'He's Destroyed Conservatism': The Republican Case Against Trump's GOP

[Dennis Donovan]

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/08/19/interview-stuart-stevens-republican-case-against-trump-397918

By MICHAEL GRUNWALD

08/19/2020 04:30 AM EDT

Stuart Stevens was a winning GOP operative. Now he feels terrible about what he’s done to the country.

Stuart Stevens spent four decades helping Republicans—a lot of Republicans—win. He’s one of the most successful political operatives of his generation, crafting ads and devising strategies for President George W. Bush, Republican presidential nominees Mitt Romney and Bob Dole, and dozens of GOP governors, senators and congressmen. He didn’t win every race, but he thinks he had the best won-lost record in Republican campaign world.

And now he feels terrible about it. (OP's note: )

Stevens now believes the Republican Party is, not to put too fine a point on it, a malign force jeopardizing the survival of American democracy. He’s written a searing apologia of a book called It Was All a Lie that compares his lifelong party to the Mafia, to Bernie Madoff’s fraud scheme, to the segregationist movement, even to the Nazis. He’s pretty disillusioned.

While Stevens is one of the most prominent “Never Trump” Republicans, and It Was All a Lie is predictably scathing about the failures of President Donald Trump, the book does not blame Trump for the failures of the party he leads. It essentially takes for granted that Trump is as bad a president and a human being as his worst Democratic critics say—and that he constantly violates supposedly bedrock Republican commitments to free trade, family values, limited government and the Constitution. His point is that Trump is a fitting representative of the modern GOP.

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In January, these clowns will want a seat at the table. I say, NOPE! The GOP needs to sit out for at least a generation after their debacle, IMO.

[The Magistrate]

2. He's Revealed It, Sir, Not Destroyed it.

Though to reveal what he has revealed is to destroy it....

[Brother Mythos]

4. Well said! I totally agree.

[crickets]

6. +1

[Maven]

10. Exactly.

It's been distilled down to its greedy, hateful, poisonous essence.

[kysrsoze]

3. I think they meant "personified" their definition of conservatism (e.g.-stupid assholism).

[mainer]

5. Sobering, depressing must-read. He lays it all out.

And yes, I have to admit George W. Bush was a decent human being, if a stupid one.

[DBoon]

7. Conservatism has allied with racism and conspiracy theories since the 1950s

It's just that everything else has been stripped away since then.

No more covering up with William F. Buckley's snarky pseudo-intellectualism.

[Leith]

8. 4 decades, eh?

That means that he was there through the Gingrich atrocity in the 1990s, the start of hate radio and fox propaganda channel, the Brooks Brothers riot at the Florida recount of 2000, and the Iraq War debacle.

NOW he says he's sorry?! Not good enough.

So intimidation and threat of violence to stop a vote count is just what good rethugs do in this guy's view. Stochastic terrorism and vicious lies that get people killed is perfectly okay. Invading a country that did not attack us is a perfectly sound conservative value.

Sitting out for a generation isn't good enough. These guys need to me shamed into leaving politics. Night shift sweeping floors at a remote truck stop is honest work. Let him try that for a while (like the rest of his life like many already do).

[bullimiami]

9. I've seen Stuart Stevens talking about it and

he said Trump just exposed the rot that was already there but they were all in seniss as l of.

[JHB]

11. All by himself, did he? Who's giving him names of judges to appoint? He doesn't know them himself.

Who's telling him what regulations to roll back? He doesn't know them himself.

What federal lands to open up for extractive industries? He doesn't know them himself. He can't even get their names straight.

What powers he has that he can twist to get around legal requirements? He didn't some up with using temporary appointments to sidestep Senate review all by his lonesome.

Which politicians are fine with all that?

The ones delivering those things for conservative interests, Stuart.


Say it with me now, Stu: C O N S E R V A T I V E S! The Heritage Foundation, The Federalist Society, the NRA, Turning Point USA! conservative stalwarts like Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich!

Your people.

You and your guys turned the Party of Abe into the Party of Ahab. Trump's just the guy who promised the Ahab voter base you conservatives nurtured free White Whale steaks for life. The Mexicans will pay for it!

And your guys are continuing to back him because he's giving them a chance to grab all the marbles and rearrange power to their liking permanently.

It's not like Bernie Madoff, Stuart. It's more like the Nazis or the Bolsheviks: exploiting far darker impulses to take power, destroying whatever gets in your way to reach that goal, and then arrange the world to your liking. What's that Schwarzenegger line so many conservatives enjoy? "What is life?" "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of da vimmen!"

No landslide starts because of one loose rock. It starts because the entire edifice has become unstable.

This all happened over the course of your career. You helped it happen. Nice that you finally noticed.