The Conspiracy to End America

Five Ways My Old Party Is Driving Our Democracy to Autocracy

By: Stuart Stevens

Narrated by: Jeff Bottoms

“This is the first must-read of the 2024 election cycle if you want to understand the stakes.” –Nicole Wallace

A former chief Republican strategist and bestselling author of It Was All a Lie offers an ominous warning that the G.O.P. is dragging our country towards autocracy, and if we don’t wake up to the crisis in our system, 2024 may well be our last free and fair election.

Today’s Republican party is not a “normal” political party in the American tradition. It has become an autocratic movement masquerading as a political party. As Stuart Stevens argues in The Conspiracy to End America, if we look away from that truth, we greatly increase the likelihood that the America we love will slip away, never to return.

Whenever a democracy slides into autocracy, there are five critical elements at work: financers, propagandists, party support, legal theories to legitimize, and shock troops. The Conspiracy to End America examines each of these driving forces on the Right and makes clear how they are working in concert to end our democracy as we know it.

In the tradition of It Can’t Happen Here and On Tyranny, The Conspiracy to End America is a blinking red distress call about the dark intentions lurking within Stevens’ old party and a rallying cry to beat back this perilous threat and save the Republic.

Critic reviews

“Stop whatever you are doing. Pour a stiff drink and read Stuart Stevens’s new book right now. On the other side of this political and civic moment, we will look around for the people who saw it coming and warned us—not hysterically, but methodically, and with evidence that the Republican Party has become one of the world’s most agitated autocratic movements. With his exquisite voice and decades of relationships and experience, Stuart walks readers through the transformation of a once (relatively) normal party to one that now poses a threat to democracy. Stuart is my friend, but I don’t recommend this because of our friendship: This is the first must-read of the 2024 election cycle if you want to understand the stakes.”
—Nicolle Wallace, anchor of MSNBC / Deadline Whitehouse

“As a former Republican strategist and media consultant, [Stevens] knows the threat we face today from the Republican Party, which has embraced autocracy and works to damage our democracy beyond repair. His timely and heartfelt book lays out the essential elements and enablers of authoritarianism with admirable clarity. It’s essential and timely reading.”—Ruth Ben-Giat, MSNBC Opinion Columnist and author of Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present

“THE CONSPIRACY TO END AMERICA is a meticulously argued clarion call to action in defense of our fragile democracy. As a political practitioner with a deep understanding of how MAGA Republican strategists, money men, and legal minds operate, Stuart is uniquely suited to suss out how the plot against our system of government is being executed. This book is a succinct, digestible assessment of the existential stakes that face us from an engaging writer. I pray we beat back this threat in the years to come so Stuart can use his skills to write about family and Ole Miss Rebels football once again.”—Tim Miller, American political consultant and author of Why We Did

“THE CONSPIRACY TO END AMERICA is two stories in one: It’s the story of how the Republican Party came to reject democracy as a governing principle. It’s also the story of a former Republican insider and political operative confronting the painful truth that the party he once worked for has embraced authoritarianism. ‘Pain is the best teacher in politics,’ says Stuart P. Stevens. He thus concludes that ‘the only hope for the Republican Party is for it to suffer crushing defeat after crushing defeat so that it is forced to confront its failures.’”—Teri Kanefield, author of Alexander Hamilton: The Making of America

“Republican campaign legend Stuart Stevens used his skills to battle Trump as candidate and president. Now Trump is back—and so is Stevens, with this anguished and eloquent summons to stand for democracy against reactionary authoritarianism at home and abroad.”—David Frum, senior editor at The Atlantic and MSNBC contributor

Every American should read this book, mostly Republicans.

As a lifelong Republican, Stuart is hitting the nail on the head. A must read for any never Trumper’s. A must read for anyone that really wants to have a democratic form of government in America. This thread is serious and real.

Knowledge, understanding, insight, authenticity!

I thought this book on what is going on with Trump and the Republican party. I found the book very informative, truthful, and essential to understand what is happening to our democracy. I respect the author Stewart Stevens and have been following him for years
Must listen to this.

The end of US democracy

Scary, confessional, autobiographical description of America slowly twisting in the wind of autocracy. Does not invoke fear as much as motivation to act. Voting as democratic action. As a better defiance than guns or conspiracy beliefs. Germany in the early 1930’s, Hungry under Orban. Russia under Putin, China under Xi. America under Republicans.

Sane and Sensible

So sane and sensible. Well written and well read. Gives me hope that democracy will survive and perhaps even prosper if more lifelong, diehard Republicans like Stuart Stevens take the same honest and courageous look at what the Grand Old Party has become in the era of Trump.

Please read this book

The best book I have read on the very real threat to our democracy. Sometimes it feels so much easier to ignore politics, and the condition of our democracy, but we do so at our own peril. Every voting American needs to read this book and take it seriously. I know that I have often assumed that our country would always be a land of freedom and justice for all, but the very core of our democracy, our Constitution, and the rule of law is being severely attacked. We simply cannot ignore this reality. Please read this book.