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"It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump"

My liberal strategist friend has a Republican friend. If my liberal friend wants to combat a particular Republican evil, e.g. homophobia, the Republican's favored response is: "I understand and agree with you, but I really think you want to save my fire power for something else."

In other words, protecting a certain minority is a worthy cause, but there are many *worthier* causes: Why not save political capital for the *really worthy* causes?

This way of punting makes me think of "It Was All a Lie," a book by Stuart Stevens about the recent history of the Republican party. Around 2016, various Republicans were alarmed that Trump might prevail. Stevens led an effort to recruit high-profile centrist Republicans to run for the presidency--just to carve some votes off of Trump's plate, and thus ensure a victory for Hillary Clinton.

Each of the centrists said: "No, no. Trump is a fascist, and America will understand this and let HRC win. Let's watch Trump sputter on his own."

This is eye-opening for me. It's generally not possible to say: "I'm craven, and I know the right thing to do, but I'm going to bury my head in sand and hold onto my job."

It *is* possible to say: "Let's save my fire power for something that is *really* worthy." And so the country collapses.

P.S. "It Was All a Lie" is a thoughtful book, and it's like the confessions of St. Augustine: It's a reformed sinner, being blunt with the reader. But I don't think that Stevens donated the profits to Eleanor's Legacy. I think he used the profits to pay his bills. So it's like he is saying: "I feel really bad about having been a right-wing strategist, and if you help me buy a boat, I'll tell you about my guilt." Paying for the book was a queasy experience for me.













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