The Machine: A Field Guide to the Resurgent Right

In his first book, Fang, a contributing writer at The Nation, takes a detailed, dizzying look into the movers and shakers essential to reshaping both conservatism and the Republican Party in the wake of President Obama's first term. As the Right attempts to rebrand itself in the wake of Obama's re-election, Fang traces the Tea Party's coalescence into a headline-grabbing monolith that pushed out the Democratic majority%E2%80%94and the moderate wing of the Republican Party%E2%80%94in the 2010 midterm elections. The movement "provided a proxy for voters disgusted with the Republican Party's track record to still vote for the GOP," by manipulating Americans, in part, with the call to the proto-revolutionary act its name symbolized. But Fang's core premise is how absolute the corporate influence is throughout the Republican Party. The 2010 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United allowed "corporations and unions to spend unlimited amounts on electioneering"; funneling astronomical amounts of money into front-groups designed to convince Americans to voting against their own self-interests. Fang offers little in answering what can be done to counter corporate power and influence, but his research will motivate readers to question the influences behind political movements. (Mar.)