This is a valuable recitation of the cultural scandals and outrages of the 1940s up through the time before the internet arrived. It's disturbing to find out how everything new is old again, but notably, how for seventy years, the libertarian branch of the Republican Party has turned towards MAGA fascism, and the author exposes the party's descent into evil, beginning with the villains Koch and the Birchers in the '50s. There's not enough meat on the bones, but it offers some great quotes.

Quotes: "A leading California Republican officeholder said that the John Birch Society was "the closest thing to a totalitarian party in this country. Their aim is to get control of the Republican Party. I do not believe the Republican Party can survive this kind of thing."

"In 1968, Republican senator Mark Hatfield worried that the Paul Weyrichs of the world would one day seize his Republican Party. The Far Right has been successfully united by a well-designed, well-financed, and persistent campaign of fear. The continual fanning of this fear shows that they can no longer distinguish between fantasy and reality."

George Carlin on Andrew Dice Clay, 1990: "His targets are underdogs. Comedy has traditionally picked on people in power, people who abuse their power. Women, gays, and immigrants are, to my way of thinking, underdogs. I think his core audience is young white males who aren't sure of their manhood. Women who assert themselves and are competent are a threat to these men."

President Harry Truman, 1960: "I feel if our constitutional system fails, it will be because people got scared and turned hysterical and someone in power will demagogue them right into a police state of some kind."

Frank Zappa, 1984: "With all these fundamentalist organizations gathering up millions of dollars, you're looking at a whole nation of potential mutants who could be very harmful." ( )