Money, Lies, and God
Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy
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- $27.99
Publisher Description
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
"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
From the acclaimed author of The Power Worshippers, "an indispensable citizen's guide to the anti-democratic MAGA Right in America" (Congressman Jamie Raskin).
Why have so many Americans turned against democracy? In this deeply reported book, Katherine Stewart takes us to conferences of conspiracy-mongers, backroom strategy gatherings, and services at extremist churches, and profiles the people who want to tear it all down. She introduces us to reactionary Catholic activists, atheist billionaires, pseudo-Platonist intellectuals, self-appointed apostles of Jesus, disciples of Ayn Rand, women-hating opponents of "the gynocracy," pronatalists preoccupied with the dearth of white babies, Covid truthers, militia members masquerading as "concerned moms" and battalions of spirit warriors who appear to be inventing a new style of religion even as they set about attacking democracy at its foundations.
Along the way, she provides a compelling analysis of the authoritarian reaction in the United States. She demonstrates that the movement relies on several distinct constituencies, with very different and often conflicting agendas. Stewart's reporting and comprehensive political analysis helps reframe the conversation about the moral collapse of conservatism in America and points the way forward toward a democratic future.
"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
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The "antidemocratic" movement behind Donald Trump's political ascendancy comprises "people and ideas that in ordinary circumstances would not dream of sharing a bed," according to this illuminating account. Drawing on 15 years of reporting, journalist Stewart (The Power Worshippers) profiles figures central to what she describes as an organized political project of "reactionary nihilism"—a motley collection of "atheist billionaires... Catholic theologians, pseudo-Platonic intellectuals, woman-hat, high-powered evangelical networkers, Jewish devotees of Ayn Rand, pronatalists... COVID truthers, and ‘spirit warriors.' " She asserts that they have coalesced around "a new and distinctly American variant of authoritarianism or fascism," which predated Trump's political rise, propelled by growing income disparities over the past half-century that have fueled "anger and resentment" among those "who perceive, more or less accurately, that they are falling behind." Stewart's fine-grained and eye-opening investigation meticulously outlines the loose organizational structure that keeps these strange bedfellows banded together—with a focus on the lines of connections between the movement's funders, intellectuals, and foot-soldiers, three groups that do not always share the same priorities—and optimistically concludes that as a "disproportionately mobilized minority," the movement could be countered by a better organized majority able to exploit the movement's internal ideological fissures. This offers urgently needed background on the 2024 election results.
