New Book Sheds Light on Decade of GOP Dysfunction that Set Stage for Trump’s Rise
A conversation with Politico’s Chief Political Correspondent and Author of “American Carnage,” Tim Alberta.
Whether you were happy or concerned by the outcome of the 2016 election, it’s safe to say we were all surprised. In the years that have followed that political upset, the unconventionality of President Trump’s presidency has left many of us scratching our heads from time to time. But, according to Politico Magazine’s Chief Political Correspondent Tim Alberta, the GOP unknowingly set the stage for about a decade before Trump rose to power and shook up the highest office in the land.
“Nothing is permanent in politics, everything is cyclical.” – Tim Alberta, author
Tim Alberta joins host Stephen Henderson to discuss the Mueller testimony and his newly released book, “American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump.
Alberta notes that “in so many ways our political ecosystem has been turned upside down and things that were once considered inappropriate are now just part of everyday political life.”
All of that turmoil buries conventional political reporting. “You could pass the most meaningful legislation and it’s still going to end up on page four of the newspaper,” says Alberta.
When looking back at the Republican landscape that allowed Trump to come to power, Alberta points out that George W. Bush’s final couple of years in office were “a disaster,” but he also mentions that “nothing is permanent in politics, everything is cyclical.”
