The Politics of Insainity/Hugo N. Gerstl

America's friends and our enemies alike are scratching their collective heads and thinking, "If you turned the world on its side all of the loose nuts would end up in the United States." The Theater of the Absurd has come to life on every television set, smart phone, and social media outlet around the world. A megawealthy upraised carnival barker, who has systematically alienated every segment of society in the United States, stands poised to become the next president!

Candidates deny the signs of global climate change—never mind, God will protect us, and since he's a Christian God, he will help us get rid of the Muslims in the process! Can anyone imagine two serious candidates for the highest office in the United States arguing over the size of their genitals? ("You know what they say about men with small hands...").

 Welcome to The Politics of Insanity, a serious look at the newest form of the bizarre "reality TV." Where thoughtful, serious contenders eke out 2% of the vote at best. Where it's acceptable to say, "Would you want to have a president with a face like that?" Where a semi-nude photo of a candidate's gorgeous wife is splashed across a TV ad?

But believe it or not, Ecclesiastes 1:9 is accurate: "There is nothing new under the sun." Political insanity did not start in the United States, and even in America we've been down this road before.

Hugo N. Gerstl, author of The Politics of Hate (2012), slices into the "American Pie" of 2016 politics with a clear-eyed analytical scalpel, and, despite what appears to be an impenetrable tragicomic maze of craziness, he optimistically concludes, in the words of a former president whose wife is the frontrunner in the race for the White House, "There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured with what is right with America."