The Impostors, Steve Benen
The Impostors, Steve Benen
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The Impostors
How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics

Author: Steve Benen

Narrator: Ron Butler

Unabridged: 11 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 06/16/2020


Synopsis

NATIONAL BESTSELLER“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 MADDOWThe 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 AmericaFor 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.""

About Steve Benen

Steve Benen is a producer on The Rachel Maddow Show and the author of The MaddowBlog. Benen’s articles and op-eds have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Monthly, The American Prospect, Salon.com, and other publications. For his work on TRMS, he has received two Emmy Awards, and has been nominated for four more. He is the author of The Impostors: How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics, a national bestseller. He lives in Vermont.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Paulatics on June 18, 2020

This book is brilliant, both in its simplicity and its deep research. The Republican Party is not a governing party. It hasn't been in decades. They have no public policy goals. They do not stand for anything. They do not care about the American people; not the public health, not the public welfare,......more

Goodreads review by Brea on June 25, 2020

I have to admit I have been more focused on politics over the past 5 years than ever before. I wish I would have paid more attention but hindsight is 20/20 and all that. Steve Benen looks back over the past decade and shows how the GOP went from a governing party to an "electoral and ideological par......more

Goodreads review by Janine on August 28, 2020

Excellent analysis of the Republican Party: no vision, no policy, no ideas, no platform, no principles and woefully ignorant of how government runs. The deceit and lying these self-professed patriots do on a daily basis is astounding. It is small wonder our Bozo President leads them. And, they live......more

Goodreads review by Anne on July 13, 2020

The entire thesis that the Republican Party is a post-policy party truly unlocks the understanding every time they spout nonsense, lie, they ignore statistics, or they change the subject—there is no there there. They have no standards, no goals, no policy, and no means or desire to carry them out, e......more