Blowback: A warning to save democracy from the next Trump by
Miles Taylor. Taylor is the person who wrote the anonymous op-ed about working to limit damage from Trump.
Started: 9/13/2023
Completed: 9/19/2023
Recommendation: Mild Recommendation
Recommended By: Nobody
Review:
Kudos to Miles Taylor for facing the death threats, suffering the office, and destroying his savings trying to stop Trump. Despite any smear anyone may make, this is a person who saw an opportunity to make a difference for his country and leaped on it. He also lost his personal life. And there was the drinking. So, this is a guy who faced some pretty daunting stuff and he was pretty honest about how he really didn't feel up to the moment. It is difficult to tell in any personal recounting how big a role an individual had in a larger movement (in this case "Never Trump"), but if Taylor is to be believed, he provided a fulcrum on many occasions and carried the lumps for his efforts.
Taylor is definitely not my friend. He harkens back to the "compassionate conservative" era. You remember, when Reagan made up the lie about welfare mothers all gaming the system. Or, "read my lips" Bush who converted his time in the spook world into the highest office in the country (sound familiar Putin?). Or, Bush 2 who couldn't seem to talk his way out of a box while starting wars and claiming that the "mission was accomplished" after it had only begun. I always wondered why all conservatives didn't want to be compassionate and from asides in this book, it sounds like a little boy who is repeating what his Mama told him to say. To be fair, however, Taylor did fight against separating families at the border and numerous other truly horrific ideas that Trump developed and tried to implement.
I do think that he wants to find a way to negotiate with the irascible Democrat, but "common ground" always seems to end up deep into the red. Taylor is a non-MAGA Republican which is an important step away from the cliff that democracy faces. It is clear, however, that Taylor does not see clearly how the Republican party laid the ground work for Trump and continues to provide the infrastructure that feeds his kind of horror. It is clear, however, that he figures if he can move 8%, he's stopped Trump from being elected which should give you some insight into how deeply down the hole the vast majority of Republicans are.
I truly want to like this book. It literally ended with book burning talking about how pretty it was when the pages burned. I think this was intended as a metaphor for Taylor getting rid of his hidden past as Anonymous. It is a literal example, however, of the current Republican Party approach to cultural issues (burn it down). It is also entirely too close to home with the LGBTQ book banning. I dunno, the book was a pile of mixed messages with a few decent ideas. It is interesting to me, however, that there was never talk of trying to find a middle ground with Democrats, just a middle ground with the far right and right inclined independents.
