Never Trump: The Revolt of the Conservative Elites

Robert P. Saldin · Steven M. Teles

Oct 2020 · Highbridge Audio · Narrated by Rick Adamson

About this audiobook

As it became increasingly apparent that Donald Trump might actually become the Republican party's 2016 presidential nominee, alarmed conservatives coalesced behind a simple, uncompromising slogan: Never Trump. Although the movement initially included a large number of Republican office-holders, its core was always comprised of the policy experts, public intellectuals, and campaign professionals who play a critical role in the modern political party system. They saw in Trump a repudiation of longstanding conservative doctrine and the kind of demagogue the founders famously warned about. Never Trumpers took their shot at denying Trump the presidency-everything from flailing attempts to coalesce around other Republican candidates and collective letters of opposition to even supporting their longtime nemesis Hillary Clinton. But in their attempt to kill the king, they missed. Now on the margins of a party that has enthusiastically united around the president, Never Trumpers have been reduced to the status of a remnant, shut out from government and hoping for a day when their party awakens from its Trumpist spell. Based on extensive interviews with conservative opponents of the president, Robert P. Saldin and Steven M. Teles reveal why such a wide range of committed partisans chose to break with their longtime comrades in arms.

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About the author

Robert P. Saldin is professor of political science and a Mansfield Center fellow at the University of Montana. He is the author of When Bad Policy Makes Good Politics and War, the American State, and Politics since 1898. He is also a frequent contributor to the popular press, having written for a variety of publications.

Steven M. Teles is professor of political science at the Johns Hopkins University and a senior fellow at the Niskanen Center. His books include The Captured Economy, Prison Break, The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement, and Whose Welfare: AFDC and Elite Politics.

Rick Adamson is an Audie Award winner for his work on In a Heartbeat by Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy (with Sally Jenkins) of The Blind Side fame. Also the winner of several ALA awards and a Harper Audio Grammy nominee, Rick has been a narrator for twenty-five years. Originally from Maryland, he now lives in New Jersey.