The Destructionists
The Twenty-Five Year Crack-Up of the Republican Party
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NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • A scalding history of twenty-five years of Republican attempts to hold on to political power by any means necessary, by a hugely popular Washington Post political columnist
"A thorough and scathing account of how the Republican Party fell prey to Trumpism."—The New York Times Book Review
In 1994, more than 300 Republicans under the command of obstructionist and rabble-rouser Congressman Newt Gingrich stood outside the U.S. Capitol to sign the Contract with America and put bipartisanship on notice. Twenty-five years later, on January 6, 2021, a bloodthirsty mob incited by President Trump invaded the Capitol.
Dana Milbank sees a clear line from the Contract with America to the coup attempt. In the quarter century in between, Americans have witnessed the crackup of the party of Lincoln and Reagan, to its current iteration as a haven for white supremacists, political violence, conspiracy theories and authoritarianism.
Following the questionable careers of party heavyweights Newt Gingrich, Karl Rove, Mitch McConnell, and Rudy Giuliani, and those of many lesser known lowlights, Milbank recounts the shocking lengths the Republican Party has gone to to maintain its grip on the American people.
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Washington Post opinion columnist Milbank (Tears of a Clown) delivers an excoriating history of the Republican Party from Newt Gingrich's rise to speaker of the House in 1994 to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. Alleging that Gingrich's "savage politics" set the stage for Trumpism, Milbank spotlights episodes in which Republican officials, party donors, and their media allies spread conspiracy theories, embraced violence, stoked racial animosity, and "sabotag the norms and institutions of American government." These include independent counsel Ken Starr's sprawling investigations of the Clintons, the use of false evidence to justify the Iraq War, and the "birther" movement. Milbank stuffs the narrative with precise and persuasive details, noting, for instance, that Republican lawyer and future Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh spent two years investigating White House counsel Vince Foster's death in 1993, despite admitting at the outset that he believed Foster had killed himself. Elsewhere, Milbank recounts the "swift boating" of Democratic candidate John Kerry in the 2004 presidential race and the spreading of false accusations that the Affordable Care Act would lead to "death panels." Though readers may balk at some of Milbank's more outré attacks, such as calling the Republican Party a "death cult," he makes a convincing and well-documented case. Liberals will be incensed.
