It Was All a Lie by Stuart Stevens–Book Report by Bobby Everett Smith
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September 29, 2020
Copyright © 2020 Bobby Everett Smith
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Executive Summary
Stuart Stevens has spent decades working as a Republican in Washington, D.C. This book is a devastating portrait of a party that has lost its moral compass. Stevens explains how racism has always lurked in the GOP party’s DNA. When a party stands for nothing, he claims it is inevitable that it will be taken over by the loudest and angriest voices in the room. Stevens helped to create the modern GOP that kneels before a morally bankrupt con man and now wants nothing more than to have it held accountable.
The Republican Party thinks Democrats have too much sex and it is their job to regulate that and modify the amount of sin that is going on in our country. Abortions would not be needed if men and women just quit having sex. The Christian Right would like the world to believe it was the political arm of Jesus Christ. It was more about the acquisition of power than a commitment to Christianity.
For over a decade, Trump lost more money in business than any other businessman in America, yet this is the man that Republicans have chosen to be their leader because of his business smarts.
“You can draw a straight line from that blend of kooky conspiratorial, anti-foreign alliance and instinctual victimhood to Donald Trump worldview. To Trump the internal forces conspiring against the country are the Deep State, not the Communists.” Trump’s vision of the world through the heavy fog of fear and paranoia.
The Manion Radio program became a model of the radio hosts who helped Barry Goldwater became the leader of the Conservative Movement in 1959.
Most Republican leaders know that Donald Trump is unfit to be president, but they pretend otherwise. The most distinguishing characteristic of the current Republican Party is cowardice. The price of admission is to accept that a pathological liar is the leader of the party and pretend that is not true.
Republicans believe in cutting taxes. All good in government comes from cutting taxes. This is what Republicans believe. There is a direct line between the raising of the national debt and the Republican belief in cutting taxes in accordance with the beliefs of the Americans for Tax Reform.
The Washington Post reported, “Trump’s lack of basic understanding of nuclear weapons is concerning enough but even more troubling is the lack of progress he has made in the last few months.” He simply refuses to make the effort to prepare himself for the job of commander in chief.
The Trump obsession with immigration reform reflects the belief that every non-white person or immigrant is a threat to the future of the Republican Party. To counter this trend, the Republican strategy is to make it harder for non-whites to vote, a continuation of white elites to remain in power by preventing non-whites from voting.
Why did the Republican Party embrace a man who mocked the disabled? Attacked a former POW and war hero? Defended Putin’s murder of a journalist? Blackmailed foreign governments into investigating political opponents? Bragged about assaulting women?
Republicans (and sometimes Democrats) took a sworn oath to defend the country yet they chose to support Donald Trump, the most “anti-American president in our nation’s history.”
A party rooted in decency and values does not embrace the vicious hate of Donald Trump that he peddles as patriotism. What the Republican Party must realize is that they need the country more than the country needs them.
Characters
Rex Tillerson (born March 23, 1952) served as the 69th United States Secretary of State from February 1, 2017, to March 31, 2018, under Donald Trump. Prior to joining the Trump administration, Tillerson was chief executive officer of ExxonMobil, holding that position from 2006 until 2017
Michael Flynn (born December 24, 1958) is a retired United States Army lieutenant general who was the 24th National Security Advisor[1] until his forced resignation. Flynn’s military career included. counterterrorism strategy and dismantling insurgent networks in the Middle East wars.
H. R. McMaster (born July 24, 1962) is a retired United States Army lieutenant general who served as the 26th United States National Security Advisor under Donald Trump.
Reinhold “Reince” Priebus[2] (born March 18, 1972) is an American lawyer and politician who served as White House Chief of Staff for President Donald Trump from January 20, 2017, until July 31, 2017. He also served as the chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) from 2011 to 201.
John Kelly (born May 11, 1950) is a retired U.S. Marine Corps general who served as the White House Chief of Staff for President Donald Trump from July 31, 2017, to January 2, 2019. He had previously served as Secretary of Homeland Security in the Trump administration.
“Ivanka” Trump (born October 30, 1981) serves President Trump since 2017 as advisor. The daughter and second child of President Trump and his first wife, Ivana, she is the first Jewish member of a first family, having converted before marrying her husband, Jared Kushner.
Lawrence Kudlow (born August 20, 1947) is the Director of the United States National Economic Council. He assumed that role in 2018 after previous employment as a financial analyst and a television financial news host.
Gina Haspel is an American intelligence officer serving as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) since 2018. She is the first woman to hold the post on a permanent basis and was previously the Deputy Director under Mike Pompeo.
Steven Mnuchin(born December 21, 1962) is an American investment banker, movie producer, and public official who is serving as the 77th United States secretary of the treasury as part of the Cabinet of Donald Trump.
Michael Pence (born June 7, 1959) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the 48th vice president of the United States, since 2017. He previously was the governor of Indiana from 2013 to 2017 and a member of the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2013
Daniel Coats (born May 16, 1943) is an American politician and former diplomat. From 2017 to 2019, he served as the Director of National Intelligence in the Trump administration. He served as a United States Senator from Indiana from 1989 to 1999 and again from 2011 to 2017. He was the United States Ambassador to Germany from 2001 to 2005, and a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1981 to 1989. Coats served on the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence while in the U.S. Senate.
Angela Merkel (born 17 July 1954) is a German politician who has been Chancellor of Germany since 2005. She served as the Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 2000 to 2018. Merkel has been widely described as the de facto leader of the European Union, the most powerful woman in the world, and by some commentators as the “leader of the free world”.
Kim Jong-un (born 8 January 1982) is a North Korean politician serving as Supreme Leader of North Korea since 2011 and the leader of the Workers’ Party of Korea since 2012. He is the second child of Kim Jong-il (1941–2011), who was North Korea’s second Supreme Leader from 1994 to 2011, and Ko Yong-hui (1952–2004.
Barack Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Barack Obama was the first African American president of the United States. He previously served as a U.S. senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004
Moon Jae-In (born January 24, 1953) is the current President of South Korea, having taken office in 2017. He previously served as chief of staff to then-president Roh Moo-hyun (2007–2008), leader of the Democratic Party of Korea (2015–2016) and a member of the 19th National Assembly (2012–2016).
Peter Navarro (born July 15, 1949) is an American economist and author. He serves in the Trump administration as the Assistant to the President, Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, and the national Defense Production Act policy coordinator.
James Mattis (born September 8, 1950) is a retired United States Marine Corps general who served as the 26th US secretary of defense from January 2017 through January 2019. During his 44 years in the Marine Corps, he commanded forces in the Persian Gulf War, the War in Afghanistan, and the Iraq War.
Mark Milley (born June 18, 1958) is a United States Army general and the 20th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As Chairman, he is the highest-ranking and most senior military officer in the United States Armed Forces. He previously served as 39th Chief of Staff of the Army.
Recep Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the 12th and current President of Turkey. He previously served as Prime Minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as Mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. Coming from an Islamist political background and as a self-described conservative democrat, he has promoted socially conservative and populist policies during his administration.
Stephen Miller (born August 23, 1985) is an American government official who serves as a senior advisor for policy to President Donald Trump. His politics have been described as far right and anti-immigration. He was previously the communications director for then-Senator Jeff Sessions.
John “Mick” Mulvaney (born July 21, 1967) is an American politician who served in President Donald Trump’s cabinet as Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), as well as acting White House Chief of Staff until 202. He previously served as the acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) from November 2017 to December 2018.
Stephanie Grisham[1] ( born July 23, 1976) is an American White House official who served as the 30th White House press secretary and as White House communications director from July 2019[3] to April 2020. During her time as the White House Press Secretary she did not hold a briefing. She has served as Chief of Staff and Press Secretary for the First Lady of the United States, Melania Trump since 2020, and previously as Press Secretary from 2017 to 2019.
Joseph Dunford Jr. (born December 23, 1955) is a retired United States Marine Corps general, who served as the 19th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from October 1, 2015 until September 30, 2019. He was the 36th Commandant of the Marine Corps. He has commanded several units, including the 5th Marine Regiment during the 2003 invasion of Iraq
Mark Esper (born April 26, 1964)[1][2] is the 27th and current United States secretary of defense, and a former U.S. Army officer and defense contractor lobbyist. He previously served as the 23rd United States secretary of the Army from 2017 to 2019.
Mitchell McConnell Jr. (born February 20, 1942) is an American politician serving as Kentucky’s senior United States senator and as Senate Majority Leader. McConnell is the second Kentuckian to serve as a party leader in the Senate, the longest-serving U.S. senator for Kentucky in history, and the longest-serving leader of U.S. Senate Republicans in history.
Benjamin Netanyahu (born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician serving as Prime Minister of Israel since 2009, and previously from 1996 to 1999. Netanyahu is also the Chairman of the Likud – National Liberal Movement. He is the longest-serving Prime Minister in Israeli history and the first to be born in Israel after the establishment of the state
Rudolph Giuliani (born May 28, 1944), is an American attorney and politician. He led the 1980s federal prosecution of New York City mafia bosses and led the city’s civic cleanup as its mayor from 1994 to 2001. In 2017, Donald Trump appointed him cybersecurity advisor. In 2018, he joined Trump’s personal legal team, Giuliani has been a Republican since the 1980s, the US Associate Attorney General from 1981 to 1983, he was the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1983 to 1989.
Kamala Devi Harris (born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and lawyer who has served as the junior United States senator from California since 2017. She is the presumptive Democratic vice-presidential nominee in the 2020 election.
Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States. Leader of the Republican Party
Summary It Was All a Lie—How the Republican Party became Donald Trump by Stuart Stevens
Stuart Stevens has spent decades working as a Republican in Washington, D.C. This book is a devastating portrait of a party that has lost its moral compass. Stevens explains how racism has always lurked in the GOP party’s DNA. When a party stands for nothing, he claims it is inevitable that it will be taken over by the loudest and angriest voices in the room. Stevens helped to create the modern GOP that kneels before a morally bankrupt con man. He now wants nothing more than to have it held accountable.
To Stevens, the GOP originally held a core set of values—character counts, strong on Russia, the national debt matters, immigration made America great, a big-tent party that invited all. These principles defined the Republican party for the last 50 years. Under Trump these values seem to have evaporated into the air.
Racism, the Original Republican Sin
In 1965 with passage of the Civil Rights Act, under Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat, the southern states have all switched from Democrat to Republican and these Confederate states have become Red States in almost every election since then. Race became the key issue in every presidential election and most of the local elections since then. The GOP has risen as the white man’s party.
In 1980 Ronald Reagan won 49 States but he lost the black vote by a 90% margin.
Today Donald Trump is the most openly racist president since Andrew Johnson in 1865.
The Democratic Party has fought for civil rights and believes that the government has a role in trying to create racial equality in this country. The modern Republican party does not believe that the government has a role in any way including racial.
The Republican Party as a national institution is dead but many Republicans have accepted Trump’s view that they are the victims of racial discrimination. Theirs was a white birthright and the rise of the black people was an unjust usurping of their rights.
The Nixon Republican party laid out the way to electoral success by maximizing white grievances and suppressing the African American vote through lies and legal challenges. Race now defines the modern Republican Party.
Republicans have lost the popular vote in five of the last six elections, Trump and George W. Bush have won the White House through the Electoral College.
Donald Trump called for a ban on Muslims entering the country. When asked to reverse that position, Trump refused. Why?
The Republican Party was and still is afraid of Donald Trump. Don’t ask me why.
Mitt Romney is one of few Republicans who have stepped up to call Trump what he is—a phony and a fraud. Other members of the Republican Party support Trump for the power of it and supporting him is, in their opinion, the only way to retain power.
The rest, the principles, the values, it was all a lie.
Family Values
The Republican Party thinks Democrats have too much sex and it is their job to regulate that and modify the amount of sin that is going on in our country. Abortions would not be needed if men and women just quit having sex. The Christian Right would like the world to believe it was the political arm of Jesus Christ. It was more about the acquisition of power than a commitment to Christianity.
White evangelicals consider Trump to be the ultimate white megachurch pastor.
White working-class voters aim to disenfranchise black voters. The aim to elect the most conservative, anti-gay politicians in America. It’s God’s will and trump’s election was a fulfillment from prophesy.
Eighty-nine percent of evangelicals supported Trump in 2016, higher than those of George W. Bush, a born-again Christian and Mitt Romney, a devout Mormon.
Decency, kindness, and compassion have no place in today’s Republican Party. Trump considers those characteristics weaknesses and now that is the view of the party which he leads. Christian leaders lead their flocks to support the least religious leader in American history.
Anger, racism, fear of the future lurks beneath the surface of the Christian right.
Trump, the Con Man
For over a decade, Trump lost more money in business than any other businessman in America, yet this is the man that Republicans have chosen to be their leader because of his business smarts.
When the Republican Party won all three chambers of government in 2007, the Federal debt skyrocketed from 20 Trillion to 22 Trillion. Trump promised to balance the budget within eight years. Instead of reducing the debt, Trump increased the debt by another two Trillion dollars in the next two years.
Republicans have contributed far more to the national debt than Democrats.
When Bill Clinton took office in 1997, the federal deficit was $357 Billion and heading higher. In 1998 the deficit was $10 Billion and heading lower. Next, Clinton produced a balance budget with no support from Republican congressmen in passing his budget. Clinton’s balanced budget was the first such balance in the last thirty years.
Clinton did not kill the economy as the Republicans predicted, the Clinton economic plan helped launch one of the longest economic growths in American history and helped create 23 million new jobs. Incomes rose, poverty fell. The only period of such economic growth came under Democrat President Obama. The Republican House at the time claimed credit for the success under Clinton. Perhaps it was a combination of a Democrat in the White House and a Republican House that created the optimum situation for economic growth. What is wrong with trying that again?
Republicans believe in the power of tax cuts to stimulate economic growth, Reganomics as it is sometimes called. Tax cuts benefit the rich and penalize the poor. The Republican Party is not serious about deficit reduction. They don’t think their constituents care much about reducing the size of the deficit or the debt.
Republicans pretend to care about the deficit but, they spend more than Democrats. They do not have the will to act to make it happen. Maybe later.
Trump’s Racism
Dwight Eisenhower integrated the first southern high school in America in Little Rock, AR in 1957 and Ike deployed 1,200 members of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and placed them in charge of the 10,000 National Guardsmen on duty. Escorted by the troops, the Little Rock Nine attended their first full day of classes on September 25.
It took 30,000 federal troops to integrate the University of Mississippi under John F. Kennedy in 1962. It was a rocky start to equal civil rights for all Americans.
The embrace of the Trump by the Republican Party was a repudiation of everything that the Republican’s had stood far in the past.
One of the hallmarks of the Trump era is the alacrity with which intelligent people has adopted Trump’s stupidity.
For example, Trump believes that global warming is a conspiracy and a hoax and that windmills cause cancer.
Republicans are now equating conservatism with conspiracy.
Machinery of Deception
The Republican Party is living in a world disconnected from reality. Every one is entitled to his own opinion but not his own facts. Republicans have built a political ecosystem that thrives of deceit and lies—an industrialized sort of deceit that is unique to the Republican Party.
Fox News is unique in American media history as serving more like an in-house propaganda arm of a strong-man dictator rather than operating by the accepted norms of normal journalism. Media activists like Fox News believed independence was vital to their work. They needed to develop their own radio programs, publishing houses and their own magazines if they were going to change American politics.
The branding of Fox News as “fair and balanced” seems primarily to serve purpose of proving that irony is not dead.
Before World War II, there was a toxic stream of anti-Semitism in the America First movement which seemed quite content to let Hitler deal with Europe’s Jewish problems. On his departure from office, Dwight Eisenhower warned the country of the Military Industrial Complex. The authors of the anti-Jewish article, Human Events, Felix Morley and Frank Henighen, wrote articles in Saturday Evening Post that challenged America’s entry in the second world war after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
William Buckley followed with a defense of the conservative movement in the early 1950’s. Buckley defended Joseph McCarthy is his attacks on Americans he believed to be Communists. Buckley was often a more articulate version of the same deep ugliness and bigotry which is the hallmark of Trumpism.
Clarence Manion, former dean of Notre Dame University, hosted a weekly radio show which became one of the brightest stars in the conservative movement. Manion was opposed to war in Europe. He was a Democrat and wrote a textbook stating that it was the government’s duty to guarantee all citizens a certain standard of living. Manion was isolationist and anti-Roosevelt. He supported the strange foreign policy of Ohio’s Robert Taft, leader in Congress of the isolationists and anti-communistic forces.
“You can draw a straight line from that blend of kooky conspiratorial, anti-foreign alliance and instinctual victimhood to Donald Trump worldview. To Trump the internal forces conspiring against the country are the Deep State, not the Communists.” Trump’s vision of the world through the heavy fog of fear and paranoia.
The Manion Radio program became a model of the radio hosts who helped Barry Goldwater became the leader of the Conservative Movement in 1959.
H.L. Hunt and Dan Smoot developed radio programs, tv programs and newsletters to promote their anti-government views. Hundreds of radio programs were broadcast throughout 42 states and the District of Columbia over 340 times per day, promoting their opposition to government.
During this period, the FCC attempted to control the output of these media giants through requirement of fair and balanced reporting or at least the broadcasting of competing positions.
In 1988 Rush Limbaugh launched his radio program. Limbaugh continued the positions of the Manion shows that in essence eliminated professional standards from public broadcasting. The purpose of this style of broadcasting was to sell your opinions but also your feelings.
There is little if any pressure within conservative journalism to admit errors much less correct them. Trump era journalists consistently deny that you heard what you heard or see what you thought you saw.
The Republican Party has been transformed into Russian apologists more concerned with defending Trump than defending the country against Russia. The Republicans are not stupid men and women, but they sometimes act like it. Their justification is sometimes based on the premise that a particular issue or cause is more important than the oath of office that they agreed to.
The purpose of much of the Conservative media is to lie to their audience. At the heart of the Trump presidency is the belief that Trump is not fit to be president, but they continue to support him, nonetheless. The simple reality is that the Republican Party is in business with Russian intelligence efforts that used to be known as the KGB. Precious few leaders of the Republican Party seem to care.
What Are They Afraid Of?
Most Republican leaders know that Donald Trump is unfit to be president, but they pretend otherwise. The most distinguishing characteristic of the current Republican Party is cowardice. The price of admission is to accept that a pathological liar is the leader of the party and pretend that is not true.
Republicans believe in cutting taxes. All good in government comes from cutting taxes. This is what Republicans believe. There is a direct line between the raising of the national debt and the Republican belief in cutting taxes in accordance with the beliefs of the Americans for Tax Reform.
Anti-American Patriots
The Washington Post reported, “Trump’s lack of basic understanding of nuclear weapons is concerning enough but even more troubling is the lack of progress he has made in the last few months.” He simply refuses to make the effort to prepare himself for the job of commander in chief.
Before his inauguration it seemed obvious that Trump would continue to be the same man, he has been all his life—incurious, semi-illiterate, and maladjusted. Many thought that Trump would adapt to the job and change with its requirements but that has not happened.
David Duke, White Supremacists, stated “we are in Charlottesville to take our country back. We voted for Donald Trump because he will ensure that we take our country back. That is why we voted for Donald Trump.
We should worry when a politician:
1. Rejects in words or action the democratic rules of the game.
2. Denies the legitimacy of opponents.
3. Tolerates or encourages violence.
4. Indicates a willingness to curtail the civil liberties of opponents including the media.
The Constitution means as much to Donald Trump as a game of golf, a game in which he routinely cheats.
In the Trump years, Republicans have sent a message that lying is useful and productive, that racism is acceptable, the press is the enemy, and a strong-man head of government is ideal.
Many Republicans find Trump repulsive and a degradation to their life’s work, yet they continue to support him knowing that it is damaging to their every value they have previously held.
American history has never seen a party so unified in perpetuating a massive fraud. This isn’t the action of a rogue president like at Watergate, but a calculated decision to join hands with a president that they know is a threat to this country.
These are weak men and women who have decided that their self-worth is based on winning elections. It would have been much worse, they say, if they had not intervened. They are willingly destroying the value of moderate government for decades to come. This was their moment to stand for something important and they chose re-election.
The Empire’s Last Stand
The Trump obsession with immigration reform reflects the belief that every non-white person or immigrant is a threat to the future of the Republican Party. To counter this trend, the Republican strategy is to make it harder for non-whites to vote, a continuation of white elites to remain in power by preventing non-whites from voting.
Barry Goldwater’s opposition to the Civil Rights Act which made Jim Crowe Laws in the South illegal is the defining moment of the modern Republican Party. That year 93% of blacks voted for Lyndon Johnson. The die was cast that led the Republican Party into the white party it is today.
Republicans claim massive voter fraud throughout the nation and especially within the nonwhite community. Researchers have concluded that there is almost no voter fraud in American elections. The Republican assumption is that any illegal voter is a Democratic voter.
It took the Twenty-fourth Amendment to the Constitution to abolish the poll tax.
We are all good Christian men and women, the Republicans state. The common thread of their strategy is fear. Fear of change, fear of the unknown. The current Republican Party is driven by conspiracy theories originated by nutty radio, nutty internet, and a nutty president.
Trump’s Deep State is the evolution of the Joseph McCarthy’s Communists invading the State Department beliefs of the 1950’s—the enemies within. They had the same lawyer, Roy Cohn. In the 1950’s Republicans had the courage to stand up to Joseph McCarthy; today, Republicans refuse to confront Donald Trump. Republicans are increasingly uneasy in the world of change. The American sense of optimism has been replaced by Republicans and Democrats with a sense of foreboding of what lies ahead for a threatened America.
Nonvoters handed Trump the presidency in 2016. Nonvoters were distortional non-white, poorer and younger than the voting group.
Still Republicans have no problem mandating reproductive rights, opposition to registering non-white voters, and to hate California.
How Do Lies End?
Why did the Republican Party embrace a man who mocked the disabled? Attacked a former POW and war hero? Defended Putin’s murder of a journalist? Blackmailed foreign governments into investigating political opponents? Bragged about assaulting women?
Republicans (and Democrats) took a sworn oath to defend the country yet they chose to support Donald Trump, the most “anti-American president in our nation’s history.”
Republicans who abandoned their allegiance will not look back favorably on their switch to support Donald Trump. They will look back on this period of their lives with a mixture of shame, regret, and sadness. Many generations in our history went out and fought for our country. This generation went out and fought for Donald Trump. The Republicans of today like being the voice of white America. They see their misguided support of Trump as their patriotism. The Republican Party remails the party of white, Christian America. Donald Trump did not change the Republican Party so much as he gave it permission to be what it is. How long can a party which clings to power as the white party of America last when the country is changing as rapidly as it is.
A party rooted in decency and values does not embrace the vicious hate of Donald Trump that he peddles as patriotism. What the Republican Party must realize is that they need the country more than the country needs them.
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