Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement That Shattered the Party

This is such an important book that it should be required reading for all students. In addition, it's well written and read. Thank you Max Blumenthal!

Republican Gomorrah reinforced my worst fears about the "religious" right.I have long been concerned about the power of the fundamentalists in this country. It is truly unnerving to hear how unscrupulous these "Christians" really are.Blumenthal thoroughly exposes the roots of these ruthless shysters. His book should be a wakeup call for all freedom loving Americans.

I have been a Blumenthal fan for many years, but this is by far his best work. I must admit, it scared the "bejesus" out of me, but it's the kind of scared we all need to be if we really want to change the way our country works. The narrator was excellent and the book is almost too easy to listen to because you get so caught up in the craziness of the story.

'A great listen. Tells the story of the roots of the Christian right and some of the colorful mayor players. One part illuminates religions inability to deal honestly about sex from education/contraception/gays/priests/pornography etc.. Another part covers the Christian right using in, overtly political ways, hotbed issues like the Terri Schiavo case.
It is well researched and the narrative is informative and entertaining and shows the pious in a down to earth light. I found it disturbing how Focus on the Family's Dobson personally profited a million dollars from his interview with serial killer Ted Bundy and forgave Ted of brutally killing so many young women...and having sex their corpses. Hey, Jesus forgives. Right? Part of the draw of the book is offensive actions of the heavy hitters involved but it is not the basis of the book. The book looks philosophically at the roots of people needing/wanting some one to tell them what to do and think. And to do so uncritically. Blindly faithful. And the costs of alienating moderate Republicans. Not everyone is welcome under the big tent. My overall impression is the book saying, "Hey, look at these people. Do they really represent our Republican party?"

Everyone with a brain should get this book. I couldn't stop listening to it. It was packed tightly with information and read very well. A must listen to fully appeciate their insanity and what we, as a country and a people, are really dealing with. I came away with a new understanding (and I am already well-informed) of truly how much money and how out of their minds the Right really is.......that they're nuts and dangerous!

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.

I'm definitely interested in more from the narrator - he's good!

After listening to the first few minutes of this audiobook, I began to regret having not listened to the sample and just going off the comments and synopsis. Blumenthal is down right belligerent in his distaste for religion. Being an Angeleno and having grown up around people of many faiths, the disrespectful tone and demeanor he takes when describing people's deeply held spiritual beliefs was distasteful and led me to tune out most of what he was trying to say.
In the end, this book only goes to prove that we are all human, we make mistakes, and we are largely driven by self interests. We attempt to coordinate our self interests and spiritual beliefs, but sometimes life gets in the way and we have to make ethical or moral decisions that go against those beliefs.
In the end, it seems like the book is calling for a more moderated voice to come through, but if you mock deeply held beliefs of people you disagree with, then you come off as being just as ignorant and intolerant as you believe they are.
I would not recommend this book to any one on the right, left, or center unless they were interested in finding out why and how the Right and Left are talking past one another.

My husband and I enjoy politics and tend to be liberal, so we thought we would enjoy this "expose" about the origins of the religious right. But the story got boring after a while. Also, we were sometimes listening to it in the car with our kids (they were playing electronic games and not really listening) and we were taken by surprise a couple of times by adult language, including the "f" word. So we had to stop listening to it when the kids were around, and we just didn't enjoy it enough to go to the trouble of listening after they went to bed. All in all, I'd say the book was a disappointment.