REPUBLICAN EXTREMISM

In this fascinating book packed with insights, Robert Brent Toplin shows the Republican Party's radical shift occurred long before Donald Trump entered White House. An early sign of trouble appeared in the 1950s when Senator Joseph McCarthy engaged in reckless demagoguery. G.O.P. extremism surged in later decades. The party's radicals rejected compromise and disparaged the political opposition. They purged Republican moderates, dissing them as RINOs, Republicans in Name Only. Present-day G.O.P. extremism is not just an intra-party problem. It created a crisis for the United States and the world as well.