PRO CONNECT
A former Republican takes on President Donald Trump and the modern GOP in this political work.
As a professor emeritus at Boston University and an associate at Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, much of Clemens’ prodigious scholarship has focused on complexity theory and international relations. In this book, he offers an impassioned and personal case against Trump not just as an academic, but also as an ex-Republican. Thus, while the work opens by quoting conservative icon Ayn Rand, it argues that “what was the Grand Old Party now ignores many of the principles championed” by that luminary, from an emphasis on personal character to sound government. Clemens implores both conservatives and progressives to reject the “evil…Trump-Republican virus” that “has sickened America’s body politic” and threatens to turn the nation into an autocracy. Refusing to pull his punches, the author devotes an entire chapter, for example, to examining the “parallels” between Hitler and Trump, who follows the “Nazi model” by deploying “colorful language to people who felt left behind,” exploiting racism, and skirting the law to solidify power. Yet the administration’s political machinations are limited by its ineptitude, as Clemens describes Trump’s regime as a “kakistocracy” ruled by the “ignorant, incompetent, and venal.” Blending a polemic with a scholarly analysis (and ample footnotes), other chapters look at Trump’s ability to unite the alt-right and evangelical Christians behind a rhetoric that blends faith and nationalism, which provides legitimacy to extremists and an excuse for religious fundamentalists to ignore the president’s own salacious history. Both groups are unified through their “hostility to liberal democracy,” which celebrates racial, religious, and cultural diversity.
Additional chapters skillfully showcase Trump’s hypocrisy of “imposing Law and Order with Storm Troopers” on Black protesters while filling his cabinet with criminal “Dirty Old Men,” like Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, who brazenly defy the law. Indeed, the book’s most compelling chapters are those that systematically detail case after case of corruption inside Republican administrations since the 1980s. While Trump and the modern GOP are the villains of his narrative, Clemens—despite his past affiliation with the party—sees the president as the culmination of a Republican strategy since the late 20th century. Tellingly, Republicans have allowed Trump to supplant traditional conservative ideas, such as family values, fiscal responsibility, and a foreign policy that promotes freedom, with a new “Amoral Code” that justifies criminal behavior and ignores the national debt in favor of a tax system that rewards political donors. This code has turned the nation away from alliances with liberal democracies, embracing authoritarian partners in Saudi Arabia and Russia. The volume concludes with a pragmatic and comprehensive plan to “reboot America” that includes a massive federal investment in science and technology and a host of voter empowerment initiatives. Overall, this is a searing indictment not just of Trump and his cronies, but also of insincere Republican politicians who have for nearly a generation supplanted President Ronald Reagan’s idealized “city on a hill” with “a model of venal greed mocked and despised by people of good will.” Though some may dismiss Clemens’ comparisons between Trump and Hitler as hyperbolic, the author’s scholarly bona fides and Republican background lend credibility to a book that is both erudite and accessible.
A well-researched and uncompromising case against today’s Republican Party.
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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