Summary of Julian E. Zelizer's The Presidency of Donald J. Trump

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The Trump presidency was not an exception to the Republican Party’s transformation, but rather the culmination of more than three decades of evolution. The party had radicalized in its ideology as well as in its approach to partisan warfare long before Trump came to office.

#2 Asymmetric polarization is the theory that since the 1970s, the Republican Party has moved much further to the right than the Democratic Party has moved to the left.

#3 The power of Republican moderation survived Goldwater. His overwhelming defeat by President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1964 presidential election, which produced massive Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, led most in the GOP to conclude that the electorate was not ready for the kind of conservatism he promoted.

#4 The Democratic and Republican parties had been factionalized for much of the twentieth century, with Democrats courting liberal northern voters and conservatives southern voters. But during the 1970s, these alliances began to change, as the southern electorate joined the Republicans.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Apr 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669390275

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Insights on Julian E. Zelizer's The Presidency of Donald J Trump

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 13

Insights from Chapter 14

Insights from Chapter 15

Insights from Chapter 16

Insights from Chapter 17

Insights from Chapter 18

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The Trump presidency was not an exception to the Republican Party’s transformation, but rather the culmination of more than three decades of evolution. The party had radicalized in its ideology as well as in its approach to partisan warfare long before Trump came to office.

#2

Asymmetric polarization is the theory that since the 1970s, the Republican Party has moved much further to the right than the Democratic Party has moved to the left.

#3

The power of Republican moderation survived Goldwater. His overwhelming defeat by President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1964 presidential election, which produced massive Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, led most in the GOP to conclude that the electorate was not ready for the kind of conservatism he promoted.

#4

The Democratic and Republican parties had been factionalized for much of the twentieth century, with Democrats courting liberal northern voters and conservatives southern voters. But during the 1970s, these alliances began to change, as the southern electorate joined the Republicans.

#5

The 1980s were the turning point for the Republican Party. Facing off against President Carter in 1980, Ronald Reagan pulled off what Barry Goldwater had failed to achieve. His antigovernment platform moved the GOP sharply to the right.

#6

Reagan’s political success was based on a grassroots movement that had coalesced over the previous decade. The conservative movement, which included evangelical Christians, neoconservative Democrats, Wall Street and business Republicans, and northern working-class voters, constituted his base of support.

#7

The GOP was led by a revolutionary figure in the history of the party, Congressman Newt Gingrich, who urged his colleagues to be far more aggressive in dislodging Democrats from power. He believed that Reagan’s ideological vision could only be fulfilled if the party was prepared to be far more combative.

#8

During the 1980s, Gingrich was a major player in the Republican Party. He understood politics as military warfare, and he used any means necessary to destroy his opponents. He organized a group of like-minded Republicans in the Conservative Opportunity Society, a small caucus modeled after the liberal Democratic Study Group.

#9

After the 1994 midterm elections, when Republicans took control of Congress for the first time since 1954, the party selected Gingrich to be Speaker of the House. His smashmouth partisanship became the operating norm for Republicans.

#10

The modern Republican Party relied on conservative media to promote its agenda and attack Democrats.

#11

While the rightward transformation of the Republican Party was still ongoing during the 1990s, it was not yet complete. Moderate forces within the GOP were still in place, despite being pushed to the side by the more radical conservatives.

#12

After the election of George W. Bush in 2000, some observers thought the Republican Party could move in a different direction. But Bush stuck to a traditional script of supply-side tax cuts and deregulation that appealed to the corporate base of the party.

#13

Following the tragic terrorist attacks on September