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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI have this book on pre-order. It should hit my Kindle tomorrow.
Description from Amazon:
Description
Former Republican political operative Tim Miller answers the question no one else has fully grappled with: Why did normal people go along with the worst of Trumpism?
As one of the strategists behind the famous 2012 RNC autopsy, Miller conducts his own forensic study on the pungent carcass of the party he used to love, cutting into all the hubris, ambition, idiocy, desperation, and self-deception for everyone to see. In a bracingly honest reflection on both his own past work for the Republican Party and the contortions of his former peers in the GOP establishment, Miller draws a straight line between the actions of the 2000s GOP to the Republican political class's Trumpian takeover, including the horrors of January 6th.
From ruminations on the mental jujitsu that allowed him as a gay man to justify becoming a hitman for homophobes, to astonishingly raw interviews with former colleagues who jumped on the Trump Train, Miller diagrams the flattering and delusional stories GOP operatives tell themselves so they can sleep at night. With a humorous touch he reveals Reince Priebus' neediness, Sean Spicer's desperation, Elise Stefanik and Chris Christies raw ambition, and his close friends submission to a MAGA psychosis.
Why We Did It is a vital, darkly satirical warning that all the narcissistic justifications that got us to this place still thrive within the Republican party, which means they will continue to make the same mistakes and political calculations that got us here, with disastrous consequences for the nation.
Former Republican political operative Tim Miller answers the question no one else has fully grappled with: Why did normal people go along with the worst of Trumpism?
As one of the strategists behind the famous 2012 RNC autopsy, Miller conducts his own forensic study on the pungent carcass of the party he used to love, cutting into all the hubris, ambition, idiocy, desperation, and self-deception for everyone to see. In a bracingly honest reflection on both his own past work for the Republican Party and the contortions of his former peers in the GOP establishment, Miller draws a straight line between the actions of the 2000s GOP to the Republican political class's Trumpian takeover, including the horrors of January 6th.
From ruminations on the mental jujitsu that allowed him as a gay man to justify becoming a hitman for homophobes, to astonishingly raw interviews with former colleagues who jumped on the Trump Train, Miller diagrams the flattering and delusional stories GOP operatives tell themselves so they can sleep at night. With a humorous touch he reveals Reince Priebus' neediness, Sean Spicer's desperation, Elise Stefanik and Chris Christies raw ambition, and his close friends submission to a MAGA psychosis.
Why We Did It is a vital, darkly satirical warning that all the narcissistic justifications that got us to this place still thrive within the Republican party, which means they will continue to make the same mistakes and political calculations that got us here, with disastrous consequences for the nation.
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I have this book on pre-order. It should hit my Kindle tomorrow. (Original Post)
tblue37
Jun 2022
OP
JustAnotherGen
(31,828 posts)1. Be sure to give us a review
I would be very interested in knowing if this is just more 'off rampism' for the most evil Americans - the Trump Voters who made it possible.
tblue37
(65,394 posts)6. I don't think so. He writes pretty honestly about Republican guilt in his "Bulwark" articles.
Ocelot II
(115,731 posts)2. What's the name of the book?
tblue37
(65,394 posts)3. "Why We Did It."
Ocelot II
(115,731 posts)4. Thanks, I missed that in the quote. Have to look into it.
Tim Miller is a pretty insightful commentator.
tblue37
(65,394 posts)5. Yes, he is.
eppur_se_muova
(36,266 posts)7. link to goodreads review:
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/59039973-why-we-did-it#
I would have said "among the ones who ended up getting eaten".
Churchill's famous statement about international diplomacy is applicable to the modern GOP as well: "Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last. All of them hope that the storm will pass before their turn comes to be devoured." Politicians and pundits know they get their power from whipping their base into a frenzy, assuming someone else would bear the brunt of their anger. But the Republican establishment were the ones who ended up getting eaten.
I would have said "among the ones who ended up getting eaten".