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This is Deep State Radio coming to you direct from our super secret studio in the third sub basement of the Ministry of Snark in Washington DC and from other undisclosed locations across America and around the world.

Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm your host David Rothkoff and it is my pleasure today to be joined by our friend David corn David as you know is the Washington bureau chief of mother Jones David is regularly commentator on television.

And he writes books periodically is most recent book American psychosis a historical investigation of how the Republican party went crazy is now in paperback and rumor has it updated.

I presume you have updated the new stuff and not the historical stuff or maybe maybe a fan some secret to white eyes and hour on acid.

No, I did not find I can't ask that it's new stuff bringing us up to close to the present day, but certainly the present year and what happened with the Trump party post January 6.

So so I might have concluded that you still think the Republican party is crazy.

Yes, and the point of the book wasn't to show that it's you know crazy in the present tense and that it's become a cult and is my hands of it of a demagogue and in the major base of the heart of the party or right wing extremists and conspiracy.

It was to show that it's always been there this is always these avoidance always been strong elements within the Republican party of the Republican party establishment has always encouraged and exploited far right extremism.

It just often kept it more to the shadows and off to the side and Donald Trump came along and put it smack dab sent to stage.

And I have to say the past you know weaker to the paperback just came out this week and you know it's hard to promote paperbacks because they're new but not really new but you hope that the new cycle helps you a bit.

And I see again and again people on TV and right you know political political journalist writing that if only if only the Republican party could get rid of Donald Trump through you know the primaries through indictments or who knows what they would all just rise up Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy would join hands and declare that Donald Trump is no longer their guy.

That they could all get back to normal that they go back to your father's GOP and my point has been that your father's GOP wasn't your father's GOP that Trumpism or some form of it whether it was bircherism or birth or ism or new generage or the Christian coalition and the new right and the religious right.

And it's in a tea party Sarah Palinism there's always been this component of the party that is based in irrationality motivated by fear grievance paranoia conspiracy theories and the party has always always played to that that hasn't changed and then in fact you can if you can measure it it probably has gotten worse with the advent of Trump.

And also this week on this point Mitt Romney helped me which I which I appreciate a lot because I was the guy who revealed the 47% tape in 2012 and Mitt Romney might you know not want to be so helpful to me in particular.

But he did you know this interview with McCay cop coppins for the Atlantic and former case forthcoming biography of Romney and it turns out he had been meeting with McCay weekly by weekly for the last two years and used him kind of as a father confessor he talked about how much he.

He hated Trump and felt alienated within the party and that Mitch McConnell others felt the same about Trump but they were too chicken shit to talk about it publicly or to do anything about it and then he had this moment of reflection in the story that appeared in the Atlantic in which he said.

I have to wonder if these elements of Trumpism have always been within the party and what role and whether whether mainstream republicans like me had a role in encouraging that and allowing it to happen and the answer is yes and yes Mitt Romney please read my book but it was just really you know intriguing to me.

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