Evidence shows Repubs are more immoral than Democrats

[kentuck]

I just finished reading the interview with Joe Conason on www.buzzflash.com and it evoked some thoughts on "morality".
http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/03/08/01_conason.html
Even though the Repubs believe in their hearts that Democrats are immoral and have no redeeming qualities, once it is examined, we can see that it it the Republicans that have a problem with living moral lives. Their hypocrisy knows no bounds. Why? That is the question that leaves me scratching my head.

For example:
<snip>
BUZZFLASH: George Will was having an affair with another conservative columnist. And his first wife tossed his belongings out on the lawn of their Maryland home.

CONASON: To the best of our knowledge, that’s correct, yes.

<snip>
CONASON: Well, look, I don't know Tom DeLay personally. So it’s very hard for me to say he’s completely cynical about this. But it’d be hard to think anything else about him when he stands there and he knows what’s happening in his own House caucus. He knows what Newt Gingrich did. He knows what Bob Livingston did.

As I detail in the book, there’s a committee that sprang up in October of 2002 that was headed by Helen Chenoweth. She was a symbol of Republican hypocrisy a couple of years earlier when her own colorful sexual history was exposed by newspapers in her home state of Idaho. She appears in 2002 fronting a committee that is urging pastors to get people out to vote, so that we can make sure that godly men are in charge of the country, during the Congressional mid-term elections of 2002. And this committee is clearly a front for Tom DeLay. Now could Tom DeLay really do that, unless he was utterly cynical? I mean, how would you select Helen Chenoweth to head a committee like that unless you were a total cynic? Unless you really had no beliefs?

<snip>
On occasion, that has happened. When Gingrich’s lieutenants were smearing Tom Foley, the former Speaker, as allegedly in the closet and gay, which was totally false, Barney Frank, who is gay and a Democrat from Massachusetts, stood up and said, "If this doesn't stop, I’m going to start giving reporters the names of all the closeted gays in the Republican Caucus," of whom there were apparently several. And guess what? It stopped the next day. And I believe that Gingrich actually fired somebody over that, as I recall, just to slam the closet shut again. So you can fight back.

<snip>
CONASON: It’s unbelievable. Everybody knows about Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart and those guys. But Focus on the Family had a guy who was a top staffer -- they had to kick him out because he was having an affair. There was another guy in the Family Research Council who was the head of their ex-gay ministry, and they find him in a gay bar in Washington. They had to kick him out for awhile. Matt Glavin, who worked for the Southeast Legal Foundation, which crusaded against the gays in the Boy Scouts, he was busted two times in a national park for fondling a ranger. This stuff leaves you almost speechless. When you look at the whole record of it, it’s mind-boggling. And yet they’ll go on. And someone else will take the place of a guy like that and just continue with the same rhetoric because most Americans just don't know how fraudulent this attitude is.

=====================================================================

But why?

Why do they believe that they are the Party of morals? When evidence suggests that they have such a big problem with denial, blame, and self-deception? Is it because the Democrats have permitted them to believe that it is the Democrats that are immoral and whatever they, the Repubs, do - it can never be as immoral as the Democrats? I cannot understand how they have convinced themselves of this.

[donco6]

1. It's the fundamentalists.

The Dems have nothing to compare to the fundamentalists, who are the ones responsible for painting the "Republicans are moral" portrait.

Plus, they're the only ones who really care about that label.

[Pegleg Thd]

2. In my lifetime I have found

that those who scream the loudest about morality are those who are total AMORAL. This is extremely true of the pat robertson/jerry falwell/carl rove/gb/dc/ bunch. I have never met a republican who was not amoral... but these are the worst I I seen in my 65+ years.:P

[joefree1]

4. Amen

[Lars39]

6. Thanks for that wonderful picture!!!!

I will put it to good use! :evilgrin:

[The Zanti Regent]

9. No, it's the Press

The Whore Press gives pass after pass to Republicans who kill to get to the top like Laura Bush and Joe Scarborogh.

The same press lies any lie about Hillary killing Vince Foster.

The PRESSTITUTES are the PROBLEM!

[Sweetpea]

3. We all know humans are imperfect

The problem is casting the first stone, 2nd stone, 3rd stone......

[starroute]

5. They may just have a weird definition of morality

I'm not up on all the theology, but many of the original Protestant sects believed either in predestination or in salvation by faith and not by works, and I would guess that the current crop of fundamentalists do too. Either way, it works out to the idea that if you're destined for salvation and/or if you believe fervently enough, you'll be saved, and your actual behavior has little or nothing to do with it.

The non-fundamentalist right, on the other hand, is mostly social Darwinist, survival-of-the-fittest types. In their book, morality is equal to whatever works. If you can get away with something, you were right to do it. (Read Heinlein's Starship Troopers to see exactly this point argued at insufferable length.) If fondling park rangers and lying about it helps you get ahead -- hey, that must be the moral thing to do.

[gulliver]

7. Omegas vs. Deltas (Animal House)

The Deltas aren't exactly angels, but they are basically harmless. And they know better.

The Omegas (and Dean Wormer) are hypocritical, sadistic, and conspiratorial. But they always think they are the definition of moral.

Why do many people who wear the label Republican "believe" they are more moral? Here's one theory. Circular logic.

An example is in the Koran, Surah II, lines 6 and 7:

6. Surely those who disbelieve, it being alike to them whether you warn them, or do not warn them, will not believe.

7. Allah has set a seal upon their hearts and upon their hearing and there is a covering over their eyes, and there is a great punishment for them.

So, if you believe, great. If you don't believe, it is because God has blinded you to the truth (or otherwise cursed you). This is not to pick on the Koran or Islam. Think of the Pharisees or Pat (Charles Taylor's biggest fan) Robertson. This exact feedback loop of self-referential self-affirmation is a pandemic, IMO. It's a bug in their thinking pattern.

[donco6]

8. Christianity/Judaism has the same concept.

When God hardens Pharoah's heart, so that he does not allow Israel to go into the wilderness to sacrifice. He is judged later for not allowing them to go, but God would not allow him to let them go - circular argument.

[Devils Advocate NZ]

10. Or maybe...

I don't know why nobody has posted this yet, but has anyone considered that maybe THEY DON"T BELIEVE IT?

I think it's pretty damned obvious that they don't believe a word they say. They preach all this shit because they know that many other people DO believe it, and by preaching it (even if not doing it) they can get those people to vote for them with a fanatical fervour.

[gulliver]

11. Good point.

I think many of the leaders don't believe it. That practically defines the "pragmatic" (lies are fair game) neocons. Bush and Cheney are star examples.

[donco6]

12. I would guess some do, some don't

I think the "leaders" come at things from a much more pragmatic position than those fanatical followers. I just can't picture Rove as a true religious zealot.

[Yupster]

13. Book from a used book store

"The Day America Told the Truth," by James Peterson and Peter Kim -- 1991.

It's basically 270 pages of the results of some huge poll.

I bought it because it had some cool info - and it cost abou $ 3.

Who lost their virinity by age 13?
Overall 13 %, Men 22, Women 7,Blacks 35,Whites 12,make less than 10k 19,age 65 or older 5.

"Officially reported" suicide as cause of death in one year.
men 24,226
women 6,678

Thought about committing suicide
Pacific Rim 40 %
Marlboro Country 25 %

Had sex with same sex
overall 14 %, Pacific Rim 22, New England 8.

Gave money to charity last year
overall 69 %, New South 75, New England 75, Pacific Rim 57.

People who call themselves "very religious" -- 14 %
People who call themselves "not religious at all" -- 17 %
Ever used drugs? Religious 27 %, not religious 58 %
Satisfied with their lives Rel- 50%, not rel - 36 %
Carry weapons Rel- 9 %, not rel- 21 %

Who admits to telling lies that hurt people
Men 40 %, women 31
gays/lesbians 52, straights 33
Blacks 51, Whites 33
Liberals 37, conservatives 29
age 18-24 50, 65 and older 19

What we are most ashamed of having done
adultery 18 %, premarital sex 14, lying 11, drugs 10, stealing 9, cheating others 6, drunkenness 5, abortion 3, shoplifting 3, bad thoughts 3.

Wish I could spend more time having sex 58 %
Wish I could spend less time having sex 3 %
Hate having sex 4 %

Married who have had an affair 31 %
New England 39 %
Marlboro Country 21 %

Just some snippets I thought were interesting.