Why We Did It

A Travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell

By: Tim Miller

Narrated by: Josh Bloomberg

Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Former Republican political operative Tim Miller answers the question no one else has fully grappled with: Why did normal people go along with the worst of Trumpism?

As one of the strategists behind the famous 2012 RNC “autopsy,” Miller conducts his own forensic study on the pungent carcass of the party he used to love, cutting into all the hubris, ambition, idiocy, desperation, and self-deception for everyone to see. In a bracingly honest reflection on both his own past work for the Republican Party and the contortions of his former peers in the GOP establishment, Miller draws a straight line between the actions of the 2000s GOP to the Republican political class's Trumpian takeover, including the horrors of January 6th.

From ruminations on the mental jujitsu that allowed him as a gay man to justify becoming a hitman for homophobes, to astonishingly raw interviews with former colleagues who jumped on the Trump Train, Miller diagrams the flattering and delusional stories GOP operatives tell themselves so they can sleep at night. With a humorous touch he reveals Reince Priebus' neediness, Sean Spicer's desperation, Elise Stefanik and Chris Christie’s raw ambition, and his close friends’ submission to a MAGA psychosis.

Why We Did It is a vital, darkly satirical warning that all the narcissistic justifications that got us to this place still thrive within the Republican party, which means they will continue to make the same mistakes and political calculations that got us here, with disastrous consequences for the nation.

©2022 Tim Miller (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

Funny, honest, vulnerable. Left me wanting more

Bias up front, I listen to Tim Miller on The Bulwark and other interviews where he appears (not a follower on Twitter or TikTok) and generally find him funny and refreshingly clear-eyed.

This book is more of the same, in a good way. As a former GOP operative/researcher/hatchet man, Tim knows a ton of colleagues who never broke away from Trump and wants to know why. He starts by laying out the timeline of how he did it, his path of disillusionment with "the game" and the people he worked for competing with his ability to compartmentalize and desire to keep doing the thing he'd always known. After laying out his own reasons, he moves on to categorize the different reasons why others stayed on and gives examples of each. For him, it's viscerally personal; he knows all of these people to various degrees and gives anecdotes that really flesh out the character that he ascribes to them.

The book is well-written and tightly-paced. Tim is funny in both wordplay and blunt honesty. If it weren't an audiobook, I'd include some quotes; I really need to go back and write down some of the one-liners and turns of phrase. I also found this book very moving, particularly the vignettes about being an in (and then out-of-the-closet) gay man whose work was to publicly speak against his own desires and the interactions with some of the more sympathetic characters in the book.

My only complaint (which could also be seen as a good thing) was that it left me wanting more. It starts and ends with him reconnecting with one of his erstwhile connections, and the ending in particular is both sad and abrupt. Not everyone makes it out, and no one really does unscathed. But in some ways, that ending is the honest one, and this book was nothing if not honest and vulnerable.

This year’s political must read

Tim Miller clears up a lot while colorfully describing the political players in DC. It covers what all the other books don’t. The why is painfully exposed and includes his own. Loved it.

Why Trump Is Here To Stay

This is a well-constructed and compelling book generously larded with acerbic humor. I finished it in two days. Hilarious yet terrifying.

Great content and style

A good-humored romp through the under world of underlings who upheld Trump. He chooses words like a pro. Playful and fun.

Great listen, but still wish Tim would've read it.

Josh did a good job narrating, but hearing it in the author's voice would've been preferable here. Especially when it got to the intensive reaction parts, I feel like Tim could've conveyed more there.

Amazing!

Best book of the year! I love catching you on television and your prose style sucked me in from beginning to end.

Searching for a soul and a conscience among GOP professionals in the age of Trump

The book is very good and important as a document of how the Republican party shifted in the past decade or two, from a political party to an outrage generating community. Miller made a career out of being a player in that game, but broke with the GOP over Trump. He does a lot of soul-searching and interviews former colleagues and friends, trying to map out how they could continue working in or with the Trump administration, when he broke with Trump. Miller does a good job identifying various motivations and career types, but still can’t distance himself from the question enough to avoid expressing spluttering rage and incredulity, when his interview subjects continue in their chosen paths, even after the January 6th riot.
The reading was very good and expressive, but it would have been even better to hear it in the author’s own voice.

Brutal and funny!

I laughed out loud so many times. Appreciate the author's attempt to gain clarity and try to explain how in the world we got here.

Great and sad at the same time

Great because it’s a brutally honest assessment of the trump years.
Sad to understand the reasoning behind people sticking around to prop up the madman.
THANK YOU MR MILLER❤️

Hard to hear but worth the listen

Worthwhile journey through the Eyes of a former Republican into the Trump era and if there are any lessons learned by those who were part of it