One of The Washington Post's 10 Best Books of 2022The disturbing eyewitness account of how a
new breed of Republicans led by Marjorie Taylor Greene Paul Gosar Matt Gaetz Lauren Boebert
and Madison Cawthorn far from moving on from Trump have taken the politics of hysteria to even
greater extremes and brought American democracy to the edge The violent insurrection at the
U.S. Capitol on January 6 2021 was a terrible day for American democracy but many people
dared to hope that at least it would break the fever that had overcome the Republican Party and
banish Trump's relentless lies about the stealing of the 2020 election. That is not what
happened. Instead the big steal has become dogma among an ever-higher percentage of American
Republicans. What happened to the Republican Party and America during the Trump presidency is
a story we more or less think we know. What has happened to the party since it turns out is
even more disquieting. That is the story Robert Draper tells in Weapons of Mass Delusion.
Through his extraordinarily intrepid cross-country reporting Draper chronicles the road from
January 6 to the 2022 midterms among the Republican base and in the U.S. Congress rendering
unforgettable portraits of how Marjorie Taylor Greene and her ilk came to shape their party s
terms of engagement to an extent that would have been unimaginable even five years ago. He also
brings to life the efforts of a dwindling group of Republicans who are willing to push back
against the falsehoods in the face of a group of ascendent demagogues who are merrily
weaponizing them. With a base whipped up into a perpetual frenzy of outrage by conspiracy
theories not just about the big steal but about COVID and vaccines pedophilia and Antifa and
Black Lives Matter and George Soros and President Obama and on and on and on the forces of
reason within the GOP are on the defensive to put it mildly. The book also benefits greatly
from reporting conducted in Texas Arizona Georgia New Hampshire and other bellwether states
in the country of the mind one might call a fever of undending conspiracies. Robert Draper has
been a wise fearless and fair-minded chronicler of the American political scene for over
twenty-five years. He has seen the good the bad and the ugly. He has never seen it this ugly.
Ultimately this book tells the story of a fearful test of our ability as a country to hold
together a system of government grounded in truth and the rule of law. Written on the eve of
the 2022 midterm elections Draper s account of a party teetering on the precipice of madness
reveals how the GOP fringe became its center of gravity.
