Has the GOP lost its mind over Donald Trump and election fraud?

"Weapons of Mass Delusion" author Robert Draper says Republicans need a massive reality check.

https://reason.com/video/2022/11/30/has-the-gop-lost-its-mind-over-donald-trump-and-election-fraud/

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Has the Republican Party lost its mind—and its way—in its slavish devotion to Donald Trump, who insists that the 2020 election was stolen from him through extensive voter fraud?

That's the question that journalist Robert Draper investigates in his new book Weapons of Mass Delusion, which looks at rising Republican stars such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R–Ga.) and failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who are diehard Trump loyalists, and established party leaders such as likely Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, who is openly terrified to cross the former president.

Reason's Nick Gillespie spoke with Draper shortly after the midterm elections, in which the GOP had an unexpectedly poor showing against a massively unpopular Joe Biden. Is this a sign that Trump's hold on his party—and the country—is weakening? And is there any reason to believe that the party of Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater may return to its small government roots? Draper also reflects on his 2014 New York Times Magazine cover story, "Has the Libertarian Moment Finally Arrived?," which prominently featured Gillespie and Matt Welch.

Produced by Nick Gillespie; edited by Adam Czarnecki and Justin Zuckerman; sound editing by Ian Keyser

0:00 Intro: Has the Republican Party Lost Its Mind?
7:34 The Sense of Being Dispossessed
9:47 Drivers of the Fraud Claim
14:22 The Lie of Turning Back the Election and Jan 6th
26:15 Paul Gosar: A Lasting Villain
33:11 Marjorie Taylor Greene: An Image of the Future GOP
40:24 QAnon, MAGA, and the Charge of Pedophilia
45:28 What Happened to the 2014 Libertarian Energy?
49:36 What's Going On in Arizona?
53:53 Kevin McCarthy: The MAGA Enabler
58:53 How the Midterms Affect the MAGA Movement
1:04:21 The Affect of MAGA on the Democrat Party and Election Denial
1:11:20 Is There a Path Forward for the Socially Tolerant and Fiscally Responsible?

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