Extreme Conservatism: A Psychological Disorder?

I have come to the tentative conclusion that extreme conservatism (the right wing of the Republican Party, and fundamentalist religion) is a psychological disorder. Gone are the days in which moderate people of differing political or religious views can have a decent conversation. Now the headlines are dominated by extremists whose lives seem to be mentally pathological.

For a while I tried to keep count of how many extreme Republicans and televangelists were hypocrites, then I found it was an impossible task. It started off with people like Henry Hyde and Newt Gingrich having extramarital affairs while they denounced Bill Clinton for doing so. Add to the list Dennis Hastert, who (it was recently revealed) gave boys on his wrestling team genital massages back when he was a high school teacher. And many televangelists had sexual and monetary scandals.

But there are so many examples of this that I have concluded, tentatively, that extreme conservatives have a psychological need to be hypocrites. The only way they can feel personally fulfilled is by flaunting the very standards that they desire to impose on the rest of us.

I have just recently become aware of a couple of new examples. The Republican Attorney General of Texas, Ken Paxton, has been accused of federal securities fraud. And former Congressman Trey Radel, Republican from Florida, became famous for insisting that food stamp recipients get tested for drug use—until he himself was busted for cocaine possession.

Conservative religious people want you to think that they are godly people who occasionally slip up. But it appears to me that they are hypocritical, immoral people who occasionally succeed in keeping up a righteous appearance for the world of voters and donors.

Added after original post: There seems to be at least two new examples every week. Here are some more since my original post:

• Mike Webb, a conservative candidate for Congress in Virginia’s 8^th district, shared a screenshot online, but forgot to close his porn windows before doing so.
• David Reynolds, the vehemently anti-gay pastor of Cornerstone Bible Fellowship Church in Sherwood, Arkansas, was arrested for child porn possession.