A deeply reported look inside the new conservative movement working to undermine American democracy.
Control of the country is up for grabs and Republicans have been rigging the game in their favor. Twenty-two states have passed restrictions on voting. Ruthless gerrymandering has given the GOP a long-term grip on Congress. Meanwhile, theSupreme Court has eviscerated campaign finance laws, boosting candidates backed by big money.
It would be worrying enough if these were just schemes for partisan advantage. But the reality is even more disturbing. As reporter Zachary Roth reveals, a growing number of Republicans distrust the very idea of democracy and they re doing everything they canto limit it.
In"The Great Suppression," Roth unearths the deep historical roots of this anti-egalitarian worldview, and introduces us toits modern-day proponents: The GOP officials pushing to make it harder to cast a ballot; the lawyers looking to scrap all limits on money in politics; the libertarian scholars reclaiming judicial activism to roll back the New Deal; and the corporate lobbyists working toban local action on everything from the minimum wage to the environment.And he travels from Rust Belt cities to southern towns to show us how these efforts are hurting the most vulnerable Americans and preventing progress on pressing issues.
A sharp, searing polemic in the tradition of Rachel Maddow and Matt Taibbi, "The Great Suppression"is an urgent wake-up call about a threat to our most cherished values, and a rousing argument for why we need democracy now more than ever."