Inside the American Movement to Destroy American Democracy
“They speak the language of democracy while practicing the authoritarian politics of coercion and exclusion.” — Jennifer Szalai, New York Times
This summarizes the current state of our political climate: one under attack from wealthy funders, ideologues, religious nationalists, and streams of disinformation. In her newest work, Katherine Stewart delves into these attacks on American democracy, diagnosed as “reactionary nihilism.”
Placing herself in strategy meetings, religious gatherings, and disinformation conferences, Stewart sets the stakes for the impact of this corruption on democracy. By structuring her work around the three pillars of corruption—money, lies, and God—Stewart dives into each to explore how they have shaped the current sociopolitical climate. Concentrated wealth pours money into privatization, deregulation, and tax cuts; censorship and disinformation projects are strategic to dismantling opposition; and Christian nationalism is a moral justification for anti-democratic ideals.
Overall, Stewart’s comprehensive reporting and political analysis diagnose the political collapse of democracy in America and stress the warnings of an authoritarian future.
Katherine Stewart is a journalist and author whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic, The Washington Post, and other major outlets. She focuses on the intersection of faith, politics, and power. Her books include “The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children” and “The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism.”
Reviews and Endorsements of this Publication include the following:
“An eerily prescient guide to the phantasmagoria of our political moment.” –The New York Times Book Review
“American democracy isn’t simply dying. It is, as Stewart observes, being murdered.” –The New Republic
“Meticulously researched, elegantly written, and hard-hitting.”–Kristin Kobes Du Mez
“Katherine Stewart has written what may be the most important political book of the day, exposing the networks of dark money funded, ultra right-wing subversives who have already done enormous damage to our Constitution and the rule of law and are now perilously close to overthrowing the American government as we know it”–Sean Wilentz
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