Book Review: THE STEAL by Mark Bowden and Matthew Teague

THE STEAL: THE ATTEMPT TO OVERTURN THE 2020 ELECTION AND THE PEOPLE WHO STOPPED IT by Mark Bowden & Matthew Teague (Atlantic Monthly Press, January 2022) Hardcover, 320 pages. ISBN # 0802159958 / 9780802159953  

Summary on the Goodreads website . . . . .

 

In the sixty-four days between November 3 and January 6, President Donald Trump and his allies fought to reverse the outcome of the vote. Focusing on six states—Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin— Trump’s supporters claimed widespread voter fraud.

It was not a well-orchestrated matter. There was no guiding genius pulling the strings in key states for the defeated Donald Trump. In the weeks after the election, in counties and precincts all over the country, many local Republican officials and even Trump’s own campaign workers washed their hands of his increasingly unhinged allegations of fraud. But there was no shortage of people willing to take up the fight. Urged on by Trump and his coterie of advocates, lawyers, and media propagandists, true believers turned on their colleagues, friends, and neighbors — even those in their own party — to accuse them of rigging the election.

The real story of the insurrection began months before Trump’s mob attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. That riot was the desperate final act, emblematic of the clumsy, failed movement Trump had been building for years. It began in cities and small towns all over America on election day, November 3, 2020.

Working with a team of researchers and reporters, Bowden and Teague uncover never-before-told accounts from the election officials fighting to do their jobs amid outlandish claims and threats to themselves, their colleagues, and their families. The Steal is an engaging, in-depth report on what happened during those crucial nine weeks and a portrait of the heroic individuals who did their duty and stood firm against the unprecedented, sustained attack on our election system to ensure that every legal vote was counted and the will of the people prevailed. 

My Four-Star Review on the Goodreads website . . . . .

     An important book. Mark Bowden can always be counted on to thoroughly research his topics and present the findings to us in an engaging and easy-to-follow style.

     If only those who still believe the election was stolen from Trump would read this, it might cause them to re-think their beliefs. If only those who still support Trump and his cronies would read this and finally understand that they are being conned and used. If only my wishes could come true.

     Two genres that aptly apply to this story: true crime and horror. 

     I'm appalled, even more so than when this first occurred and the information was doled out over the course of months. Taking it all in at one time here is infuriating, maddening, and sad. The insights and story from the election workers are heart-breakers. Many of them had their careers ending over this, not to mention having their own lives and their families threatened. 

     Gabriel Sterling, Republican chief operating officer for Georgia secretary of state: "The whole point of government is you're not supposed to know it's there. The road is supposed to get paved, the election's supposed to come off, you're not supposed to have to think about it. And all these people on the left and the right that organize their lives around, and live and die by, who is president, who isn't president, those are the unhealthy people that cause problems in the long term of a democratic republic."