why are republicans in general so hung up on sexuality & fake machismo?

[mopaul]

i've never seen such a sexually uptight and confused bunch of people as the republicans. so repressed and closeted, so uncomfortable with sexuality or feminism. so concerned about being publicly macho and faux masculine. and many of the males on the repub side seem suspiciously feminine to me. ken starr. tucker carlson. lindsey graham. rush limbaugh. gary bauer. (ick) william bennet, rumored to be into s and m with a dominatrix. robert livingston, the same. and yet they hassled Bill for his indescretions for 8 years. even though henry hyde had done the same thing.

and they hate gays with a burning passion. why? homophopia maybe?
why so homophobic? i wonder. why do they claim to hate sex publicly but do the same damn things everybody else does in private?

[RhodaGrits]

1. I was arguing with a repub man about issues -

we went back and forth and when he was unable to rebut the facts he immediately ran to his closet of homophobia and started throwing nasties at me. I told him he obviously spent way too much time thinking about the sex lives of gay men and perhaps he should stop that. End of argument LOL

[unblock]

2. because they have kids and think their kids shouldn't hear it

at least, they think kids shouldn't hear about it from public figures, least of all the president.

they want to control the message their kids get; and, they can't do this without controlling it for everybody.

this is especially true if they're unconfortable with their own sexuality. it makes talking about it all the more uncomfortable for them. so they don't their kid asking, "daddy, what's that?" until they're ready for that kind of talk. usually, around the time the child is, oh, 35 maybe?

[xcmt]

6. It's the Ostrich Defense!

The bulk of the conservative argument against homosexuality, once you cut through their legal manipulations and the occasional Natural Law and/or bible reference, is that they feel they have a right to keep their heads buried underground, and that nobody has a right to disturb them.

For example, any time there's a gay or slightly feminine male character or individual on a television show, conservatives will complain that they're having gay values "shoved down their throats". Aside from the fact that they can change the channel, and not watch the show.

They also don't comprehend or care about the hypocrisy in the shoving of values down throats argument. They want their secure worldview. Gays are evil sinners that want to rape your babies. Liberals are communist socialist populist Nazis that want all your money, to give to unwed crack addict prostitutes with five children. Jesus is in the White House. All followers of Islam are terrorists, or know somebody that is.

There's a reason they flip out when somebody dares question it.

[CanIgonow]

3. If I may put on my Freudian hat for a minute,this would indicate a

serious conflict raging between their inner selves which wants an unfettered sex life and the public persona that wants to project an image of the socalled family men involved in a monogamous relationship with their wives.It is probably also an indication that their sex drive is probably extinct and they need fetishistic stimulations (and a truckload of Viagra) to get it up.All in all, a pathetic bunch if you ask me.

[chookie]

34. Bingo!

There's nothing as energizing as ambivalence.

They want wild unfettered sex that they have to deny themselves so much that they can't maintain their republican "cool" unless the world is eradicated of all sources of temptation. That's how weak they are. They are so easily "threatened" by the personas of other people.

[lapfog_1]

4. Lets not forget some other paragons of family values

Newt Gingrich, Bob Barr, Bob Livingston.

[Syncronaut Seven]

5. Deep, deep, DEEP insecurity

And an inability to come to grips with their own desires. A lot of negative projection. I'm fairly convinced that social conservatives have the deepest, darkest closets imaginable.

They secretly fear they're not "normal" and this terrifies many of them. Despite their claims, morality has less to do with their behavior then the appearance of propriety.

Also the types of deviancy they sink to are very telling, heavy in to abuse and control, their perversions actually hurt others.

Go ahead, flame away, tell me I'm wrong.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

31. Yep. Insecurity and fear.

[Jon8503]

7. Repubs Sexuality

[frankly_fedup2]

16. Well, Rush Limbaugh has never heard of a woman having an . . .

orgasm so that pretty much explains it to me, as well as Marta leaving his sorry pilonidal cyst ass.

[DemBones DemBones]

29. Are you kidding? Rush actually said that?

Certainly helps explain his three divorces, doesn't it?

[Jon8503]

8. Republicans & Their Sexuality

I have been wondering this also. I began thinking about it as the republicans that were going after President Clinton began falling like domino's when their infidelities started coming out about them; like the congressman down south who was a strong anti-abortion advocate and was found out to have paid for one for his girlfriend or mistress, all the others who were having affairs. The topper I think which shows their callowness was Next Gingrich serving his dying wife in the hospital with divorce papers. (I am right about that aren't I). You all know the rest. The gay ones, the racist. The more I think about it these people are downright scary. They are anti everything except themselves.

By the way, they have had to import hookers from out of country to meet the demands of these puritans. Wonder what special requests have been made.

[CanIgonow]

9. That tells me brother Neil is going to attend the convention!

[Jon8503]

10. Michelle Malkin Article In Our Paper Earlier This Year

With this topic, had to post this article by Malkin as she is sort of a hot topic right now, not her by any means, thought you guys might enjoy it. Posted the link for the entire article.

Sodom and Gomorrah University

Thank goodness for conservative college student journalists. They bravely blow the whistle on the cultural rot plaguing the nation's institutions of higher learning. And they alert the public to the ugly truth about campus hedonism, which is downplayed by clueless administrators, admissions flacks and faculty enablers.

Just how dangerously out of control has the campus social environment become? A recent report by student journalists Seth R. Norman and Ashley Rudmann of the California Patriot (www.calpatriot.org), the conservative journal at the University of California-Berkeley, provides some hair-raising answers.

(The link to the rest of the story)

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/michellemalkin/mm20030219.shtml

[frankly_fedup2]

15. This Ann Coulter wannabe obviously has learned well . . .

from watching Ann.

She goes onto Hardball and says "she" was set up. I had never heard of her before now except on the Bill Maher Show. She goes on CSPAN and tries to appear the victim; however, callers told her flat out what they thought. Of course, those that support Bush called in and congratulated her and apologized for Matthews.

Strangely coincidental is the fact that she has a new book that does not look like a good read to me, but now will probably be on the top 10 list.

Her little appearance has catapulted her into a higher status with the right wing nuts. Even opiate boy was talking to her yesterday on his radio show.

I hope that those of you who are my fellow liberals do as I do regarding right-wing books. I buy the political books written by liberals . . . I wait until the right's books get into my local library. I do not spend one single dime on their stupid books. If you don't read their books at all, you would be amazed how they turn things around, lie, really have very few facts, if any, regarding their allegations. They have no shame and no limits.

[TahitiNut]

26. Wow! She must've had a horrible experience at Oberlin.

I'd be willing to bet Michelle was hyper-reactive to the liberalism of Oberlin. She must've felt she was in a snake-pit. Her parents ("old-country" Filipino Catholics?) must've been oppressive as hell towards "Daddy's little girl." She sure shows all the neuroses of a repressed up-bringing. I'll bet the vast majority of her student peers viewed her as the "Ice Princess."

[Mandate My Ass]

11. They're not getting any

so they're cranky. Look at the ones who scream the loudest...:puke:

[TahitiNut]

27. Well, when a repressed person "gets some" they feel like they sinned.

That's why the "born again" seduction attracts so many. They sin and repent. Part of the repentance is to overcompensate and amplify their repressions of others. After all, their own (repeated) "personal experience" confirms that they can't be trusted with their own genitals. Why, then, would they think others more trustworthy than they themselves?

[OneBlueSky]

12. it's the foundation of their reality . . .

"The cornerstones of conservative ethos are sexual hysteria, meanness, and hypocrisy. It all fits together -- if they weren't so fucked up about sex, they wouldn't want to be so mean, and they wouldn't have to be so hypocritical." Rod Downey

[Cassandra]

13. People who aren't tempted...

don't rail against temptation; there's just nothing in it for them. That's why the falls from grace of the holier-than-thou types don't surprise me anymore. They are tempted (and feel guilty about it) and assume everyone else is equally tempted. They are really trying to convince themselves.

[jonnyblitz]

14. oh that is a no brainer. because of religion

Everytime I read or listen to their horseshit I am reminded why I am an atheist and so glad of it.

[DemBones DemBones]

32. That's an oversimplification because many people

are religious and have normal sex lives, without being obsessed with what others do.

I think it's because the Republican men have small penises and the women feel cheated so they're all miserable.

[ldf]

40. to be consistent

you should say all those obsessed republican men have small penises and all the obsessed republican women have pancake breasts.

and we all know that you are not a real man with a small penis, therefore you can't be a real woman with small breasts.

/sarcasm

[Bosso 63]

17. Sex is central to the "culture wars".

The changing roles of women in our culture are undermining all
of their assumptions about what it means to be a
"man". Women are supposed to have kids and men have
power, but if women can have power too, then what are men left
with that really defines a man as a "man". This lack
of clarity scares the bejesus out of these folks, because
without a new definition,[and they like things defined], they
would see themselves as nothing. This fear is so deep seated,
it makes them irrational. 
  As a result,I can have an argument with a Republican about
"star wars", tax codes,  foreign policy, or
whatever. But I can't argue about sex or gender roles, because
they are left with the Bible, and "well thats just they
way things are supposed to be". 
This fear will defeat them in the end, but it can also make
them dangerous. 

[loftycity]

18. In the self loathing closet...the truth is out of the question for them

George Bush and Ashe our roommates for 4 years?
Dan Senor,Scott McCellan, Bill Krystal a couple of more to the list.
Hannity for sure.
That's why I believe everything in upside down. Their self loathing becomes our twisted up US policy.
Their fear is immense and they bring it right to us.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

19. Remember the former IL Senate candidate?

I think his name was Ryan. He had to leave the race against Barak Obama because it came out he wanted his wife to perform sex in public.

[terrya]

20. You left out one republican male on your list, mopaul. Bush.

The swaggering and fake machismo coming from the President has always struck me as phony.

[Racenut20]

21. Be a gun nut, hide impotency.

Not to mention all those latent homosexual tendencies.

[Vickers]

25. :-( I have guns

But I must admit that I LOVE to sing show tunes.

:spank:

[quaker bill]

22. It is the "Politics of Purity" as opposed to the "Politics of Compassion"

The "politics of purity" have been ascendant in this country since the "Reagan Revolution". More of an idea than a fact, the politics of purity are based in an abstract standard "moral idealism" that can never quite be achieved but must be fought for. The temperance movement was another high point for the politics of purity, there have been several throughout our history. They usually have coincided with a "christian revival movement" and have generally represented the predictable adverse reaction to rapid social change.

"why do they claim to hate sex publicly but do the same damn things everybody else does in private?"

Your question is right on the money in two dimensions. The philosophical basis for the movement supporting the "politics of purity" predicts exactly this result.

The entire train of thought involved here is based in the Helenistic corruption of the Christian message with the later addition of a Calvinist twist.

The Christian message in it's undiluted form is very much here and now. Christ himself was, if nothing else, a political activist, who advocated the redistribution of wealth (it is easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to get into heaven...store not wealth is this world...care not for material posessions (god clothes the sparrows) and on and on) and compassion for the poor. He was so much of a political reformer that he was executed for it. None of this stuff was other-worldly. It was all about how people live together in a community with a sense of peace and justice here and now.

The Helenistic corruption of the message resulted in the inclusion of an abstract idealism into the christian message. In other words the focus became other-worldly and focused on the "after-life". Things could never be pure on this plain.

Calvin added a profound focus on the "fallen" state of mankind. The We are all "hopeless sinners" theme leveraged off of the Helenistic Idealism that perfection could not be achieved here and now. Calvin holds that there is nothing we can do personally to gain god's favor except faith and contrition for our inevitable sins.

Thus you end up with a faith in an abstract ideal that can never be achieved combined with a lack of personal responsibility for your individual actions on a daily basis because you know that you personally are a "hopeless sinner" but can "accept christ" in an act of faith and contrition and be forgiven of any and all of it.

Like the temperance movement this current manifestation of the politics of purity seeks an unattainable "ideal" in regard to sexual activities. However, as typical, it also accepts the "hopeless sinners" as a product of our inevitable state as long as they profess the faith and work toward the unattainable goal.

In other words your question is on point exactly because that is the only way it ever could have turned out. The more interesting bit is that they are the predictable product of a train of thought that is well documented in the literature and is well over 1000 years old. Your question attempts to point out absurdity, and reasonably so. However it is good to understand that they have a philisophy that makes perfect sense of this (to those who believe it), so pointing out this apparent absurdity will not convert very many of them.

[DemBones DemBones]

33. Excellent analysis. The right labors under a Manichean worldview

while we on the left see shades of grey. Our worldview gives rise to its own problems but is more logical.

[quaker bill]

36. Our world view is based in the present reality

rather than focused on an unattainable ideal and concepts of eternity.

[TahitiNut]

23. I think it's predominantly the "pecking order" chicken brain mentality.

We have a huge number of people in our society who suffer a broad range of repressions, indoctrinations, and other authoritarian abuses as they traverse the subordinate roles of life. They overwhelmingly rationalize their experience as "earning their stripes." Like pledging a fraternity and subordinating one's self to hazing in the expectation of 'earning' the authority to do the hazing to others, we 'train' people to suffer with the expectation of gaining the compensation of inflicting suffering on others.

How many autocratic parents employ repressive overkill on their pubescent children? Compare that to the number of parents who nurture a responsible appreciation for human sexuality in their children. (Got something close to 100::1?) Now compare the societal mechanisms that're synergistic with these two thematic approaches. The message given to adolescents is: You can't be trusted with your own genitals! Rather than nurture responsible enfranchisement a la driver's training, we burden others with a priori guilt.

Take a look at our public mores. We celebrate violence and brutality in our 'sports' and throw a hissy fit when a teat is exposed at half-time. Where's the sense in that??

We advocate the Charles Atlas Mutually Assured Destruction when kicking sand in the face of beach-goers but criminalize the mere exposure of female (not male) breasts in bathing areas. Where's the sense in that??

The 'sense' is that You can't be trusted with your own genitals!

There are those who live and breathe for the opportunity to "graduate" from being repressed to inflicting repression. We see this economically. The wannabe-rich support the oppressions of the 'haves' in the expectation of wallowing in the joy of being an oppressor.

If we delegitimize oppression and repression, these people feel cheated out of the payback: the chance to inflict it on others.

Pathological? Sure. I doubt many of us couldn't find this base tendency within ourselves if we were honest.

[Paranoid_Portlander]

35. I agree. Your first paragraph (authoritarian abuses)...

... might explain, in part, why the military draft lasted as long as it did. I never could understand the appeal of boot camp to some people. Now I do.

[peekaloo]

24. How many were also cheerleaders?

Never putting themselves on the line but always screaming from a distance.

[lil-petunia]

28. Viagra? herpes? Syphilis from hookers?

There has to be a reason.

The idea of leftwing STD-laden, hookers heading to NY to share their wealth amuses me to no end. If these fat, smug, bastards are stupid enough to screw around without protection, well, buyer beware.

[mitchum]

30. Because they belong to the Walter Mittty wing of the repub party

Soft, effete blowhards

[Tsiyu]

37. The least Shall Be the Greatest

So misunderstood:

RW people act "One Way" when they are in the company of the "Important." The "Greatest" must be fooled.

RW people act "Another Way" when they believe someone is lower than them (i.e. Rush's confiding his addiction in his Maid, trading his "secret" for access to his drug of choice, using her because she was "lower" than he.)

The "least" know what's going on; you can bet the janitors at Enron knew it was collapsing before anyone else did.

But the Repub macho posturing is for the "Important" Moral Elite, who do not like women and demand strict adherence to the homophobic dance.

If you probe these sexual control freaks you will find that many have very strange fetishes and sexual addictions. They are held hostage by them. They are really very sad men, afraid of themselves.

[DU GrovelBot]

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[PurityOfEssence]

39. Statistically, Republican men are shorter than Democratic ones

It's hero worship.

Conservatism is selfishness. That manifests itself in many ways, but especially in the need to be superior to others. Thus, it's important to win at competitions, have better and nicer things, and be envied by people. That's at the heart of the method by which poor Republicans are kept in line: they can't ever admit that they're not making it in what's obviously the greatest system ever devised; only defectives like lazy and self-indulgent people can't make it here.

and on and on and on

[Lindacooks]

41. Because they have very very very very very small

dicks.

[SarahB]

42. Because when you're secure about something....

you don't have to prove it.