Tim Alberta is chief political correspondent for Politico. His new book is American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump.From Alberta's Q&A with Isaac Choitiner at The New Yorker:
You also write, about Trump and birtherism, “This was America circa 2011, a nation seduced by celebrity and blissfully unaware of the cancerous effects.” I don’t disagree with various things you’re saying about the country. But there was a specific thing going on within the Republican Party, and I don’t know that it was also going on in the country at large. I think birtherism is a good example.--Marshal Zeringue
Yeah. Look, the addiction to celebrity is obviously a cultural phenomenon that bleeds into the political. I can still remember being at CPAC in 2011, and the reception he got from these people there was just astonishing. They had speakers come and talk about policy, and the whole house came down for Donald Trump. I don’t know if that was the first inclination I had that maybe something was happening in the Party at that nexus of politics and culture, but it was certainly one of those moments.
I don’t think that the takeaway of a party embracing someone who sells birtherism is that celebrity sells. Other things, even less palatable than celebrity, sell, too.
Oh, no question. Look, Donald Trump would not be President today without birtherism. I don’t think there’s any disputing that. His birtherism crusade was the inception of that Presidential campaign and, really, the spark of his Presidency. He would not have latched onto birtherism had he not understood the inherent appeal and the resonance that it had with certain elements of the electorate. It’s worth noting...[read on]