The book provides a behind-the-scenes account of how the GOP has encouraged and exploited extremism, bigotry, and paranoia to gain power since the 1950s. It takes readers on a journey through the netherworld of far-right irrationality and the Republican Party's interactions with dark forces in America. From McCarthyism to the John Birch Society, segregationists, the religious right, Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, and beyond, the Republican Party has deliberately nurtured and exploited right-wing fear and loathing fueled by paranoia, grievance, and tribalism. The book also highlights how this history led to Donald Trump's triumph and the transformation of the GOP into a Trump personality cult that bolsters dangerous excesses on the right. The Trump-incited insurrectionist attack on the US Capitol in 2021 was not an aberration but rather a continuation of this long-standing practice.