In his previous book The Family, Jeff Sharlet examined a powerful, secretive group in Washington, D.C spawning a new kind of unaccountable and elitist fundamentalism. Now, in his new book C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy, Sharlet investigates and writes about a group of Republican politicians who are affiliated with the The Family. They are some of the most powerful members of Congress and they have, until recently, been cloaked in respectability. This group, driven by moral corruption and piety, represents a kind of fundamentalism on steroids that they are trying to use to reshape American politics, the military and foreign policy; all without any democratic accountability.
My conversation with Jeff Sharlet: