| Description |
1 sound file : digital |
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audio file rda |
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eAudiobook tlcgt |
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General tlctarget |
| Note |
Electronic audio file. |
| Performer |
Read by Rob Shapiro. |
| Summary |
"Dispatches from the 2016 election that provide an eerily prescient take on our democracy's uncertain future, by the country's most perceptive and fearless political journalist. The 2016 presidential contest as told by Matt Taibbi, from its tragicomic beginnings to its apocalyptic conclusion, is in fact the story of Western civilization's very own train wreck. Years before the clown car of candidates was fully loaded, Taibbi grasped the essential themes of the story: the power of spectacle over substance, or even truth; the absence of a shared reality; 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. Taibbi captures, with dead-on, real-time analysis, the failures of the right and the left, from the thwarted Bernie Sanders insurgency to the flawed and aimless Hillary Clinton campaign; the rise of the "dangerously bright" alt-right with its wall-loving identity politics and its rapturous view of the "Racial Holy War" to come; and the giant fail of a flailing, reactive political media that fed a ravenous news cycle not with reporting on political ideology, but with undigested propaganda served straight from the campaign bubble. At the center of it all stands Donald J. Trump, leading a historic revolt against his own party, "bloviating and farting his way" through the campaign, "saying outrageous things, acting like Hitler one minute and Andrew Dice Clay the next." For Taibbi, the stunning rise of Trump marks the apotheosis of the new postfactual movement. Taibbi frames the reporting with original essays that explore the seismic shift in how we perceive our national institutions, the democratic process, and the future of the country. Insane Clown President is not just a postmortem on the collapse and failure of American democracy. It offers the riveting, surreal, |
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unique, and essential experience of seeing the future in hindsight"-- Provided by publisher. |
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"Matt Taibbi's first piece on the 2016 presidential election, published in August 2015, opens with these words: "The thing is, when you actually think about it, it's not funny. Given what's at stake, it's more like the opposite, like the first sign of the collapse of the United States as a global superpower. Twenty years from now, when we're all living like prehistory hominids and hunting rats with sticks, we'll probably look back at this moment as the beginning of the end." 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"-- Provided by publisher. |
| Reproduction |
Electronic reproduction. New York Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group 2017 Available via World Wide Web. |
| Subject |
Presidents -- United States -- Election -- 2016. -- Sound recordings.
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| Genre |
Electronic audio books.
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| Added Author |
OverDrive, Inc., distributor.
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| ISBN |
9780525496090 (electronic audio bk.) |
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