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This is Fresh Air, I'm Tariq Rose.

In his article, The Arizona Republican Party's Anti-Democracy Experiment, my guest Robert

Draper writes that Arizona first turned against the establishment.

Now it said it cites undemocracy, the principles, the process, and even the

word itself.

He's been following Arizona State politics for the past year and watched as election

deniers and conspiracy theorists beat their opponents in key Republican primary races,

including Secretary of State, the position that oversees elections.

Draper has been covering conservative politics for about 20 years and is the author of

the books to start a war, how the Bush administration took America into Iraq, when the Tea Party

came to town, and did certain the presidency of George W. Bush.

His next book, Weapons of Mass Delusion, when the Republican Party lost its mind, will

be published in October.

His new article about the Arizona Republican Party's Swing to the Far Right is published

in the New York Times magazine and is already on the Times website.

We recorded our interview yesterday.

Robert Draper, welcome back to Fresh Air.

Thanks for having me on, Tariq.

Why did you decide to make Arizona your focus when looking at how the Republican Party has

been swinging to the right?

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