American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump

Republican congressional factions battle each other and Donald Trump for the party's soul in this sweeping study of modern American politics. Politico magazine correspondent Alberta surveys a decade of GOP upheaval; he begins with the rise of the ultraconservative Tea Party and its feud with establishment Republicans during Barack Obama's presidency, moves on to party leaders' failed efforts to quash Trump's 2016 campaign, and recounts their struggle to corral votes in a Republican Congress after Trump's victory and to deal with the president's volatile style and erratic leadership. Drawing on extensive interviews with politicians and pundits, Alberta's engrossing narrative is full of sharp intrigues and vivid personalities and focuses on attempts by House Speakers John Boehner and Paul Ryan to craft legislative compromises against furious resistance%E2%80%94and speakership challenges%E2%80%94from the party's uncompromising right wing. Alongside the horse-trading, Alberta explores two tectonic shifts in the American electorate: the Republican base's turn away from small-government, fiscally austere, free market, free trade Tea Party doctrine to a Trumpian populism of anti-immigrant xenophobia, protectionism, and free-spending industrial policy, as well as an overall demographic shift toward a less white, better educated, more urban population. Incorporating trenchant analysis and a wealth of detail in stylish prose, Alberta highlights the broad currents beneath the chaos of recent politics. (July)