Book Review: The Big Lie: Election Chaos, Political Opportunism, and the State of American Politics After 2020

 

This is a book by Jonathan Lemire, a reporter for the Associated Press, and one of the morning show hosts/contributors on MSNBC. The subject matter of the book is fairly clear from the title. It is focused on the 2017-2021 presidential administration. The book is about 300 pages (of substantive material) and then there is a bibliography at the end that accounts for the rest. About half of the book is about the lead-up to the 2020 election, and the other half focuses on the election and the aftermath, including January 6th, the second impeachment, and the fight after the election to get a new voting rights act through Congress.

Lemire basically excoriates the orange genital wart and does not come at it from a detached journalist. Lemire calls agent orange a liar, documents how he lied all his adult life before he was president and documents the biggest lies he told as president. Lemire argues that t***p's brazenness in lying opened the door for Republicans to lie their ass off to the point that the batshit crazy portion of the party that, heretofore, had been relegated to the fringes and tolerated as long as they voted for tax cuts for the rich, to take over the party. 

Not much of the information in the book is new, especially if you have followed the (reputable sources of) news for the past few years. But, Lemire crystallized just how t***p, and the Republican party's cult-like devotion to him, transformed politics and how it presents a danger going forward. It is definitely worth reading.