berg80
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- Oct 28, 2017
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The right-wing scammers who paved the way for Trump
During his time atop the Republican Party, Donald Trump’s lifetime habits of fraud and grifting have fused seamlessly with conservative politics. In 2024 alone, Trump debuted $399 gold sneakers emblazoned with the American flag, sold a $60 “God Bless the USA” Bible endorsed by singer Lee Greenwood, and convinced millions to purchase stock in Truth Social’s unprofitable parent company.
Trump is often treated as a political hijacker who rerouted the Republican Party to his own self-interested ends. Surely that’s part of the truth. But at the same time, there’s a decent case that, when it comes to grifting, his hijacking attempt could only succeed due to the conservative movement’s ingrained scammy tendencies.
From paranoid anti-Communist lecture series in the 1950s to crowdfunded birther investigations to Alex Jones peddling fake coronavirus cures, there’s a long and storied history of elites peddling fear and paranoia to make a buck. The problem has gotten so bad that, in the past several years, many prominent conservatives have publicly bemoaned the omnipresence of grifts in the conservative ranks.
But where did this culture come from, and how important was it to Trump’s rise?
These questions are at the heart of The Longest Con, a forthcoming book on the history of right-wing scams and frauds. The book’s author, Joe Conason, is a veteran New York journalist; he personally knew some of the key figures in the scammy right’s history, like mobbed-up lawyer and Trump mentor Roy Cohn.
The right-wing scammers who paved the way for Trump
A new book shows how conservative grift started long before branded bibles and $400 sneakers.
www.vox.com
I guess the question is why are conservatives seemingly subject to so easily being conned? Not to say no liberal has ever been the victim of a scam. It's just that political scams are so common on the Right.
The Right’s Grifter Problem
The Right’s Grifter Problem | National Review
No, the answer is not David French.
www.nationalreview.com
