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A review by pareads1979
It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump by Stuart Stevens
5.0
A fascinating and eye-opening expose that has totally reoriented my thinking about today's Republican party. To date, I have assumed that Donald Trump "turned" the party into his own sycophancy. (The author, Stuart Stevens, is a lifelong Republican operative who recounts his decades long history in electing Republicans.) Reflecting on the party today forced him to reevaluate his role in evolving from the party of Lincoln and Reagan to the party of Trump. His key point: the history of the party for over half a century has been on a trajectory to revealing itself as a white nationalist party tailor made for someone like Trump. Stevens talks about the GOP's efforts at voter suppression and betrayal of conservative and evangelical values for one purpose: maintaining power. He is quite candid in his role as an enabler and separates himself from other Republicans via this public mea culpa. He is by no stretch now a Democrat; rather he advocates for a new movement that accurately can become a true center-right party with consistent and actionable values since today's GOP is morally bereft.
Three quotes (out of too many that captured me): "Donald Trump has served a useful purpose by exposing the deep flaws of a major American political party." And, "Conspiracies are a key element of the Trump Republican effort to build an alternative universe in which their lies will be truth." Finally, "Watching the Republican party is like watching a friend drink himself to death."
And the forward aptly quotes former President Kennedy: "Sometimes party loyalty asks too much."
As someone who recalls wistfully and proudly casting my first two presidential votes for Ronald Reagan, this book is a cold bucket of water in the face. May today's GOP be cast into the dustbin of history next month and may a phoenix rise from its ashes that spurns anyone who enabled Trump.
Three quotes (out of too many that captured me): "Donald Trump has served a useful purpose by exposing the deep flaws of a major American political party." And, "Conspiracies are a key element of the Trump Republican effort to build an alternative universe in which their lies will be truth." Finally, "Watching the Republican party is like watching a friend drink himself to death."
And the forward aptly quotes former President Kennedy: "Sometimes party loyalty asks too much."
As someone who recalls wistfully and proudly casting my first two presidential votes for Ronald Reagan, this book is a cold bucket of water in the face. May today's GOP be cast into the dustbin of history next month and may a phoenix rise from its ashes that spurns anyone who enabled Trump.