The Impostors

How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics

By: Steve Benen

Narrated by: Ron Butler

National Best Seller

“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 Maddow)

The 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 America

For 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."

©2020 Steve Benen (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

Fascinating and Scary

Steve Bennen offers a lens that sheds considerable light on our current political landscape. It helps make sense of many of the decisions, arguments and actions of various political figures and of the modern Republican Party as a whole. It helps illuminate many of the inscrutable, confusing and often contradictory behavior of current Republican leaders. Bennen's lens also goes a long way toward explaining why it is so damned frustrating when Democrats and Republicans try to talk to or work with one another these days. I am not sure if he is 100% correct. The truth is always complicated. But this is a very useful lens that reveals at least part of the truth. I highly recommend it to both Democrats and Republicans, especially those who still hope for a civil conversation with members of the other party.

Enlightening but frightening.

We all know the conspiritor and cheat is crooked. The extent of his stupidity, infinite.

Excellent book!

This book goes into the depths of what has gone wrong in the Republican party and does offer some solutions. Excellent telling of the story!

Wonderful book

This was my first book into the Republican party. I very much enjoyed the humor and the history that was told. it was very well researched and very informative. highly recommended. The audio narrative was perfect and was good in preparation.

Benen nails it.

Steve Benen calls 'em out, including the news media, in this well-written look at the lazy yet power-hungry in DC. I learned a lot.

A recap of 21st century GOP demagoguery

A good recap of demagoguery and dirty tricks, of unprecedented levels and scope, committed by GOP candidates and politicians throughout the course of the last 12 to 15 years if not the entirety of the 21st Century.

Vote like our country depends on it...cuz it does.

"Don't govern, just win" strategy revealed.

The Imposters takes you down memory lane on many destructive and divisive decisions made under Republican leadership, from Newt Gingrich to Mitchell McConnell.
It has outlined, that for decades, how wrong all the "prominent" Republican's predictions were about what would happen if any Democratic policy was enacted.
Also, a spotlight is shone on a list of policy reversals on previous stated, staunchly-held, and fiercely-defended Republican ideologies.
And, a record of so many absurd statements that so many Republicans have said.

Now I know what it's called!

Post policy governance. How a political party discarded values, beliefs, and morals to Branding. I always thought GOP obstructionism was... well, disingenuous. Turns out, it's as genuine as they can be.

Best analysis of Trump and the Republican party

This is a stunning book. It is by far the best of all the Trump "tell all" books of the last three years. Extremely well researched. The amount of shocking Republican behavior and hypocrisy is overwhelming.

exposes McConnell and his thugs

some was hard to listen too...Republicans are morally bankrupt.
I am morally angry and frustrated