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Trumpocalypse: Restoring American Democracy Hardcover – May 26, 2020
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"I don't take responsibility at all." Those words of Donald Trump at a March 13, 2020, press conference are likely to be history's epitaph on his presidency.
A huge swath of Americans has put their faith in Trump, and Trump only, because they see the rest of the country building a future that doesn’t have a place for them.
If they would risk their lives for Trump in a pandemic, they will certainly risk the stability of American democracy. They brought the Trumpocalypse upon the country, and a post-Trumpocalypse country will have to find a way either to reconcile them to democracy - or to protect democracy from them.
In Trumpocalypse, David Frum looks at what happens when a third of the electorate refuses to abandon Donald Trump, no matter what he does. Those voters aren’t looking for policy wins. They’re seeking cultural revenge.
It is not enough to defeat Donald Trump on election day 2020. Even if Trump peacefully departs office, the trauma he inflicted will distort American and world politics for years to come. Americans must start from where they are, build from what they have, to repair the damage Trump inflicted on the country, to amend the wrongs that, under Trump, they inflicted upon each other.
Americans can do better. David Frum shows how—and inspires all readers of all points of view to believe again in the possibilities of American life. Trumpocalypse is both a warning of danger and a guide to reform that will be read and discussed for years to come.
- Print length272 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarper
- Publication dateMay 26, 2020
- Dimensions6 x 0.93 x 9 inches
- ISBN-100062978411
- ISBN-13978-0062978417
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About the Author
David Frum is a senior editor at the Atlantic and the author of nine books, including the New York Times bestseller Trumpocracy. From 2001 to 2002, he served as a speechwriter and special assistant to President George W. Bush. He and his wife, Danielle Crittenden Frum, live in Washington, DC, and Wellington, Ontario. They have three children.
Product details
- Publisher : Harper; First Edition (May 26, 2020)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 272 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0062978411
- ISBN-13 : 978-0062978417
- Item Weight : 12.8 ounces
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.93 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #988,210 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,256 in United States Executive Government
- #1,854 in Political Commentary & Opinion
- #2,085 in Political Conservatism & Liberalism
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
David Frum is senior editor at the Atlantic. He is the author of nine books, most recently Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic (2018). In 2001-2002, he served as speechwriter and special assistant to President George W. Bush. You can read him at https://www.theatlantic.com/author/david-frum/ and on Twitter @davidfrum
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Customers find the book well-thought-out, well-written, and sharp. They also describe the content as enlightening, informative, interesting, and persuasive.
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Customers find the book thought-provoking. They say the author's mind and words are sharp, nuanced, and open-minded. Readers also mention the book is clear, concise, and engaging.
"This book was well organized, relevant, well documented, and interesting—as one would expect from an author who is an articulate observer of..." Read more
"...and accurate, and his suggestions for fixing things post-Trump are thoughtful and creative. In short, this book is a “good read” that I enjoyed...." Read more
"Frum with intellectual earnestness and without wordiness or undue emotion uses history, philosophy, truth, and knowledge of what America at its..." Read more
"...to David Frum on Sam Harris' podcast recently and found him very nuanced and open-minded...." Read more
Customers find the content enlightening, informative, and interesting. They say the author's current support of him is powerfully persuasive, engaging, and relevant.
"This book was well organized, relevant, well documented, and interesting—as one would expect from an author who is an articulate observer of..." Read more
"...His mind and words are sharp, his thoughts both enlightened and enlightening, his criticisms fair and accurate, and his suggestions for fixing..." Read more
"...is dangerous about Trump and our current support of him is powerfully persuasive...." Read more
"...It’s enlightening and consistent with all we’ve seen. This is especially a convincing account from someone who has been a Republican." Read more
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Culture changes: “About 60 percent of Americans under age thirty-five live without a spouse or partner.” “…older Americans have been radicalized.” Fox is culpable, and the Sinclair Broadcast group with 193 stations in 100 markets reaches 40% of the TV market. “Facebook and YouTube are the most important conduits for alt-Right and pro-Trump disinformation.” The Trump campaign was the biggest advertiser on Facebook in the summer of 2019.
Trump’s movement is “radically masculinist and misogynist.” The cultural change for less-educated white men follows because “professions have been thrown open to women,” and “the ancient domestic division of labor has been upended. Men and women are more likely than ever to live apart.”
Trump won the election through the Electoral College, but not the popular vote. The author points out that “by 2040, 70 percent of the American population will live in fifteen states. Thirty percent of the population will live in thirty-five states.” That 30 percent will be disproportionately white, nonurban and older than fifty. This will influence the balance of power in the Senate, as well as the Electoral College. Republicans have artfully gerrymandered some districts, further influencing legislation. “In 2016, only seventy-two seats in the House were considered ‘competitive,’” with primaries often going to ideological extremes of the parties. The Supreme Court bowed out of interfering with gerrymandering.
The two parties have different priorities, e.g. health care, higher education, the difference in population brought about by increased immigration, Social Security. “Former liberals and progressives have veered sharply leftward, especially on issues of race, gender, and immigration.” Some of these positions, like Medicare for illegal aliens, can offend large numbers of Americans who are not for Trump. Political correctness and rule by the “elite” are sore points for Trump supporters. Some people are for Trump simply because they resent the way he is demonized. Frum notes the Parties use issues to fund raise off one another!
The author lists a series of suggestions to make politics fairer, with insightful explanations as to why they would help:
Publish tax returns for all candidates
Nuke the filibuster (Since the Republicans control more states/Senate seats, it is increasingly unlikely the Democrats could muster 60 percent for much of anything, and thus the metropolitan majority of voters will lose! Plus it is sadly easier for big donors to influence Senators from less populous states.)
Statehood for the District of Columbia
Adopt a Modern Voting Rights Act
Deter Gerrymandering
Depoliticize Law Enforcement (Department of Justice)
“…the Republican brand has cratered among every group but rural voters, white evangelicals, and white Catholics.” “The Trump campaign plan for 2020 is all culture war, all the time.” Leave the country open to Russian interference, suppress minority, youth and poorer votes, and raise and spend dark campaign funds. “Lie without remorse. Always be polarizing. Speak only to your base. Never admit error. Grab every buck. Conceal every record.”
Frum warns that democracy disappears not because people don’t like democracy, but “democracy disappears because people grow tired of unemployment and insecurity, and choose “to sacrifice liberty in the hope of getting something to eat.”
“He ends the book with a call against revenge. “You do not beat Trump until you have restored an America that has room for all its people. The resentments that produced Trump will not be assuaged by contempt for the resentful.”
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I first became familiar with David Frum as I was browsing through a list of Sam Harris’s podcasts where I found a conversation between him and Frum and decided to give it a listen. I knew he was a conservative and had heard him referenced before, but I really didn’t know much about him.
I was instantly struck by the intelligence of the guy and the facility he displayed in formulating complex verbal constructions off-the-cuff; no wonder he was a speech writer for a president. And he managed to get his views across without denigrating those who may take opposing views, something increasingly rare in the popular conservative world these days. I got the sense that this was a guy who understood the motivations of the ‘other side’ and recognized the need to find common ground, even though he had a particular point of view. Frum’s mode of interchange stands in stark contrast with way too many contemporary conservative voices; as Stuart Stevens remarked in “It Was All a Lie”, conservative thought these days is defined by the few who speak the loudest and with the most outrageous views, like the sports fan that paints his face and runs shirtless around the field.
From “keeps his shirt on”. I knew I wanted to read more from him.
Happily, that David Frum is in full display in Trumpocalypse, which I’m on my second read-through. There’s a lot to unpack here, and even a liberal-minded fellow like myself can find lots of common ground with Frum. That isn’t to say he isn’t able to create some discomfort: for example, although he builds a pretty well reasoned argument around the need to throttle back immigration in favor of ensuring that there is enough to go around for natives of the US, it still gets a bit uncomfortable when he skirts into stating that excessive immigration threatens social cohesion (my paraphrase). But making me uncomfortable doesn’t make him wrong, it just means that I have some thinking to do, and it provides the basis for a conversation regarding what the ‘right’ and ‘best’ things to do are. Personally, I find this kind of view welcome in these heatedly polarized days, and it would be great not to spend so much time trying to get those with other views to calm the f*** down first before a reasoned conversation can be had.
Trumpocalypse doesn’t spend too much time reviewing Trump’s actions and holding them up for criticism; Trump’s already proven guilty in Frum’s eyes, so don’t come here looking for material like that. He does spend a lot of time looking at various impacts of the Trump presidency (see the table of contents) which he contrasts with past administrations and alignments with US goals, showing how Trump is consistently working against many important US best interests. He often has prescriptions for what needs to be done in a post-Trump US, and in fact the number of policy ideas he comes up with makes you kind of wonder why he isn’t running for office.
I really enjoyed the writing in this book; I groped for a while for a decent pithy description, and I’ve decided that I’m happy with characterizing it as ‘richly textured’. Each sentence from Frum advances his thesis in a way that requires the reader to understand a fair collection of ideas; the language isn’t flowery, but it isn’t simple either. There is a depth to it that I find I really appreciate, and that new rewards are brought out with repeated readings, as if there is such a density to it that I couldn’t really take it all in the first time through.
There’s three things from the book that stand out in my mind:
One is the connection that Frum makes between immigration and overall societal benefit, and why providing benefits for illegal aliens instead of making sure Americans are cared for first is such a big driver behind Trump’s ‘America First’ position. It may not be the case that this is the whole appeal, but it does give one something tangible to hang the otherwise inscrutable appeal that he provides for so many, and it does raise a good area for reaching compromise between broader humanitarianism and duty to one’s own countrymen. I found this to be a measured and reasonable discussion of the issues, and unless you’re politically inclined to condemn anything that deviates from a party position, it’s a good place to start to consider how to reach a reasonable compromise.
Two is the observation that to reduce the attractiveness of a Trump-like candidate, you need to address the problems that makes a Trump-like candidate attractive. Frum often has solutions to some of the issue he highlights that should pretty progressive to my mind, which says to me that there’s hope for finding common ground between the parties if only the drive for power is overshadowed by a sense of duty to country.
Third is the recognition of so many Republican-driven counter majoritarian efforts to remain in power. This is often the scariest stuff in the book, as it drives home the point that Republicans are willing to use any means necessary to ram their agenda though and remain in power, heedless as to what the majority of the country wants, thus truly undermining democracy. Without a charismatic conservative leader to lead Republicans closer to the center and base their actions on core principles, it doesn’t bode well for the health of our democracy.
Overall I wasn’t disappointed with this book at all and got a lot out of it, and I think it will stand up to repeated readings over time.
I'm really glad I bought this book.
Very few pages to this book.