A devastating indictment of the Republican Party

Aug 10, 2020

Stuart Stevens, a seasoned Republican strategist behind Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign and author of "It Was All a Lie," dives deep into the identity crisis of the GOP. He argues that the rise of Trump revealed long-ignored truths about the party's core values. Stevens discusses the growing divide between party elites and the base, the role of race and economic issues in strategy, and the failures of past leadership. He reflects on how loyalty to Trump has transformed Republican identity and what it means for the future of the party.

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ANECDOTE

Missed Opportunities in 2016

Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, and other Republicans could have challenged Trump more directly in the 2016 debates.
Their failure to do so allowed Trump to capitalize on the party's lack of a core identity.

INSIGHT

Cowardice in the GOP

Republican politicians' submission to Trump stems from weakness, not malice.
They prioritize personal power over principles, reflecting a decline from previous generations' courage.

INSIGHT

The Dying Party

The Republican Party, like Lehman Brothers, is dying due to flawed fundamentals.
Its pursuit of power at any cost has led to electoral poison and a lack of coherent policy.

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For 30 years, Stuart Stevens was one of the most influential operatives in Republican politics. He was Mitt Romney’s top strategist in 2012, served in key roles on both of George W. Bush’s presidential campaigns, and worked on dozens of congressional and gubernatorial campaigns — building one of the best winning records in politics. Then Stevens watched his party throw its support behind a man who stood against everything he believed in, or thought he believed in.

Most dissidents from Trumpism take a familiar line: They didn’t leave the Republican Party; the Republican Party left them. But for Stevens, Trump forced a more fundamental rethinking: The problem, he believes, is not that the GOP became something it wasn’t; it’s that many of those within it — including him — failed to see what it actually was. In his new book, It Was All a Lie, he delivers a searing indictment of the party he helped build and his role in it.

This is a conversation about the Republican Party’s past, present, and future. We discuss the differences between the Democratic and Republican coalitions, whether party elites could have prevented Trump’s rise, the power the GOP base holds, the relationship between tax cuts for the rich and white identity politics for the poor, where the party can and can’t go after Trump, the GOP operatives trying to put Kanye West on the 2020 ballot, how Stevens played the race card in his first campaigns, why Romney lost while Trump won, and much more.

Book recommendations:

The memoirs of Franz von Papen

Black Cross by Greg Iles

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