I did blame you at first. You are doing what clown show didnt and doesnt taking responsibility owned up to and is actively trying to fix it. You need to stop blaming yourself . There has to come a time where you realize that you are a completely different person than that person who assisted those Awipes. Also you cant define yourself by the job you did . Define your self by the actions you are taking now. I love to read and listen to your writing that's why I subscribe. You are obviously a thoughtful person smart and have zero f to give.
I wish my husband would read this and see himself in what you write. He is a republican watching Fox listening to me when I can get him too, admiting the party and DJT are doing terrible things but still clinging to the Republican Party he used to know. He doesn’t like what he hears about the democratic party or democrats so I guess he’s a man without a home policy he can believe in. If there were a middle place for guys like him to attach themselves too, I think there would be fewer men swallowing the cool aid realizing it has a foul taste. Lincoln try’s but isn’t reaching him. What’s the old saying, you can bring the horse to water but you can’t make him drink.
Something you've said many times that sticks with me Stuart is your point about how we "lack imagination" to foresee the worst will happen. It definitely was the case in 2016. Probably would have been more of a factor in 2020, except that we were actually experiencing the reality of Trump mishandling a deadly pandemic. And it undoubtedly was the case in 2024, while many were loudly sending warning signals about Project 2025 and a decent into fascism and autocracy, we were clueless to how massive and insidious the right-wing propaganda machine had become. Even now, as we are witnessing the fascism reality, Trump and the GOP cult denies and lies and people keep falling for it! I never could have imagined so many people would believe the lies and propaganda, even to their own detriment. And I'm worried that even experiencing the worst won't be enough to wake people up. I thank you for continuing to use your voice, experience and skills to fight for democracy. You have never wavered and that is admirable.
Brilliant and totally accurate...this republican cult must and will get its gaul and hate defeated by the majority of honorable and blended people who will deliver the nation back to being for and by the people!!!
Thanks for taking accountability -- what I wonder is what is conservatism? -- what would be the conservative point of view after we get through this present regime...I think Americans want more democratic socialist views -- I can't think of anything else that works. None can name a country with low taxes, for example, that we would want to move to... can we?
Thank you, Stuart, for taking responsibility for the toxic rhetoric (especially political ads) of GOP candidates for four decades.
I was recently reminded of one from more than 20 years ago: the ad calling Sen. Max Cleland, a Vietnam War triple amputee, a traitor because of a policy difference, lying about it to paint him as such. It worked and my state lost a good public servant. Max Cleland was a prince of a man who didn’t deserve that slander.
Your book describes my view of the GOP since Ronald Reagan opened his 1980 campaign with a “state’s rights” speech near Philadelphia MS. That racist dog whistle came through loud and clear to me, a white woman who grew up in Jim Crow Atlanta. That and his other racist comments (“welfare queens”, etc.) caused me to deeply dislike Reagan.
I think Trump and the Republican Party of today are the logical consequence of the GOP’s sharp turn away from leaders like Gerald Ford to Reagan. My gut feeling back then turned out to be right.
What Did I Do For MY Democracy? The Answer Rests With YOU
We as citizens have an obligation to speak out against the federal government
Expect and insist free and fair elections
DO NOT become cynical about elections
Phone calls matter to legislators
Yard signs matter
Everybody has a townsquare where we can make our voices heard So Engage Don’t shy away from difficult conversations Let them know how you feel about people disappearing off the streets is not OK Taking away medical care from our unfortunate citizens for tax breaks for the uberwealthy
Thank you for your essay, Stuart. I read it this morning, and I've been reflecting on it the rest of the day! My dad tended to vote republican, and I confess in the first election I voted it was Nixon who got my vote. It was JFK who won. This fact reveals my age. My dad and I split on civil rights and I never looked back or regretted voting for candidates with a D after their name. However, I have not been satisfied with the democrats. The tent is very large. That's good. The establishment crowd is too old. That's bad. There are some super candidates and elected people from the democrats around the country. That's good. The establishment gets in the way of good ideas bubbling up from the grassroots. That's bad.In fact there is not enough attention to grassroots development. The republican party is dead. In its place, the gop which stands for government of orban or putin party...take your pick. It is Fascism.
You wrote this, and I agree about Trump as a reveal of the gop's deepest desires, pursued and perfected over several generations.
"No, the only logical conclusion is that Donald Trump revealed the Republican party. When I wrote, It Was All A Lie: How The Republican Party Became Donald Trump, I was careful not to blame others. There is a trope of Washington books “if only they had listened to me.” I couldn’t write that book. They did listen to me. I helped elect more of them than anybody. When I joined the Republican Party, I was drawn to its then-avowed belief in personal responsibility. That turned out to be nothing more than a marketing slogan, but I believed it then and do now." I guess I'd ask if that notion of "personal responsibility" doesn't need to be unpacked. Personal responsibility is important but that alone is not adequate to the task of reclaiming democracy from the monied few who, regardless of political party, keep their hands on the levers of government. Now those hands have been tearing down what generations struggled to build. "Personal responsibility " is one of those dog whistles that inevitably pits one group (usually white folk) against those others ( usually black and brown folk). So easy to repeat like a mantra, but what does it mean when government by choice acts carelessly and irresponsibly toward the vast majority of its citizens and residents? I submit that since 2001 government, particularly under the gop have acted irresponsibly for the good of a few at the detriment of the many. It does not matter who was in office. We must get beyond slogans that purport to describe what good governance is to actual statements of what we BELIEVE good government can and ought to do. We are deep in a national crisis now not because the Constitution has failed, but because we have failed the Constitution and the aspirations and concerns expressed through it and The Declaration. Today is the day to begin reclaiming our inheritance as expressed 250 years ago. Were the founders perfect? Obviously not. Did they mean all when they wrote all, probably not. We have had the freedom and the vision to claim that all means all. If there is a hope in this darkness it is that those aspirations never die. That's why we must stand up to the tyranny of the gop, their funders, and their tyrants occupying seats of power. It is no longer governance when it has become tyranny.
Stuart, please be gentle with yourself. you have publicly admitted you made a mistake. this is a fuckton more than any current MAGAT member of congress/shambolic administration clown has done. psychopaths never acknowledge or apologize for damage done.
you and LP have done phenomenal work over the past several years, warning us of the dangers of spray tan and his dupes, that MSM has willfully ignored. i don't think i'm the only one that has your back...
Read your book when it first came out, then listened to it again after the 2024 election. Blaming you is not productive since you are one of the few former Republicans wholly dedicated to defeating American fascism. And you have prostrated yourself enough. Thanks for all your efforts and for the perspective and clear framing of our current politics you bring to the conversation. The way you articulate our predicament is always helpful for understanding it and conveying it to others. Also, you're a mensch. Thank you.
I wholeheartedly agree that "the only logical conclusion is that Donald Trump revealed the Republican party." However, I would add that the old GOP had been buying the Libertarian BS being peddled by its dark-money enablers (e.g. Charles and David Koch), borne of the John Birch Society starting in the 1950's. I would also suggest that you are being too hard on yourself, Mr. Stevens, because you were only one of many who fell for it.
I also loved your words, "These are the new segregationists, who have convinced themselves they are fighting a just war to defend the values of ‘our way of life'", which they "can us to club the future into submission".
Finally, I again agree with your conclusion: "The [MAGA] party will only change when its desire to revel in its worst instincts is challenged by its fear of losing power".
This is the reason I subscribe to Lincoln Square Media, and contribute to The Lincoln Project. Keep up the great work on behalf of our beloved Democracy!
Stuart, while I (and you) don’t believe “It Was All a Lie” because we did believe, supported, campaigned for George W Bush (compassionate conservative) and Mitt Romney ( who also supported a more modern America ).
Like others here, I have since felt it necessary to renounce my lifelong membership in the Republican Party — because I believe in compassion, a helping hand, a land of refuge for those who truly need it, as well as a strong national defense and continually growing and evolving economy.
The current Republican (scratch that) MAGA Party is incapable of delivering any of those objectives and, thus, imperils all of us in a multitude of ways.
Yes, our government “overregulates” in some areas and underregulates in others. We need to take a hard look at the government that has only gotten steadily bigger since WWII. That increase in size, randomly done, has resulted in duplication of effort, bloat and a total failure to place constituents (customers) safety and security first.
Recognizing the problem and advocating a well thought out and simply delivered Reform Plan would help the electorate fight back for the America they truly want and our Economic Development requires.
There is plenty of blame to go around, Stuart. Right now the republican party is 'saving' white South African farmers and welcoming them to the US without going through normal immigration channels, and at the same time the republican party is starving, and killing black Africans, inclusing tens of thousands of infants and children by ending USAID. Can it be any more clear than that? The republican party is closer to a Nazi party than an American politicla party. The confederacy, perhaps.
The media also bears a great deal of responsibility for turning America into a trump hell hole. Currently we have Joke Tapper promoting a Biden was bad book while ignoring the atrocities of trump and his fascist admin. I wouldn't be surprised if Tapper setup a book signing table at trump's Mar a Lar ll Evergraves Concentration Camp. He could place his table between noem's botox booth and trump's twitcoin dealer. And then there is the trump propaganda network at fox where predatory sexual actions are considered manly instead of criminal. Then add the drug addled musk to the mix and voila! you have doge and its deranged destruction of govt and the safety net.
But republicans can message harm in a way that most Americans demand. Republican states have a lower quality of life score compared to blue states and yet republican demand more self flagellation. OK, one of the poorest, lowest quality of life scores in the nation is all in maga. They like making themselves poor, less educated, and less likely to live a long ,productive life. MA, on the other hand, is one of the most progressive states and has some of the highest incomes, and quality of life scores. You can't blame yourself for all that stupidity, Stuart!
As Tim Miller of the Bulwark noted, soberly, after the 2024 election when asked by Nicole Wallace what it will take to break the trump cult fever, Tim said, paraphrasing here, they will need to feel the pain. And that is happening quickly and without regard to human life. Iam not sure if they will feel enough pain to realize that they are the real cause of their deteriorating lives, but hope spring eternal. Keep upthe good fight, Stuart!
I did blame you at first. You are doing what clown show didnt and doesnt taking responsibility owned up to and is actively trying to fix it. You need to stop blaming yourself . There has to come a time where you realize that you are a completely different person than that person who assisted those Awipes. Also you cant define yourself by the job you did . Define your self by the actions you are taking now. I love to read and listen to your writing that's why I subscribe. You are obviously a thoughtful person smart and have zero f to give.
Good for you, Stuart. You've spelled it out.
Stuart Stevens is simply one of the best political writers in America, folks.
I wish my husband would read this and see himself in what you write. He is a republican watching Fox listening to me when I can get him too, admiting the party and DJT are doing terrible things but still clinging to the Republican Party he used to know. He doesn’t like what he hears about the democratic party or democrats so I guess he’s a man without a home policy he can believe in. If there were a middle place for guys like him to attach themselves too, I think there would be fewer men swallowing the cool aid realizing it has a foul taste. Lincoln try’s but isn’t reaching him. What’s the old saying, you can bring the horse to water but you can’t make him drink.
Something you've said many times that sticks with me Stuart is your point about how we "lack imagination" to foresee the worst will happen. It definitely was the case in 2016. Probably would have been more of a factor in 2020, except that we were actually experiencing the reality of Trump mishandling a deadly pandemic. And it undoubtedly was the case in 2024, while many were loudly sending warning signals about Project 2025 and a decent into fascism and autocracy, we were clueless to how massive and insidious the right-wing propaganda machine had become. Even now, as we are witnessing the fascism reality, Trump and the GOP cult denies and lies and people keep falling for it! I never could have imagined so many people would believe the lies and propaganda, even to their own detriment. And I'm worried that even experiencing the worst won't be enough to wake people up. I thank you for continuing to use your voice, experience and skills to fight for democracy. You have never wavered and that is admirable.
Brilliant and totally accurate...this republican cult must and will get its gaul and hate defeated by the majority of honorable and blended people who will deliver the nation back to being for and by the people!!!
Thanks for taking accountability -- what I wonder is what is conservatism? -- what would be the conservative point of view after we get through this present regime...I think Americans want more democratic socialist views -- I can't think of anything else that works. None can name a country with low taxes, for example, that we would want to move to... can we?
Thank you, Stuart, for taking responsibility for the toxic rhetoric (especially political ads) of GOP candidates for four decades.
I was recently reminded of one from more than 20 years ago: the ad calling Sen. Max Cleland, a Vietnam War triple amputee, a traitor because of a policy difference, lying about it to paint him as such. It worked and my state lost a good public servant. Max Cleland was a prince of a man who didn’t deserve that slander.
Your book describes my view of the GOP since Ronald Reagan opened his 1980 campaign with a “state’s rights” speech near Philadelphia MS. That racist dog whistle came through loud and clear to me, a white woman who grew up in Jim Crow Atlanta. That and his other racist comments (“welfare queens”, etc.) caused me to deeply dislike Reagan.
I think Trump and the Republican Party of today are the logical consequence of the GOP’s sharp turn away from leaders like Gerald Ford to Reagan. My gut feeling back then turned out to be right.
What Did I Do For MY Democracy? The Answer Rests With YOU
We as citizens have an obligation to speak out against the federal government
Expect and insist free and fair elections
DO NOT become cynical about elections
Phone calls matter to legislators
Yard signs matter
Everybody has a townsquare where we can make our voices heard So Engage Don’t shy away from difficult conversations Let them know how you feel about people disappearing off the streets is not OK Taking away medical care from our unfortunate citizens for tax breaks for the uberwealthy
Show up to Protest
Join democracydocket.com Totally worth every penny
Thank you for your essay, Stuart. I read it this morning, and I've been reflecting on it the rest of the day! My dad tended to vote republican, and I confess in the first election I voted it was Nixon who got my vote. It was JFK who won. This fact reveals my age. My dad and I split on civil rights and I never looked back or regretted voting for candidates with a D after their name. However, I have not been satisfied with the democrats. The tent is very large. That's good. The establishment crowd is too old. That's bad. There are some super candidates and elected people from the democrats around the country. That's good. The establishment gets in the way of good ideas bubbling up from the grassroots. That's bad.In fact there is not enough attention to grassroots development. The republican party is dead. In its place, the gop which stands for government of orban or putin party...take your pick. It is Fascism.
You wrote this, and I agree about Trump as a reveal of the gop's deepest desires, pursued and perfected over several generations.
"No, the only logical conclusion is that Donald Trump revealed the Republican party. When I wrote, It Was All A Lie: How The Republican Party Became Donald Trump, I was careful not to blame others. There is a trope of Washington books “if only they had listened to me.” I couldn’t write that book. They did listen to me. I helped elect more of them than anybody. When I joined the Republican Party, I was drawn to its then-avowed belief in personal responsibility. That turned out to be nothing more than a marketing slogan, but I believed it then and do now." I guess I'd ask if that notion of "personal responsibility" doesn't need to be unpacked. Personal responsibility is important but that alone is not adequate to the task of reclaiming democracy from the monied few who, regardless of political party, keep their hands on the levers of government. Now those hands have been tearing down what generations struggled to build. "Personal responsibility " is one of those dog whistles that inevitably pits one group (usually white folk) against those others ( usually black and brown folk). So easy to repeat like a mantra, but what does it mean when government by choice acts carelessly and irresponsibly toward the vast majority of its citizens and residents? I submit that since 2001 government, particularly under the gop have acted irresponsibly for the good of a few at the detriment of the many. It does not matter who was in office. We must get beyond slogans that purport to describe what good governance is to actual statements of what we BELIEVE good government can and ought to do. We are deep in a national crisis now not because the Constitution has failed, but because we have failed the Constitution and the aspirations and concerns expressed through it and The Declaration. Today is the day to begin reclaiming our inheritance as expressed 250 years ago. Were the founders perfect? Obviously not. Did they mean all when they wrote all, probably not. We have had the freedom and the vision to claim that all means all. If there is a hope in this darkness it is that those aspirations never die. That's why we must stand up to the tyranny of the gop, their funders, and their tyrants occupying seats of power. It is no longer governance when it has become tyranny.
Stuart, please be gentle with yourself. you have publicly admitted you made a mistake. this is a fuckton more than any current MAGAT member of congress/shambolic administration clown has done. psychopaths never acknowledge or apologize for damage done.
you and LP have done phenomenal work over the past several years, warning us of the dangers of spray tan and his dupes, that MSM has willfully ignored. i don't think i'm the only one that has your back...
a local yokul on volkl's vuhmuntah
Read your book when it first came out, then listened to it again after the 2024 election. Blaming you is not productive since you are one of the few former Republicans wholly dedicated to defeating American fascism. And you have prostrated yourself enough. Thanks for all your efforts and for the perspective and clear framing of our current politics you bring to the conversation. The way you articulate our predicament is always helpful for understanding it and conveying it to others. Also, you're a mensch. Thank you.
I wholeheartedly agree that "the only logical conclusion is that Donald Trump revealed the Republican party." However, I would add that the old GOP had been buying the Libertarian BS being peddled by its dark-money enablers (e.g. Charles and David Koch), borne of the John Birch Society starting in the 1950's. I would also suggest that you are being too hard on yourself, Mr. Stevens, because you were only one of many who fell for it.
I also loved your words, "These are the new segregationists, who have convinced themselves they are fighting a just war to defend the values of ‘our way of life'", which they "can us to club the future into submission".
Finally, I again agree with your conclusion: "The [MAGA] party will only change when its desire to revel in its worst instincts is challenged by its fear of losing power".
This is the reason I subscribe to Lincoln Square Media, and contribute to The Lincoln Project. Keep up the great work on behalf of our beloved Democracy!
Stuart, while I (and you) don’t believe “It Was All a Lie” because we did believe, supported, campaigned for George W Bush (compassionate conservative) and Mitt Romney ( who also supported a more modern America ).
Like others here, I have since felt it necessary to renounce my lifelong membership in the Republican Party — because I believe in compassion, a helping hand, a land of refuge for those who truly need it, as well as a strong national defense and continually growing and evolving economy.
The current Republican (scratch that) MAGA Party is incapable of delivering any of those objectives and, thus, imperils all of us in a multitude of ways.
Yes, our government “overregulates” in some areas and underregulates in others. We need to take a hard look at the government that has only gotten steadily bigger since WWII. That increase in size, randomly done, has resulted in duplication of effort, bloat and a total failure to place constituents (customers) safety and security first.
Recognizing the problem and advocating a well thought out and simply delivered Reform Plan would help the electorate fight back for the America they truly want and our Economic Development requires.
Stuart, are you in?
"Donald Trump did not change the Republican Party as much as he gave the party permission to reveal its true self." Too true, Stuart. 😪
There is plenty of blame to go around, Stuart. Right now the republican party is 'saving' white South African farmers and welcoming them to the US without going through normal immigration channels, and at the same time the republican party is starving, and killing black Africans, inclusing tens of thousands of infants and children by ending USAID. Can it be any more clear than that? The republican party is closer to a Nazi party than an American politicla party. The confederacy, perhaps.
The media also bears a great deal of responsibility for turning America into a trump hell hole. Currently we have Joke Tapper promoting a Biden was bad book while ignoring the atrocities of trump and his fascist admin. I wouldn't be surprised if Tapper setup a book signing table at trump's Mar a Lar ll Evergraves Concentration Camp. He could place his table between noem's botox booth and trump's twitcoin dealer. And then there is the trump propaganda network at fox where predatory sexual actions are considered manly instead of criminal. Then add the drug addled musk to the mix and voila! you have doge and its deranged destruction of govt and the safety net.
But republicans can message harm in a way that most Americans demand. Republican states have a lower quality of life score compared to blue states and yet republican demand more self flagellation. OK, one of the poorest, lowest quality of life scores in the nation is all in maga. They like making themselves poor, less educated, and less likely to live a long ,productive life. MA, on the other hand, is one of the most progressive states and has some of the highest incomes, and quality of life scores. You can't blame yourself for all that stupidity, Stuart!
As Tim Miller of the Bulwark noted, soberly, after the 2024 election when asked by Nicole Wallace what it will take to break the trump cult fever, Tim said, paraphrasing here, they will need to feel the pain. And that is happening quickly and without regard to human life. Iam not sure if they will feel enough pain to realize that they are the real cause of their deteriorating lives, but hope spring eternal. Keep upthe good fight, Stuart!