With an extraordinarily high stakes election looming in November, it is imperative for Americans to understand the real - and often very dark - motive's behind the messages they hear. From the earliest days of the American republic, frauds and crooks of all varieties have haunted our democratic system. Yet while con artists can be found on both sides of the aisle, the hard truth is that one side is far more badly infested than the other. Joe Conason, the acclaimed investigative journalist and political commentator, has spent years pursuing the cheaters, grifters, and phonies - and he reports on his extensive and often comical discoveries in his new book, THE LONGEST CON: How Grifters, Swindlers, and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism 
In THE LONGEST CON, Conason takes us back to the origins of the brazen and self-serving deceptions that have duped and damaged Americans, beginning with Roy Cohn's rebaiting swindles in the Fifties and leading to the ascent, decades later, of his most famous client, Donald J. Trump. On that journey, the author rips away patriotic and pious rhetoric to expose venality and scamming, from the Nixon and Reagan administrations to the Moral Majority, the Christian Coalition, and the Tea Party, which eventually gave rise to the MAGA movement - and doesn't hesitate to identify the most dubious characters, including Roger Stone; Jerry Falwell, senior and junior; as well as Paul Manafort, Richard Viguerie, Terry Dolan, and a list long enough to fill a small city's phone book.
Conason weaves a fascinating story of these partisan con artists who ply their seamy trade while stoking political animosity and even hatred, all for personal profit. The epitome and master of this phenomenon is Trump himself, whose rise to power - along with his allies and family - represents a celebration of trickery. The foundation of his political career was itself an enormous deception, relying on the creation of his public image as a bold and brilliant tycoon when he was, in reality, a bankrupt casino owner and real estate failure who hosted a faked "reality" TV show. What his followers never realized is how he swindled them with every variety of modern scam, from multi-level marketing and bogus real estate seminars to "Trump University" and the Big Election Lie of 2020.
Conason clearly lays out the downward spiral that stole conservatism decades ago, ultimately leading to the rise of Trumpism and the dangerous divide in the U.S.