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How the Hell Did This Happen?
- The Election of 2016
- Narrated by: P. J. O'Rourke
- Length: 5 hrs and 16 mins
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Publisher's summary
This election cycle was so absurd that celebrated political satirist, journalist, and die-hard Republican P. J. O'Rourke endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. As P.J. put it, "America is experiencing the most severe outbreak of mass psychosis since the Salem witch trials of 1692. So why not put Hillary on the dunking stool?"
In How the Hell Did This Happen?, P. J. brings his critical eye and inimitable voice to some seriously risky business. Starting in June 2015, he asks, "Who are these jacklegs, high-binders, wire-pullers, mountebanks, swellheads, buncombe spigots, four-flushers, and animated spittoons offering themselves as worthy of America's highest office?" and surveys the full cast of presidential candidates including everyone you've already forgotten and everyone you wish you could forget.
P. J. offers a brief history of how our insane process for picking who will run for president evolved, from the very first nominating convention (thanks, Anti-Masonic Party) through the reforms of the Progressive era (because there's nothing that can't be worsened by reform) to the present. He takes us through the debates and key primaries and analyzes everything from the campaign platforms (or lack thereof) to presidential style ("Trump's appearance - indeed, Trump's existence - is a little guy's idea of living large. A private plane! A swell joint in Florida! Gold-plated toilet handles!"). And he rises from the depths of despair to come up with a better way to choose a president. Following his come-to-Satan moment with Hillary and the Beginning of End Times in November, P. J. reckons with a new age: "America is experiencing a change in the nature of leadership. We're getting rid of our leaders. And we're starting at the top."
Caricatures created by DonkeyHotey were adapted from these Creative Commons and public domain images:
Donald Trump, Gage Skidmore/Flickr
Bernie Sanders, Nick Solari/Flickr
John Kasich, Wikimedia
Ben Carson, Michael Vadon/Flickr
Hillary Clinton, East Asia and Pacific Media/Flickr and Department of State
Jeb Bush, The World Affairs Council/Flickr
Carly Fiorina, Gage Skidmore/Flickr
Ted Cruz, Michael Vadon/Flickr
Chris Christie, FEMA
Marco Rubio, Gage Skidmore/Flickr
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Rick Mercer Final Report
- By: Rick Mercer
- Narrated by: Rick Mercer
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Rick Mercer can always be relied on to provoke a strong reaction - but what he said one fall day in 2017 truly shocked Canada. In a rant posted on social media, the great Canadian satirist announced loud and clear that the 15th season of the Rick Mercer Report - the nation's best-watched and best-loved comedy show - would be the last. This volume brings together never-before-published rants from the last five seasons of the show, plus a selection of the very best rants from earlier years.
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Mercer Hits It Out Of The Ballpark
- By Wade Lancaster on 11-11-19
By: Rick Mercer
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God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy
- By: Mike Huckabee
- Narrated by: Mike Huckabee
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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In Mike Huckabee's new book God, Guns, Grits and Gravy, he asks the question, "Have I been taken to a different planet than the one on which I grew up?" The New York Times best-selling author explores today's American culture, drawing from his travels as a presidential candidate to present average, small-town people and families, and their optimistic resilience in the face of hard times.
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Review
- By Dorothy Ella on 02-13-15
By: Mike Huckabee
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The Forgotten
- How the People of One Pennsylvania County Elected Donald Trump and Changed America
- By: Ben Bradlee
- Narrated by: Kiff Vandenheuvel
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Forgotten, Ben Bradlee, Jr., reports on how voters in Luzerne County, a pivotal county in a crucial swing state, came to feel like strangers in their own land - marginalized by flat or falling wages, rapid demographic change, and a liberal culture that mocks their faith and patriotism.
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Wow
- By Walter on 11-05-18
By: Ben Bradlee
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The Great Revolt
- Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics
- By: Salena Zito, Brad Todd
- Narrated by: Bob Hess
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Standout syndicated columnist and CNN contributor Salena Zito, with veteran Republican strategist Brad Todd, reports across five swing states and over 27,000 miles to answer the pressing question: Was Donald Trump's election a fluke or did it represent a fundamental shift in the electorate that will have repercussions - for Republicans and Democrats - for years to come.
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Explaining Trump's 2016 presidential victory
- By Wayne on 05-10-18
By: Salena Zito, and others
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Somebody's Gotta Say It
- By: Neal Boortz
- Narrated by: Neal Boortz
- Length: 6 hrs and 1 min
- Abridged
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With its outrageous brand of conservative talk, The Neal Boortz Show has been one of talk radio's hottest commodities for more than 25 years. Boortz entertains his rabid followers with commentary on everything from corruption in Washington to the troops overseas. Now, with Somebody's Gotta Say It, Neal gives us his greatest jeremiad yet: a hilarious but serious-as-taxes screed covering all the issues that get Neal and his millions of listeners hot under the collar on a daily basis.
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For the Logical not the Emotional.
- By Jon on 03-16-07
By: Neal Boortz
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Rules for Radical Conservatives
- Beating the Left at Its Own Game to Take Back America
- By: David Kahane
- Narrated by: John Allen Nelson
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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The vast right wing conspiracy has found its General Patton, and his name is David Kahane. Kahane's pseudonymous, satiric column for National Review Online, lampooning the Left via his Hollywood-radical persona - Stephen Colbert's liberal doppelganger - is must-listening for political aficionados of all stripes. Now, from the inside, Kahane proudly exposes the secret and not-so-secret winning strategies (and vulnerabilities) of the Left.
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Disappointed
- By Henry W. Baker on 05-30-16
By: David Kahane
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The Truth (with Jokes)
- By: Al Franken
- Narrated by: Al Franken
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Al Franken reveals the alarming story of how Bush (barely) beat Kerry with his campaign of "fear, smear, and queers", and then claimed a nonexistent mandate; Republicans decided that Terri Schiavo would make "a great political issue"; Conservatives sought to undermine Social Security by using a strategy borrowed from...Vladimir Lenin; and more.
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The Truth Hurts!
- By A. Best on 09-06-10
By: Al Franken
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Rush Limbaugh
- An Army of One
- By: Zev Chafets
- Narrated by: Erik Synnestvedt
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
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Do you remember your first time? People tend to remember the moment they first heard The Rush Limbaugh Show on the radio. For Zev Chafets, it was in a car in Detroit, driving down Woodward Avenue. Limbaugh's braggadocio, the outrageous satire, the slaughtering of liberal sacred cows performed with the verve of a rock-n-roll DJ-it seemed fresh, funny and completely subversive.
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Enjoyed it, despite poor narration
- By David on 06-02-10
By: Zev Chafets
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Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway
- By: Dave Barry
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 4 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Understanding the urgent need for a deeply thoughtful, balanced book to explain our national political process, Dave Barry has not even come close. Though he himself has covered many campaigns, run for president several times, and run for cover at the rainy inauguration of George W. Bush (the man will spare nothing for his art), Barry has instead outdone himself.
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I Love everything Dave Barry, BUT...
- By As my Wimsey takes me on 03-04-13
By: Dave Barry
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An Inconvenient Book
- Real Solutions to the World's Biggest Problems (Unabridged)
- By: Glenn Beck
- Narrated by: Glenn Beck
- Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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The world is a mess. It seems that everywhere listeners turn, there's another problem. What is needed now are solutions. If only there was a man who could simplify things, cut through the rhetoric, and fix everything. Then, if he was just able to put all of that insight into something that people could buy...in a store and online...man, that would great. Wait a minute!
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Waste of Time and Money
- By Crystal on 04-11-09
By: Glenn Beck
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The Enemy Within
- Saving America from the Liberal Assault on Our Churches, Schools & Military
- By: Michael Savage
- Narrated by: Cameron Beierle
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Michael Savage's powerful, unmatched mix of razor-sharp wit and explosive socio-political commentary has made him into a cultural phenomenon, becoming not only one of America's most popular radio talk-show hosts, but also a best-selling author. This is his latest assault on the corrosive effects of liberalism on American culture.
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Still applies
- By gary lee johnson on 02-05-19
By: Michael Savage
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In a time of chaos, the number one New York Times best-selling political humorist asks his fellow Americans to take it down a notch.
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Dreadfully unfunny
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Modern Manners
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In Modern Manners, cultural guru P. J. O'Rourke provides the essential accessory for the truly contemporary man or woman - a rulebook for living in a world without rules. Traditionally, good manners were a means of becoming as bland and invisible as everyone else, and thus of avoiding calling attention to one's own awkwardness and stupidity.
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Lacking
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The Funny Stuff
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A compendium of quotes and riffs by P.J. O'Rourke on subjects ranging from government to fishing to apps, to be published on what would have been his seventy-fifth birthday.
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Tiresome.
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Holidays in Hell
- In Which Our Intrepid Reporter Travels to the World's Worst Places and Asks, 'What's Funny About This'
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Holidays in Hell follows P. J. O’Rourke on a global fun-finding mission to the most desperate places on the planet, from the bombed-out streets of Beirut to the stultifying blandness of Heritage USA. P.J.’s unforgettable adventures abroad include storming student protesters’ barricades in South Korea, interviewing Communist insurrectionists in the Philippines, and going undercover in Arab garb at Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock Mosque. Packed with P.J.’s classic riffs on everything from Polish nightlife under communism to Third World driving tips....
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Moving Stories
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Peace Kills
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Having unraveled the mysteries of Washington in his classic best seller Parliament of Whores, and the mysteries of economics in Eat the Rich, one of our shrewdest and most mordant foreign correspondents now turns his attention to what is these days the ultimate mystery - America's foreign policy.
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An Excellent Cynical Romp around modern warfare
- By Aaron on 07-06-09
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Driving Like Crazy
- Thirty Years of Vehicular Hell-bending Celebrating America the Way It’s Supposed to Be--With an Oil Well in Every Backyard, a Cadillac Escalade in Every Carport, and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Mowing Our Lawn
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In this newly collected anthology of spiels-on-wheels, O'Rourke celebrates cars and berates car haters, and chronicles America's relationship with automobiles from love for a powerful chariot of freedom to tolerance of an oversized household appliance with an extra-long extension cord.
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Classic O'Rourke
- By Ray on 07-03-11
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Lacking
- By Robert J McMurray on 11-16-16
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The Funny Stuff
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Moving Stories
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An Excellent Cynical Romp around modern warfare
- By Aaron on 07-06-09
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What listeners say about How the Hell Did This Happen?
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Aunt Kay and Uncle Michael
- 09-24-21
Hard hitting! Informative! Even handed!.
Loved it! I will recommend it. PJ O'Rourke is one of my favorites. Great reading.
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- Robert Monroe
- 01-09-23
2016 specific humor
Good, but not as good as prior PJ O’Rourke works. You have to really know the presidential candidates from 2016 to appreciate this book.
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- Jay
- 12-20-17
The writing knocked it out of the box as always...
The writing knocked it out of the box as always... but OK actually narrating his own book... priceless!
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1 person found this helpful
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- arcata_rick
- 10-31-22
This is P. J.’s wit & satire at its best/worst, depending on your point of view.
Have been following him since he worked at Rolling Stone. Yikes!! He has really skewed markedly to the line used by the wacky right more and more. What happened? Was he punking us? As a bemused observer with libertarian tendencies, very anti-war, and no specific party affiliation, heRegardless, I could not stop myself from laughing out loud repeatedly as I listened.
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- Philo
- 12-09-17
A few insights, several horse laughs, some tedium
If you attend Big Lebowski reunions, you will think this is revelatory, especially after you stop coughing from a couple fierce bong hits. Back in my dorm days, I would have thought so, of a guy this glib and clever and flowing over with pop-culture and history references, like a kaleidoscopic 360-degree puking of colorful, fuzzy peyote chunks (not that I would know; to slip into this guy's sly idiom, I never inhaled peyote) but that would be, for me, 42 years ago. It is colorful, it is flashy, it is clever in its way, it grabs images from anywhere even inside of one sentence, from cartoons to great works in poly-sci to whatever is in the guy's head this moment. It is often, IMO, anxiously dancing way, way too hard in such manner as, back in the day, to impress the freshman girls (sexist idiom of those times) in the dorm. This style, gonzo journalism, appeared in politics (once it escaped the oral-crowd-scene college outbursts of the 60s, which are referenced herein) as early as Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72. And here is a guy schlepping this old schtick well into the 21st century. But, given the manifest laughing-crying bad-trip absurdity-scariness of our political times, the fit isn't that bad. If one can wade through all the flying flotsam (and yes P.,J., I got every last one of your pop or history or whatever references, sentence by sentence), this author alongside the over-amped facility with phrasings, does have some serious insights into our times and these players, and he makes a heck of a cartoon of everybody in sight. I needed a laugh. His portrayals of Hillary particularly made me guffaw and almost spit chunks myself. The tedious part happens when he wanders, not infrequently, off into some fantasy digression and one can wonder whether he is flashing-back, like, two-thirty in the morning and the dorm chicks (slang usage of the time, sexist, whatever) have long since gone home and he's still stem-winding some sort of abstruse loopy concept. If you can follow this review, you might actually enjoy this book. I did. But I have a shared experiential background, if a shade less hippie. As for the narration: he did it himself, and he managed to vividly revive in memory those DJs in the early 70s who went to great lengths to sound like the most stoned people on earth, a sort of sly looping baritone. There's something about intonations rooted in those times -- a slice of authentic Americana. Spark up!
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2 people found this helpful
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- Sondra
- 01-29-23
...and I'm a Democrat
This is the guy we should have elected as our President in 2016! Too bad PJ recently passed away. I've never laughed so hard as listening to this book. Although I disagree with some of his views, I think many of his observations about our political system and the choices we had in the 2016 Pesidential election are dead on. Right now we have too many clowns in the Washington circus...on both sides. I was a Republican when Republicans made sense but the Mad Nutter's Tea Party sent me running for the door. Maybe we will get lucky and Liz Cheney will run for President in our next election.
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- simply simon
- 10-06-19
the horse's mouth
Taking sarcasm to the limit.... and beyond. An equal insulting rant of both political parties and very funny.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Mr. Buy Alot
- 02-17-20
Humorous and Interesting
Funny and interesting. I liked the book, but the ending seemed rushed. Overall good read.
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- RSF
- 03-12-22
A laugh a min
Very interesting way to laugh at ourselves and and how our politicians get away with many different things
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- Customer
- 07-25-22
Well, That Didn't Age Well
O'Rourke is credited with giving me insight to politics beyond the Democratic platform via Parliament of Whores, yet this book makes me question how sophisticated his thinking is. Yes, it spews Never Trumpism, but, worse, it recites tropisms culled from red-meat, click-bait headlines. He has a couple of paragraphs that Trump found good people "on both sides," the odious claim that he praised white supremacists when he actually condemned them. Heck, even Tim Pool reads further into the news clips. It's just not a good look; it's not a great closure to his work.
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