In late 2008, Max Blumenthal wrote Republican Gomorrah, subtitled Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party. Yet in mid-2010 that party appears poised to gain seats in the U.S. House and Senate.
Is it statistics amidst a sour economy, a comeback aided by Democratic missteps, or an ideology of insurgency?
More below the fold....
Republican Gomorrah - A Party Shattered?
This week Morning Feature reviews our summer reading. Today we look at Max Blumenthal's Republican Gomorrah. Tomorrow we consider Andrew Bacevich's Washington Rules through the historical lens of Edward Miller's War Plan Orange. Saturday we conclude with Mario Livio's Is God a Mathematician?
Written in the wake of defeats in 2008, Max Blumenthal portrayed the GOP as a party "shattered" by its fealty to religious zealots. Yet polls show them poised to gain seats in the House and Senate in the 2010 midterms. Why the turnaround?
In part it's statistics: if all other things were equal, with 58% Democratic majorities in both houses, you would expect 58% of incumbent losses to be Democrats and the GOP to gain seats. But all other things are not equal. Voters tend to hold the majority party responsible for current conditions, so a weak economy puts more Democrats at risk. Even with no Democratic missteps, it would be surprising if Tea Party Republicans did not gain seats in 2010.
And there have been Democratic missteps, such as not being prepared for last August's ragefest over health care or this month's ragefest over the 51 Park Place Islamic Center. More important, the economic crisis was broader and deeper than initially recognized - not merely a banking liquidity crunch, it was a systemic employment and personal debt crunch - and the response did not match the true magnitude of the problem.
A 'solution' in search of a crisis.
A deeper reading of Blumenthal's well-written book suggests another factor that should have dampened Democrats' giddy enthusiasm after the 2008 elections: conservative ideology, while manifestly unfit for governance, is an ideal breeding ground for political insurgency.
Blumenthal describes conservative religion as "a culture of personal crisis." That theology proposes that we turn to religion in times of trouble. Ergo, the deeper the trouble, the more likely that more people will turn to religion. Rather than seeking to solve problems through reason and collective effort, the religious right presents God as the solution the problems. By implication, if our purpose here on earth is to draw nearer to God, we need a steady supply of moral and personal crises ... lest we come to believe we can solve problems by human reason and collective effort, without need for divine assistance.
A doctrine of fauxgiveness.
Thus Blumenthal presents conservative religion as perversely celebrating the very problems for which it purports to offer solutions. The worse things are or the worse our actions, the more we need God's help ... and the more inspirational a public act of repentance. This, he argues, explains why conservatives preened over serial killer Ted Bundy's claimed prison conversion as documented in his death row interview with James Dobson, and more recently over "Son of Sam" killer David Berkowitz.
A similar rational explains the rise of convicted Watergate conspirator Charles Colson and a religious leader, the free pass given to Sen. David Vitter and Gov. Mark Sanford after their sexual indiscretions. Even Newt Gingrich, a serial philanderer who left not one but two wives while they lay ill, became welcome after he described kneeling in tearful prayer, asking God (but not the ex-wives) for forgiveness.
Blumenthal's thesis explains the seeming double standard in the right's shunning of Sen. Larry Craig while allowing Ted Haggard back into the fold: Craig defiantly denied any wrongdoing, while Haggard publicly admitted it. The issue is not behavior, but repentance. However repugnant their actions - even serial murder - those who publicly declare that they've found God are exalted in a theology based on what Deitrich Bonhöffer called "cheap grace."
A theology that is a solution in search of a crisis - thus celebrating crises as proving a need for its solution - is an ideal petri dish for a political insurgency, especially in an economic downturn. But don't look for that theology or the conservative movement to offer policy solutions. Their role is to manufacture crises. Solutions are up to God.
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Happy Thursday!
Crossposted from Blogistan Polytechnic Institute (BPICampus.com)