"With this scorching book, [Sykes] reports on the road to ruin and points conservatism toward recovery." —George F. Will
In March 2016, Wisconsin’s #1 conservative talk radio host Charles Sykes did the unthinkable: He ferociously challenged Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump in a live interview. Afterward, Sykes alone among conservative media figures continued to denounce Trump, and extended his attack to include the larger right-wing media and other politicians that enabled his rise.
Now, in How the Right Lost Its Mind, Sykes presents an impassioned, regretful, and deeply thoughtful account of how the American conservative movement came to lose its values. How did a movement that was defined by its belief in limited government, individual liberty, free markets, traditional values, and civility find itself embracing bigotry, political intransigence, demagoguery, and falsehood? Mainstream conservatives now find themselves in need of a broad and introspective evaluation of what went wrong—and how to move forward and regain their core principles. How the Right Lost its Mind addresses:
*Why are so many voters so credulous and immune to factual information reported by responsible media?
*Why did conservatives decide to overlook, even embrace, so many of Trump’s outrages, gaffes, conspiracy theories, falsehoods, and smears?
*Can conservatives govern? Or are they content to merely rage?
*How can the right recover its traditional values and persuade a new generation of their worth?