Weapons of Mass Delusion

Informationen zum Autor Robert Draper is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and National Geographic Magazine . He is the author of several books, including the New York Times bestseller, Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush . He lives in Washington D.C. with his wife, Kirsten Powers. Klappentext "The disturbing eyewitness account of how a new generation of Republicans-led by Marjorie Taylor Greene, Paul Gosar, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, and Madison Cawthorn-far from moving on from Trump, have taken the politics of hysteria to even greater extremes, bringing American democracy to the very edge of reason The violent insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6th, 2021 was a terrible day for American democracy, but at least, many people dared hope that, after it was over, the fever would then be broken, Trump's absurd and relentless set of lies about the stealing of the 2020 election made unspeakable. That is not what happened. Instead, shockingly, "the big steal" has increasingly become dogma among an ever-higher percentage of American Republicans. What happened to the Republican Party, and America, during the Trump presidency is a story we more or less think we know. What has happened to the party since, it turns out, is even more disturbing. That is the story Robert Draper tells here. Through his extraordinarily intrepid reporting on the ground across the country, Draper chronicles the road from January 6th to the 2022 midterms among the Republican base and in the US Congress, as Marjorie Taylor Greene and her ilk have come to shape their party's terms of engagement to an extent that would have been unimaginable even ten years ago. He brings to life the efforts of a dwindling group of Republicans who are willing to push back against the falsehoods, in the face of a group of ascendent demagogues who are merrily weaponizing them. With a base whipped up into a perpetual frenzy of outrage by conspiracy theories-not just about "the big steal", but about COVID and vaccines, Antifa and BLM and George Soros and the Rothschilds and President Obama and on and on and on-the forces of reason within the GOP are on the defensive, to put it mildly. The leadership of the anti-Trump resistance among Republicans in Congress has cooperated extensively with the author; the book also benefits greatly from reporting conducted in Texas, Arizona, Georgia, Florida, and other bellwether states in the country of the mind one might call Conspiracyland. Robert Draper has been a wise, fearless, and fair-minded chronicler of the American political scene for over 25 years. He has seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. He has never seen it this ugly. Ultimately, this book tells the story of a fearful test of our ability, as a country, to hold together a system of government grounded in truth and the rule of law. It's difficult to imagine a book that could underscore the stakes of the 2022 midterm elections more powerfully"-- Leseprobe Chapter One The Dentist-Patriot At eight thirty in the morning on January 6, 2021, a tall and wispy-haired man in a gray tweed overcoat with a red necktie stood at the Ellipse with his back to the Washington Monument-seemingly alone, except that he happened to be posing for a photograph that would soon be posted to his Twitter account beneath the phrase "Morning in America." He wore a COVID face mask decorated with the American flag, pulled well below his nose. He moved with a slightly rolling gait from a hip injury and twitched a bit from an unspecified neurological disorder but otherwise cut an indistinct figure-the kind of man who managed to draw attention only through painstaking effort. Paul Gosar was his name. He was a dentist by trade and by disposition, the kind of fellow one could easily imagine pleasantly humming ancient melodies and cracking cornball jokes while his fingers rifled through the mout...

Autorentext
Robert Draper is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and National Geographic Magazine. He is the author of several books, including the New York Times bestseller, Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush. He lives in Washington D.C. with his wife, Kirsten Powers.

Klappentext

*One of The Washington Post's* 10 Best Books of 2022

The disturbing eyewitness account of how a new breed of Republicans—led by Marjorie Taylor Greene, Paul Gosar, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, and Madison Cawthorn—far from moving on from Trump, have taken the politics of hysteria to even greater extremes and brought American democracy to the edge**

The violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, was a terrible day for American democracy, but many people dared to hope that at least it would break the fever that had overcome the Republican Party and banish Trump's relentless lies about the stealing of the 2020 election. That is not what happened. Instead, “the big steal” has become dogma among an ever-higher percentage of American Republicans. What happened to the Republican Party, and America, during the Trump presidency is a story we more or less think we know. What has happened to the party since, it turns out, is even more disquieting. That is the story Robert Draper tells in Weapons of Mass Delusion. 

Through his extraordinarily intrepid cross-country reporting, Draper chronicles the road from January 6 to the 2022 midterms among the Republican base and in the U.S. Congress, rendering unforgettable portraits of how Marjorie Taylor Greene and her ilk came to shape their party’s terms of engagement to an extent that would have been unimaginable even five years ago. He also brings to life the efforts of a dwindling group of Republicans who are willing to push back against the falsehoods, in the face of a group of ascendent demagogues who are merrily weaponizing them. With a base whipped up into a perpetual frenzy of outrage by conspiracy theories—not just about the big steal but about COVID and vaccines, pedophilia and Antifa and Black Lives Matter and George Soros and President Obama, and on and on and on—the forces of reason within the GOP are on the defensive, to put it mildly. The book also benefits greatly from reporting conducted in Texas, Arizona, Georgia, New Hampshire, and other bellwether states in the country of the mind one might call a fever of undending conspiracies.

Robert Draper has been a wise, fearless, and fair-minded chronicler of the American political scene for over twenty-five years. He has seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. He has never seen it this ugly. Ultimately, this book tells the story of a fearful test of our ability, as a country, to hold together a system of government grounded in truth and the rule of law. Written on the eve of the 2022 midterm elections, Draper’s account of a party teetering on the precipice of madness reveals how the GOP fringe became its center of gravity.

Leseprobe
Chapter One

The Dentist-Patriot

At eight thirty in the morning on January 6, 2021, a tall and wispy-haired man in a gray tweed overcoat with a red necktie stood at the Ellipse with his back to the Washington Monument-seemingly alone, except that he happened to be posing for a photograph that would soon be posted to his Twitter account beneath the phrase "Morning in America." He wore a COVID face mask decorated with the American flag, pulled well below his nose. He moved with a slightly rolling gait from a hip injury and twitched a bit from an unspecified neurological disorder but otherwise cut an indistinct figure-the kind of man who managed to draw attention only through painstaking effort.

Paul Gosar was his name. He was a dentist by trade and by disposition, the kind of fellow one could easily imagine pleasantly humming ancient melodies and cracking cornball jokes whi…