“American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump” (Harper) is a 600-plus page doorstop of a book. It begins in February 2008 and ends just after the 2018 midterms, meticulously diagramming the internal conflicts and ultimate capitulation by Republicans to a party redefined by a man most of them loathed. It’s stomach- and soul-curdling at times, but vitally instructive as to how we got here and what may follow.
Author Tim Alberta, Politico magazine’s chief political correspondent, deserves praise for his dispassionate, scrupulously fair reporting. It can make reading painful at times, as when he describes the newly-elected President Obama making sincere overtures to Republicans that could have led to unheard of levels of bipartisan unity. Instead, the GOP laid a few traps that Obama walked into due to lack of experience, and he deepened the divide by declaring “elections have consequences” and moving ahead without their support on several fronts. All that is just an appetizer, though; it was the battle for the GOP nomination between Mitt Romney and John McCain that began the party’s race to the bottom, and ultimately led to Trump.
A lot of Republican heavyweights initially come across as sincere and non-slimy here, and it’s a shock and disappointment to see them utterly sell themselves out to a man they dislike and distrust. While reading, you begin to admire the prescience of anyone smart enough to quit before they could be fired or otherwise humiliated. John Boehner laughs ruefully at the fallout, but it’s much harder to believe Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan when they claim to be at peace with their roles in the dismantling of the party.
And then there’s Trump, the reason for this story but in many ways not the center of it. Alberta captures accounts of the president that conflict with the larger narrative about him, but they only lead to more confusion. We hear that he can soak up information like a sponge, formulate pointed, intelligent questions, and show real emotion when offering condolences, a persona that’s hard to square with the tantrum-throwing idiot we’ve all seen come unglued on Twitter and in interviews. There are traces of a real human being on display at times here, then one toothpick is removed and the entire tower collapses, inevitably with dreadful consequences. Did the schism in the party make Trump this way, or did a schism within Trump shape the party?
There are funny moments — or at least surreal ones, as most transcripts of Sarah Palin speeches tend to be — and ones that are fairly sickening, as when Mitch McConnell proudly admits that a blatant promise of conservative judicial appointments was pretty much the defining issue of Trump’s presidency. Mark Meadows, who you might recognize from recent news as the grandstanding doofus yelling that impeachment is illegal, immoral, and fattening, appears here as a freshman lawmaker in 2013; Alberta capitalizes on the Netflix debut of House of Cards in the same year to draw a comparison with Frank Underwood, the Machiavellian creep played by Kevin Spacey. Given Meadows’ persistent drive to manipulate and control, they fairly blend together, but for the sad fact that only one is fictional.
The story ends with the 2018 midterms, which wildly exceeded expectations for Democrats and left Republicans trying to spin a 40-seat gain for the opposition as somehow good for them. Given the further push to the left with 2019’s midterms, there’s some cause to be hopeful (and a ton of work to be done). Trump offers some grudging admiration for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez along with his usual barrage of insults; he seems to view her as a kindred soul who simply has an opposing viewpoint. But AOC works for her constituents and also for the country as a whole, demystifying how the governmental sausage is made and how best to leverage our power as voters. Trump works for himself, and his brand, and today’s GOP has decided that’s an acceptable price to pay for pro-choice judges. Read “American Carnage,” and weep. Then get back to the fight.
Heather Seggel is a writer living in Northern California. Email heatherlseggel@gmail.com.
From The Progressive Populist, February 15, 2020
Blog | Current Issue | Back Issues | Essays | Links
About the Progressive Populist | How to Subscribe | How to Contact Us