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A review by aristotle910
It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump by Stuart Stevens
4.0
If I’m being completely candid, I failed to read the description of this book before I had read it. I read this looking for a critique on Trump himself, rather than the entire Republican Party. Still, I found the work to be well studied, cited, and the argument was well backed up with a plethora evidence.
If you read this book, you’ll realize a lot of what’s wrong with Trump and the GOP. They prove that they are also masters of identity politics, and deceive their own supporters by painting themselves as good, Christian people; yet they vote the most un-Christian man into office, and even go as far as to profess that Trump is a God-given gift.
Stevens does a wonderful job of respecting some of the previous GOP presidents, and realized that even though he disagrees with them, at least they were cool, calm, and collected, unlike some people.
He also exposes the deficit spending that both parties are guilty for. He finds that all of the Republican presidents who promised to lower taxes, never did; conversely, they increased deficit spending, leaving us with a larger debt than when they came in. In Stevens’ point of view, leaders who claim to lower the deficit without raising taxes, are liars. The leaders who forthrightly came before people and told them blatantly that taxes would be raised, but only to get us out of the large deficit, are chastised and ignored. Thus, it has become a race of lies and petty politics.
I do disagree with Stevens on a couple of points. It is true that the Republican Party utilizes race to the maxim of their effort, but I do not believe Democrats are entirely innocent of this. I find Black republicans are often chastised and labeled as “Uncle Tom’s”. I find that neither side is free from ideological sin in that regard, nor do they allow Blacks to be true free thinkers. Either side they join, they are somehow betraying their history.
Stevens makes great refutations, and the sum of this novel is incredibly important, and a must-read.
4/5
If you read this book, you’ll realize a lot of what’s wrong with Trump and the GOP. They prove that they are also masters of identity politics, and deceive their own supporters by painting themselves as good, Christian people; yet they vote the most un-Christian man into office, and even go as far as to profess that Trump is a God-given gift.
Stevens does a wonderful job of respecting some of the previous GOP presidents, and realized that even though he disagrees with them, at least they were cool, calm, and collected, unlike some people.
He also exposes the deficit spending that both parties are guilty for. He finds that all of the Republican presidents who promised to lower taxes, never did; conversely, they increased deficit spending, leaving us with a larger debt than when they came in. In Stevens’ point of view, leaders who claim to lower the deficit without raising taxes, are liars. The leaders who forthrightly came before people and told them blatantly that taxes would be raised, but only to get us out of the large deficit, are chastised and ignored. Thus, it has become a race of lies and petty politics.
I do disagree with Stevens on a couple of points. It is true that the Republican Party utilizes race to the maxim of their effort, but I do not believe Democrats are entirely innocent of this. I find Black republicans are often chastised and labeled as “Uncle Tom’s”. I find that neither side is free from ideological sin in that regard, nor do they allow Blacks to be true free thinkers. Either side they join, they are somehow betraying their history.
Stevens makes great refutations, and the sum of this novel is incredibly important, and a must-read.
4/5