Reddit mentions of Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics

There's a chapter in Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics that discusses how the Republican party has managed to convince a segment of the population that they are the party of morality and Christian values while many Republican leaders who try to identify themselves as the ones to whom the public should turn to uphold Christian values privately engage in behavior quite at odds with the image they skillfully project.

In regards to McCain, who claimed to be a strong defender of traditional marriage, the book mentions an article from Washington Monthly by Steve Benen:

>McCain was still married and living with his wife in 1979 while, according to The New York TImes' Nicholas Kristof, "aggressively courting a 25-yeard-old woman who was as beautiful as she was rich." McCain divorced his wife, who had raised their three children while he was imprisoned in Vietnam, then launched his political career with his new wife's family money.

Though I think McCain is far less hypocritical than someone like Newt Gingrich. CNN reported the following in 2007, when Gingrich was considering running for president.

>Former House speaker and potential presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has confessed, telling conservative Christian leader James Dobson that he was cheating on his wife at around the same time the House was impeaching President Bill Clinton over his White House affair with Monica Lewinsky.

And it wasn't the first time he had engaged in adulterous behavior:

>Former GOP House Speaker and Christian Conservative Newt Gingrich has a long history of adultery in Washington, beginning in the 1970's while he was married to his first wife. As Salon's Stephen Talbot reported in 1998, Gingrich "has admitted sexual indiscretions during his first marriage." As Talbot put it, Gingrich demanded a divorce from his first wife "in her hospital room where she was recovering from uterine surgery," and then,
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> Shortly after that infamous encounter, Gingrich refused to pay his alimony and child-support payments. The First Baptist Church in his hometown had to take up a collection to support the family Gingrich had deserted.
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>Six months after divorcing his first wife, Gingrich married his second, one of several women with whom he had been cheating during his first marriage. And in short order, Gingrich began again searching for and having sex with other women, eventually finding the new woman whom he wanted to be his third wife. In 1999, in the midst of the GOP inquisition into Clinton's sexual improprieties, Gingrich - who was fifty-six years old at the time - was having adulterous sex with his own congressional aide Callista Bisek, who was twenty-four years younger. In 2000, Gingrich dumped his second wife and married the young, pretty Bisek

Other Republican leaders in Congress condemning Clinton for adultery were also guility of the same behavior. E.g., Rob Livingston, who was chosen as Newt Gingrich's successor as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives late in 1998, but chose instead to withdraw and retire after extramarital affairs of his were discovered.

And I remember listening to Henry Hyde roundly condemn Clinton for his adulterous behavior in a hearing Hyde was holding on the matter. Yet when asked about his own adulterous behavior he pooh-poohed it as just "youthful indescretion", when others learned he had an affair at the age of 41. That was about my age at the time; I couldn't imagine engaging in that behavior and then using that excuse with my wife.

>In 1998, the Internet magazine Salon.com published "This Hypocrite Broke Up My Family" which stated that from 1965 to 1969, Hyde conducted an extramarital sexual affair with Cherie Snodgrass. At the time, Snodgrass was married to another man with whom she had three children. The Snodgrasses divorced in 1967.

Reference: Henry Hyde

Can you guess who is considering a bid to become president and is now attempting to position himself as a devout champion of Christianity?

>Gingrich, who shows signs that he is interested in the GOP presidential nomination although he has yet to officially declare his candidacy, told thousands of conservative evangelical Christians at Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, that liberal college professors and mainstream media are turning America into a godless society.

Reference: Newt Gingrich Woos Evangelicals at Texas Megachurch

If he does run and somehow manages to become the Republican nominee in 2012, how many Americans do you think will view him as the Christian alternative to that Muslim, Barack Obama (that's an attempt at sarcasm).

>I have a new story up tonight about the latest polling on public views about President Barack Obama's religious beliefs. There's a lot of startling news in these polls — from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and Time magazine. But one number that could catch significant attention is this: in the Time poll, 46 percent of Republicans said they believe Obama is a Muslim.
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>In the Pew survey, that number came in somewhat lower: 31 percent.

Reference: Poll: 46% of GOP thinks Obama's Muslim by Josh Gerstein on August 19, 2010

A few ideas:

http://www.amazon.com/Over-Cliff-Obamas-Election-American/dp/0982417179

http://www.amazon.com/Whats-Matter-Kansas-Conservatives-America/dp/080507774X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346745709&sr=1-1&keywords=what%27s+the+matter+with+kansas

http://www.amazon.com/Great-American-Hypocrites-Toppling-Republican/dp/0307408663/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346745770&sr=1-3&keywords=glenn+greenwald

As to your mom's English - I think these books might challenge her a bit, but they're not written in dense academese.

I've seen many, but not all of his movies, my favorite probably being The Quiet Man. I've read "John Wayne, American", I really enjoyed it. I would also recommend "John Wayne's America" by Garry Wills. He discussed in depth Wayne's stringent avoidance of military service in WW II among other topics.


I'm not sure what you consider a "decent" source, but there is an entire chapter in this book dedicated to the subject of Wayne's personal life and his on screen persona. I have no reason to believe it is any more or any less true than the previous titles mentioned.

From Greenwald's book:

"Wayne scornfully condemned films that he claimed deviated from wholesome American values. Yet in his own life, Wayne was not only married to three different women but engaged in multiple affairs with a whole array of Hollywood actresses and socialites. While he loudly denounced those whom he deemed to be morally impure, Wayne indulged an alcohol addiction and barbiturate and amphetamine habit for years." p.14

"Later in life, Wayne claimed he was unable to fight in the war because of his age, and the need to support his three children. Throughout World War II , he turned to a series of increasingly extreme measures to protect himself from being drafted. According to Garry Wills's 'John Wayne's America', the Duke did not even reply to letters from the Selective Service System and applied for numerous deferments" p.21

"During the Vietnam War, the draft-dodging Wayne vocally condemned teenagers who went to Europe or Canada in order to avoid the draft, calling them 'cowards', 'traitors', or 'Communists'." p.28

If you're worried about the sources for my sources, you should take it up with the authors.