Carlos Lozada of the Washington Post, read 150 books about Donald J. Trump. Lozada chronicles the shock and disbelief of America’s intellectual class when Trump defeated Hillary Clinton despite the polls that said Clinton was ahead of Trump (and of course the same thing happened in 2020).
Then we had the four years of Trump’s savaging of environmental regulations, his dismantling of the Pandemic Response unit, Trump’s corruption of the Justice Department, his withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accords, and Trump’s ineffectual trade wars.
Early in 2020 it looked like Trump was headed for a Second Term as President. And then the coronavirus hit. Trump’s massive mis-management of the Covid-19 response is surely one of the reasons he lost the Presidential Election. Lozada adds analysis from dozens of books that explain how Trump was able to fool so many people so much of the time. What Were We Thinking is one of the Best Books of 2020! GRADE: A
How do you feel about the 2020 Presidential Election now? My response is below:
Table of Contents:
Introduction 1
1 Heartlandia 9
2 Resistible 34
3 The Conservative Pivot 54
4 Beyond the Wall 79
5 True Enough 99
6 See Some I.D. 124
7 Him, Too 146
8 The Chaos Chronicles 170
9 Russian Lit 199
10 In Plain View 217
Epilogue 243
Acknowledgments 249
Index 253
All’s well that ends well.
For us in Europe it also were hard days waiting.
To have another 4 years with Donald who treated most of his European allies like dirt would have been horrible.
Wolf, now the United States has to deal with four years of Trump’s damage. And all the Trump lifetime appointments of Federal Judges and Supreme Court Justices. Things will be messed up here for decades!
It ain’t over yet…unless I missed something while I was sleeping.
Deb, a Biden win borders on inevitable. The Big Question is how will Trump react.
150 books about him! That has to be a record number although many may predate his political career. Deb’s right,-I think it is far from over.
Patti, when I go to BJ’s Warehouse and Sam’s Club, their hardcover book section always has a dozen books about Trump–both pro and con. You’re right about this Election being far from over with all the Trump legal challenges. But I think most of the legal maneuvering will be ineffectual. Biden will probably end up with 306 Electoral Votes…the same number that Trump ended up with in 2016. Ironic…
Yeah, I found that ironic too. I don’t know what Pennsylvania or the networks are waiting for at this point. Every time they count more ballots, his lead grows, and the votes left to count are from Philadelphia and its suburbs and Pittsburgh, mostly, very pro-Biden areas. This mess is all because of the cynical decision made by the Republican-controlled legislatures in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin not to allow any counting or processing before the polls closed, in hopes of what happened – Trump convinced Republicans that mail in voting was BAD and dangerous so they should vote on Election Day, giving him a huge early lead. It was futile in the end, of course, but when has Trump ever had any concern over the good of the country rather than ME! ME! ME! Never.
Jeff, you’re right about the delayed vote counts. All states should follow the model of Florida which reported on Election Night.
I read several reviews of this when it came out about a month ago, checked my library, and they didn’t have it. Now they do, and I’ve put a hold on it. I wonder who Lozada is including in the “We” of the title? Certainly not me, and certainly not anyone I know with an IQ above mid-two figures.
As someone who’s lived in Georgia most of my life, I’d like to warn all of you about being optimistic regarding the two senate runoffs taking place here in January.
Yeah, I figure they are pretty sure to both go Republican.
Michael, flipping Georgia will be a huge political statement. But, as you say, run-off elections are a different kettle of fish.
I agree trumps (hopeful) loss may spur more gop voters for the senate race. I cynically think that there may be an influx of trumpanzees “moving” to GA to vote for the senate race
I don’t put anything past the idiots who support this POS. His bragging about sexually assaulting women, dissing the gold star family & mocking the physically challenged reporter should have neutered his campaign. That it didn’t says a lot about the divide in this country. If you haven’t seen the movie Idiocracy, do so. It’s a good look at what our nation could be come if trumpanzees don’t open their eyes.
Maybe we need an intelligence test to qualify to vote.
Maggie, the 2020 Election doesn’t earn many style points, but the results are solid: Biden is in, Trump is out. Woo hoo!
Maggie Mason–read the story IDIOCRACY rips off, C. M. Kornbluth’s “The Marching Morons”…I think you’ll find it interesting, to say the least.
It’s all rigged! The mail-in ballots are illegal! This election is a hoax perpetuated by the Democrats! It’s wrong! It’s not fair! I’m still President! I’ll stay President! You can’t make me go away! Rigged, I tell you!
Rick, I don’t think Trump’s whining is going to work in Court. Trump’s followers might be pissed, but a 4 million vote Popular Vote margin should give the Republicans pause.
It won’t give them pause, and watch for the extremity of the upcoming Trump tantrums. But I do believe little will be accomplished by the frivolous court challenges nor the recounts. Sadly, I foresee more berserk attacks by the Cult 45ers. We can hope there won’t be Too many nor too deadly.
Todd, I hope you’re right.
The AP has called it, and that’s good enough for me. It would be nice if Trump would be decent about it, which I doubt will happen. But, regardless of his acting out, he’ll have no choice but to leave the White House and let the government get on with things. Unfortunately, it looks like it will still be a Republican Senate and that Senate will block and stonewall everything Biden tries to do.
Rick, the Republicans in the Senate will block everything just like they did with Obama.
I know I’ve said this on email, but to repeat: We all know Trump only cares about Trump and he’s all about self-preservation, so I actually think the best way to get Trump outta here is to have Deutsche Bank (the only bank that will extend him credit—with the willing complicity of DB officials who are quick to take their cut) tell him that if he leaves quietly, they will not turn over their books to the incoming AG.
Deb, money might play a factor in Trump’s future fate. But, Trump has 75 more days as President to wreck havoc on our country.
It’s kind of crazy!
Deutsche Bank was the leading private bank in Germany when I was a student – of course I couldn’t afford an account with them, was with a local “Sparkasse”.
But then they had some really ugly business decisions, were involved in a lot of corruption activities, with Russian oligarchs etc – so their interaction with Trump was …
Wolf—there are rumors (always unproven, of course) that Russian oligarch/mob (what’s the difference?) money, laundered through Deutsche Bank, has been propping up Trump Inc. for decades. After this presidency is over, we’re going to need federal legislation demanding that, once a presidential candidate has been chosen by a major party, the candidate and all his immediate family members must release their tax returns going back at least ten years. Yeah, I can just see the GOP as currently constituted, where half their money comes directly from Moscow, agreeing to that!
Wolf, Trump, the Russians, and Deutsche Bank are all connected.
Biden’s Transition Team better start counting the silverware and cataloging the artwork!
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