On David Corn

 09.09.2022

A journalist that's long had my attention, because he digs deep. His research is second to none. From David:

"A little over a year ago, I went looking for a history of the Republican Party's interactions with far-right fanaticism. I knew that Donald Trump—whose political support has depended, in part, on his courtship of conspiracy theorists, racists, nativists, Christian nationalists, and other extremists-hadn't invented this. I found several excellent books on the Grand Old Party, including Heather Cox Richardson's To Make Men Free. Rick Perlstein's magisterial series of histories— Before the Storm, Nixonland, The Invisible Bridge, and Reaganland) which covered the rise of Barry Goldwater and the religious right (and their politics of hatred); Reagan's partnership with the Moral Majority, whose leaders called for executing gay people, and his political ties to former Nazi collaborators (yes, really); the Limbaughization, Foxification, and Gingrichization of the GOP; the Bushes' reliance on far-right conservative movement, the triumph and fall of Richard Nixon, and the advent of the Reagan Era—included stellar accounts of Republican politics from the 1950s to 1980. But no one had zeroed in on the party's relationship with extremism. So, I decided to do so. I poured over 200 or so books and hundreds, if not thousands, of newspaper and magazine articles, as well as material in various archives, and found a pattern: since the 1950s, the Republican Party has brazenly encouraged and exploited right wing extremism. 

And so was born my new book Americans Psychosis: A Historic Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy. It chronicles how the Republicans have fueled and fed on the worst elements of American public life since the McCarthy era. This includes Eisenhower surrendering to McCarthy in 1952; Goldwater's alliance with the Birchers; Nixon's racist Southern strategy; the rise of the New Right right operatives; Palinism (as in Sarah); the Tea Party; and—ta dum!—Trump. The book demonstrates that the GOP has always depended (to a degree) on right-wing extremism and has frequently and recklessly fanned irrationality to capitalize on the politics of grievance, resentment, and race. When I set out to write this book, I had no idea how relevant it would be. As a debate now ensues over the hold that MAGA extremism has on the GOP and whether Trump has led the Republicans toward fascism, American Psychosis vividly details the larger historical context for this conversation about extremism and the party. The Republican Party does not acknowledge its dark history of partnering with the fringe, and the media has often ignored or inadequately covered this important story. When I set out on this project, my goal was to write a rollicking account that would help us understand what brought us-and the GOP to the crisis today. I never expected these tales of the past to be so timely. 

I hope you'll take the time to read and spread the word about American Psychosis, which comes out on September 13."

David Corn

 Please encourage friends, family members, and your political allies and foes,

 to read today's blog...and the upcoming book. Time is crucial.

Thank y'all for stopping in.