message about the bible-thumping, fear-mongering, and scape-goating that right-wing religious and political leaders use as cynical (but effective) tools to l More...
Nov 27, 2009
Dan
rated it:
Scary and important. If you've ever wondered why there are now so few Republican moderates ... actually, if you want to a better understanding of American politics in general, read this book. It's not perfect (of course) -- some of the parts where the author tries to psychoanalyze "the movement" seem like reaching/stretching, and the book comes from a liberal perspective (but then again, as S.T. Colbert put it, "reality has a liberal bias") -- but it's full of solid reporting
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Oct 12, 2009
Michele
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More information about the religious right and its origins, but with more recent history about James Dobson, Ted Haggard, and so on. It also connects the movement to psychological theories of personality, especially those of Erich Fromm, a humanist theorist who challenged Freud's system of thought. Anyway, Fromm says that authoritarian beliefs are an "escape from freedom." Authoritarian people, especially the dominators such as Tom Delay, often come from abusive or dysfunctional backg
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Sep 01, 2010
Brian
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The power and influence of the religious right and the Republican party is far greater than I realized. The author refers to the work of Eric Fromm to explain some of the attraction to this movement to many of our born again and political leaders who have an authoritarian and "black/white" world view. The hypocrisy is rampant among the leaders as well as the many scandals have revealed concerning these figures over the past few decades.
It is worth reading if you want to ha More...
It is worth reading if you want to ha More...
Jan 24, 2010
Tim
rated it:
One the one hand, this is a real eye opener in that it takes all the Republican/Conservative/Evangelical scandals and lays out the level of hypocrisy found in each similar story. On the other, it isn't surprising at all given the horrific upbringings most of these people suffered from at the hands of sexual, psychological and/or physical abusers. But therein lies the hypocrisy once more...if bad things happen to others, they expect them to conform and be "good" Americans. When it happe
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Aug 02, 2011
Some flaws here (is Spiro Agnew really a "forgotten" figure?) but this is a penetrating analysis of how screwed-up American right-wingers really are, streets ahead of such simplistic work as Justin Frank's BUSH ON THE COUCH. While Melanie Klein was the inspiration for Frank's trasho-psychobiography, Blumenthal draws on the work of Erich Fromm, specifically ESCAPE FROM FREEDOM, in effective fashion to explain the sexual neuroses (or psychoses?) of prominent figures in government and the
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Jan 24, 2010
Bob
rated it:
This terrifying book outlines the eerie evil lurking in self-proclaimed evangelical christians. The villainous James Dobson of Colorado's 'focus on the family' is accurately eviscerated as the opportunistic charlatan he is. Sarah Palin and Ted Haggart show up and add some much needed comic relief. This tale would be dizzyingly appropriate in a Dan Brown novel. It is sickenly true and their influence grows stronger every day as they continue to be immune to scandal and refute. This is an imp
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Aug 05, 2010
Andrew
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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 t
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Aug 28, 2011
Sarah
rated it:
Really interesting look at the religious right and how it's come to occupy its key place in American (especially Republican) politics. This is a topic I've always had an interest in, and this is one of the better overview books about the movement I've found. It's obviously coming from a critical perspective on the movement under discussion (which I share), but it's thorough and not flippant.
Each chapter is organized around key individuals or groups and then flows into the next chapt More...
Each chapter is organized around key individuals or groups and then flows into the next chapt More...
Jan 21, 2010
AC
rated it:
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?aud...
h/t to Roger Ebert's sometimes fascinati More...
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?aud...
h/t to Roger Ebert's sometimes fascinati More...
Mar 25, 2010
Maggie
rated it:
this book makes clear the hypocrisy of the religious right. facts are a lot more scary than spin and we all know how ugly spin can be. recommendation? read this book!! a calm steady build of people, places, and events ... many many dots are connected and solid reasons "why" ... that question that reasonable folks ask as they shake their heads in disbelief with each news cast on religious right efforts in american culture and american politics
Oct 21, 2009
Jason
rated it:
As a liberal/secular Republican and an ex-evangelical-Christian, I found Blumenthal's delving into the seedy underbelly of the Religious Right to be entertaining, informative (although it'll certainly be much more informative for other readers) and at times therapeutic. He's singing to the choir, as many evangelical Christians and most right-wing republicans will find plenty to take offense to (including some unfair generalization and questionable psychological analysis), if not be incensed by.
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