by Tim Miller
First published 2022
Tim Miller spent years as a Republican political strategist, making calculated decisions that seemed harmless at the time. He watched colleagues like Reince Priebus and Lindsey Graham encourage conspiracy theories about Obama's birth certificate and Hillary Clinton's alleged crimes. They told themselves they were just playing politics, feeding red meat to the base while assuming someone else would handle the consequences. Miller conducts brutally honest interviews with former friends who jumped aboard the Trump movement, dissecting the mindset that led so many insiders to enable what they privately knew was dangerous. He traces how mainstream Republicans partnered with figures like Steve Bannon, whipping supporters into frenzies while believing they could control the outcome. The party establishment thought they were feeding a crocodile that would devour their enemies first. Instead, they created a mob that turned on them. Miller examines the hubris and self-deception that drove these choices, warning that without honest reckoning, Republicans will continue making the same catastrophic calculations. This insider's autopsy reveals how ambition and political gamesmanship brought American democracy to the breaking point.
Genres: american, political-science, politics, non-fiction, biography-memoir, 21st-century, current-affairs, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, hubris, self-deception
Setting: America, United States
Period: 21st-century
259 pages · Hardcover · HarperCollins Publishers