Destructionists

The Twenty-Five Year Crack-Up of the Republican Party

by Dana Milbank

Hardcover, 416 pages

English language

Published Nov. 21, 2022 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

ISBN:: 978-0-385-54813-7
OCLC Number:: 1300755083

(3 reviews)

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.

2 editions

Alex reviewed Destructionists by Dana Milbank

To have it all in one place

4 stars

I'm old enough to have lived through all of the history presented in this book, which begins—more or less—with the Gingrich revolution of '94. It is illuminating to have all of this put together into a single narrative with the cast of villains getting more dangerous and more unhinged over time. If anyone wants an anti-dote to both sides-ism, this would be it. The GOP over the past 30 years has been... probably worse than you thought.

Nonya Bidniss reviewed Destructionists by Dana Milbank

The Destructionists by Dana Milbank

3 stars

An exhaustive recounting of pretty much every rotten thing Republicans have done to damage the U.S. politically in modern history. Ultimately as it reached the current day I stopped listening to this audiobook, as I have personally lived through the criminal Trump regime and the literal destruction it perpetrated, and I'm still watching the current malignant shenanigans of the post-Trump death cult that still calls itself the Republican party; I need no summary of it. For those interested, I think you'll find a lot of history in this book you might not have been aware of.

Alex

rated it

Feb 26

Destructionists

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