The Impostors

How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics

De: Steve Benen

Narrado por: Ron Butler

National Best Seller

“This is the definitive account of what has gone wrong in our two-party system, and how our democracy has to adapt to survive it. I can't say it in strong enough terms: Read. This. Book.” (Rachel Maddow)

The award-winning producer of The Rachel Maddow Show exposes the Republican Party as a gang of impostors, meticulously documenting how they have abandoned their duty to govern and are gravely endangering America

For decades, American voters innocently assumed the two major political parties were equally mature and responsible governing entities, ideological differences aside. That belief is due for an overhaul: in recent years, the Republican Party has undergone an astonishing metamorphosis, one so baffling and complete that few have fully reckoned with the reality and its consequences.

Republicans, simply put, have quit governing. As MSNBC's Steve Benen charts in his groundbreaking new book, the contemporary GOP has become a "post-policy party." Republicans are effectively impostors, presenting themselves as officials who are ready to take seriously the substance of problem solving, but whose sole focus is the pursuit and maintenance of power. Astonishingly, they are winning - at the cost of pushing the political system to the breaking point.

Despite having billed itself as the "party of ideas", the Republican Party has walked away from the hard but necessary work of policymaking. It is disdainful of expertise and hostile toward evidence and arithmetic. It is tethered to few, if any, meaningful policy preferences. It does not know, and does not care, about how competing proposals should be crafted, scrutinized, or implemented. This policy nihilism dominated the party's posture throughout Barack Obama's presidency, which in turn opened the door to Donald Trump - who would cement the GOP's post-policy status in ways that were difficult to even imagine a few years earlier.

The implications of this approach to governance are all-encompassing. Voters routinely elect Republicans such as Mitch McConnell and Ted Cruz to powerful offices, expecting GOP policymakers to have the technocratic wherewithal to identify problems, weigh alternative solutions, forge coalitions, accept compromises, and apply some level of governmental competence, if not expertise. The party has consistently proven those hopes misguided.

The result is an untenable political model that's undermining the American policymaking process and failing to serve the public's interests. The vital challenge facing the civil polity is coming to terms with the party's collapse as a governing entity and considering what the party can do to find its policymaking footing anew.

The Impostors serves as a devastating indictment of the GOP's breakdown, identifying the culprits, the crisis, and its effects, while challenging Republicans with an imperative question: Are they ready to change direction? As Benen writes, "A great deal is riding on their answer."

©2020 Steve Benen (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

Three Card Monte Politics

The Impostors, How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics, written by Steve Benen, and narrated by Ron Butler. This is a brilliant work; whose presentation is very readable (listenable.) Its subject matter is a comparison between today’s American political marketplace positions from the right and the left. It covers the topics of economics, health care, environment, immigration, fiscal, monetary, and foreign policy and compares the positions of the two factions of American government Republicans/Democrats. It is not kind to the Republicans or Trump. Its technique in the presentation is to compare the policy of the Republicans and the Trump Administration versus the Democrats and the Obama Administration. What does it all come down to? The Republicans or Trumpsters, according to Mr. Benen, are not political theorists as one would expect from our Representatives and their Parties. They, Republicans and Trump, are shenaniganist. (I just made up that word.)

If Trump and the Republicans are not intellectually driven, then one might ask for what purpose is their goings-on. Mr. Benen’s Answer: To hold power for their titillation of having that power and the opportunity of using that influence to attract to themselves emoluments. Mr. Benen though explains further, to get to that reward, they must seduce their constituents into believing they are working for the common good while the common good is only a pitch to the constituents.

Here is a simple rule to help decide whether to purchase and read this book. If you are going to be a national representative in the Congress or an aide, you must read and master the policy history and breakdown of today’s political issues discussed in the volume. It very well presented but complex and to enjoy you must be a policy wonk. If you are lightheaded this is far too sophisticated of a publication.

I had been looking at our national division as a struggle between the conservative point of view versus the liberal point of view. Mr. Benen has proven to me; there no longer is a conservative philosophy. There is only a con job, by the right, being perpetrated on their adherents.

Sadly true

You just don’t want to believe that things have gotten so bad. This explains so much about the lack of governance coming from the Republican Party. I found myself laughing at some of the ridiculous remarks made by GOP leaders that so showcases their stupidity and laziness. They’re only in it for the paycheck, the primo benefits, and the “retirement” plan.

Finally!

The author puts forward many examples of gop flip flopping, going against their own own stated ideas. just to not look like they were working with Dems. Almost all of it is verifiable!!! Before u start whining about bias, research it first.

Fascinating and Scary

Steve Bennen offers a lens that sheds considerable light on our current political landscape. It helps make sense of many of the decisions, arguments and actions of various political figures and of the modern Republican Party as a whole. It helps illuminate many of the inscrutable, confusing and often contradictory behavior of current Republican leaders. Bennen's lens also goes a long way toward explaining why it is so damned frustrating when Democrats and Republicans try to talk to or work with one another these days. I am not sure if he is 100% correct. The truth is always complicated. But this is a very useful lens that reveals at least part of the truth. I highly recommend it to both Democrats and Republicans, especially those who still hope for a civil conversation with members of the other party.

Enlightening but frightening.

We all know the conspiritor and cheat is crooked. The extent of his stupidity, infinite.

Excellent book!

This book goes into the depths of what has gone wrong in the Republican party and does offer some solutions. Excellent telling of the story!

Best analysis of Trump and the Republican party

This is a stunning book. It is by far the best of all the Trump "tell all" books of the last three years. Extremely well researched. The amount of shocking Republican behavior and hypocrisy is overwhelming.

exposes McConnell and his thugs

some was hard to listen too...Republicans are morally bankrupt.
I am morally angry and frustrated

Very Clarifying of why we're in a bad place

I liked this immensely and for me it illustrated to a "T" not governing GOP

Lots of new information

I liked this book a LOT! Details that were new to me, and written in a very easy listening. The Imposters is definitely the correct definition of this administration.