Insane Clown President - Dispatches From The 2016 Circus (Paperback)

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One of America's most essential political journalists delivers a collection of dispatches on the 2016 election--from the ominous clown show of the 2015 run-up to the primaries to the darkly comic twists and turns of the general campaign to the astonishing, world-shaking finish--framed by two original, deeply insightful essays about the election and our democracy's uncertain future.
In twenty-four pieces from Rolling Stone--plus two original essays--Taibbi tells the full story the campaign, from its tragi-comic beginnings to its apocalyptic conclusion, through sharp, on-the-ground reporting, incisive analysis, and gallows humor. This isn't simply a blow-by-blow recounting of this uniquely bizarre and disturbing election season, but the wider story of the seeming collapse of American democracy. Unlike many campaign chroniclers, Taibbi grasped the essential themes of the story from beginning: the power of spectacle over substance, or even truth; the absence of a shared reality between warring sides of the political spectrum; the nihilistic rebellion of the white working class; the death of the political establishment; and the emergence of a new, explicit form of white nationalism that would destroy what was left of the Kingian dream of a successful pluralistic society. The pieces cover the "clown car" of the Republican primary season, the thwarted Bernie insurgency, the deeply flawed and aimless Clinton campaign, the often-pathetic media coverage, the legacy of the Obama administration, and the lives of actual voters across the country forced to bear witness to the whole dispiriting spectacle. And at the center of it all, "a bumbling train wreck of a candidate who belched and preened his way past a historically weak field of Republicans, then seemed to spend the summer staggering toward the nearest exit," who, improbably, has taken control of the world's most powerful nation. The book's two new pieces explore how this election fits into a larger shift in America's relationship to its own government and democratic processes, and what it portends for the future the country.