After the 2016 election, my Pollyanna side (perpetually battling my inner Eeyore) posited a hopeful theory. Possibly, I thought to myself, Donald Trump will bring Americans together. Possibly, I thought, his very badness would open Republicans’ eyes, and we would, kumbaya, come together in common purpose to impeach, to un-elect, or to somehow ditch. At least to oppose.
You all know how that turned out. By and large, Republicans closed ranks around DJT.
Recently, though, certain Republicans and former Republicans have nudged my little Pollyanna self awake. Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Mitt Romney, Olivia Troye, Alyssa Farah Griffin, Cassidy Hutchinson, and other GOPers, having turned against Trump, are now joining forces (more or less) to defeat him and elect Kamala Harris.
One of the most interesting of these renegade Republicans to me is Tim Miller, author of Why We Did It: A Travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell (2022). I talked about his book’s au courant slang in my last post.
Almost everyone except for MAGA diehards wonders what happened to the Republican party. How did it become anti-trade, anti-NATO, pro-Putin, and anti-teacher, and rabidly supportive of an adulterer, sexual assaulter, crooked businessman, and Bible and gold-shoe-selling hustler.
Tim Miller offers some answers. His book begins, “These were my people. I should know.” Miller never supported Trump, but before 2016 he was involved in Republican politics up to the eyebrows. He worked for Jon Huntsman, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and others. The first half of his book is a mea culpa for some of the moral compromises and dirty tricks he was involved in. “America never would have gotten into this mess if it weren’t for me and my friends,” he confesses.
Miller considered it a coup, for example, when he got Jeb Bush on Steven Bannon’s radio show in 2016. Now he realizes the coup was all Bannon’s. Bannon contrived to host the mainstreamiest of Republican politicians, thereby lending credibility to his yucky show and his icky self.
In the rest of the book, Miller interviews friends from his past, some of whom have escaped MAGA’s sway and some who haven’t. His friend (probably former friend) Caroline Wren, still a Trumper, is driven by her boiling hatred of liberals. She tells Miller, “I just don’t feel the need to drive around my Prius drinking a coffee Coolatta with a coexist bumper sticker. . . .Me moving from plastic to paper straws is not actually moving the needle [on climate change].” She is tired of being told what to do, of judgmentalism, and of diversity employment requirements and “left-wing sanctimony.”
Miller’s heartfelt reaction illustrates his witty and adroit style, as well as his good sense.
I was genuinely dumbstruck by this. As someone who loves a chocolate shake, I also find forcible paper-straw usage to be an utterly moronic inconvenience of modern urban life. But connecting that to support for Donald Trump? Being upset with Joe Biden about private companies switching to deteriorating straws? This anger didn’t click with me at all. I mean, seriously. Who cares? What even is a coffee Coolatta? I had to google how to spell it! Are we sure Coolattas are an elite lib thing? Apparently it’s what Dunkin’ Donuts calls their frozen coffee. This feels like the Armstrong of stretches.
(Full disclosure. I drive a Prius, frequently with a coffee in hand. But my coffee is often from Starbucks, not Dunkin’ Donuts, surely a more elite lib thing. I always refuse a straw. Caroline Wren would despise me.)
Miller has left the Republican party and now identifies as an independent. He works as Writer at Large and podcast host for The Bulwark–a website, podcast publisher, and newsletter. The Republican-led outfit’s mission is “to put country over party, to know that we’re all in this together, and to build a home for the politically homeless.” More bluntly, their mission is to defeat Donald Trump and elect Democrats not only to the Executive Branch but to legislative and local offices as well. Find them on YouTube. I don’t always agree with them but am very glad they are there.
Kumbaya.
I like Tim Miller and that random Buxton ND Pinto Bean poster. Always enjoy his commentary but haven’t read his works. I didn’t realize he had a Lincoln Project type project going on. March on Mr. Miller.
I, like Tim Miller’s “former friend” Caroline Wren, also have a boiling hatred: mine is of Trumpers, Trumpettes, and all things MAGA. Harboring boiling hatred is not something to be proud of, but I can’t help it. I drive around in a Honda Fit (no bumper sticker), powered exclusively by gasoline (but not very much of it), have never driven while drinking coffee or anything else (really, I hardly drive at all), and confess to having purchased some years ago what has turned out to be a lifetime supply of plastic straws that I am trying to deplete by using (is that better than just dumping them unused?). I am proud to be sanctimoniously judgmental in spite of all of the above. While I am somewhat enthused by Kamala, less so by Walz (he enjoys killing pheasants) I would vote for Donald Duck if I had to in order to be rid of the Orange Tide with its harmful algal cells and fungal spores. Thank you for this opportunity to rant.
Thanks, as always, for reading books I won’t ever get to and telling me what is in them succinctly and entertainingly.