<p>"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross."<br>---Sinclair Lewis, author of <i>It Can't Happen Here,</i> 1935</p><p> For the first time since the Nixon era, Americans have reason to doubt the future---or even the <i>presence---</i>of democracy. We live in a society where government conspires with big business and big evangelism; where ideologues and religious zealots attack logic and the scientific method; and where the ruling party encourages xenophobic nationalism based on irrational, manufactured fear. The party in power seems to seek a perpetual state of war to hold on to power, and they are willing to lie, cheat, and steal to achieve their ends. The question must be asked: Are we headed toward the end of American democracy? <br>Nobel Prize--winning author Sinclair Lewis depicted authoritarianism American-style in his sardonically titled dystopian novel <i>It Can't Happen Here, </i>published in 1935. Now, bestselling political journalist Joe Conason argues that it <i>can</i> happen here—and a select group of extremely powerful right-wing ideologues are driving us ever closer to the precipice. <br>In this compelling, impassioned, yet rational and fact-based look at the state of the nation, Conason shows how and why America has been wrenched away from its founding principles and is being dragged toward authoritarianism. </p><p>Praise for the books of Joe Conason:</p><p>"A comprehensive, well-researched indictment of a bunch of nasty people who really deserve it."<br>---Molly Ivins on <i>Big Lies</i></p><p> "When Joe casts his eye on the cadres of the right, they invariably emerge battered, with their arguments filleted, their sources of money exposed, and their real motives laid bare."<br> —Michael Tomasky, former editor, <i>The American Prospect, </i>on<i> The Raw Deal</i> </p><p>"A hundred years from now the primary source on the so-called Clinton scandals will still be <i>The Hunting of the President</i> by Joe Conason and Gene Lyons."<br>---James Carville on <i>The Hunting of the President</i></p>