The author.Photo: Sophie Berard Photography
Tim Miller doesn’t have much hope for the Republican party he once loved.
For years, he was a self-described “hitman” for the GOP, until the 2016 presidential election when the former RNC spokesman publicly announced he voted forHillary Clinton— the same candidate he’d tried to undermine three years before.
In an interview about his new book,Why We Did It: A Travelogue From the Republican Road to Hell, Miller takes a critical (and acerbic) look back at the rationalizations that allowed him, a gay man, to do the political dirty work of his conservative, sometimes bigoted clients. After he focuses the lens on himself, he turns it on his fellow political operatives to explain why they continued on the “road to hell,” leading to theDonald Trumppresidency and itsriotous aftermath.
“If I wanted to keep doing political writing, I needed to be candid about the areas where I felt I was complicit or was participating in the ways that our country has unraveled politically,” Miller, now an MSNBC analyst and writer forThe Bulwark, tells PEOPLE. “Most importantly, I felt like if I was going to talk about other people and judge other people and be an analyst that had any credibility, I needed to be candid about myself.”
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ForWhy We Did It, Miller interviewed former colleagues — many of whom had previously bashed Trump either privately or publicly before his unexpected presidential win — and delves into their various reasons for supporting him. Miller also analyzes the need and ambition driving Trumpian figures likeReince Priebus,Sean SpicerandElise Stefanik. (His categories of such people range from “The Nerd-Revenging Team Player” and “The Strivers” to “The Cartel-Cashing, Team-Playing, Tribalist Trolls.” Miller most relates to the “Enabler” category, describing himself as “the onetime Compartmentalizer-in-chief” in his book.)
Courtesy Tim Miller
“One of the alternate titles for the book wasConfessions of a Republican Hitman,” Miller says. “I was a dark artist, if you will. My job in politics was PR, but mostly negative PR, opposition research and putting up negative information about political opponents. And that whole industry, I look back on now and think, it seems very clear how we were inflaming the public.”
This is a direct shift from theGeorge H.W. Bushyears when public service was still a focus, Miller explains. The shift made space for the likes of Trump, who has “some of the unique mental pathologies that make him uniquely dangerous,” explains Miller. “He has this shamelessness superpower.”
Before the 2016 presidential election, Miller started to realize just how dangerous “the game” was and began to extricate himself from it. He explains that when the Supreme Courtruled in favor of gay marriage in June 2015, he realized his habit of compartmentalizing some of the issues he cared about most, like gay marriage, was no longer working. It was a “big wake up call,” he says.
Tim Miller.Courtesy Tim Miller
“I wasn’t allowed to keep the gay issue over in a box in the back of my brain,” says Miller, who is now married to his partner and has a child. “I was like, ‘I’m at the RNC right now. I should be celebrating. And instead I’m helping them draft a statement about why this was wrong.'”
After Miller worked as communications director onJeb Bush’s 2016 presidential campaign, he joinedOur Principles PAC, which was a group of Republicans fighting against Trump’s presidential run. A few months after Trumpwon the Republican nomination, Miller got a call from Todd Ricketts,whose family’s money had funded the PAC. Ricketts wanted Miller to join a new PAC with the purpose of getting Trump elected.
Miller thought it was a joke at first. “I was like, ‘I guess I was the only one who believed this s— when we were talking about how Trump had to be stopped,” Miller remembers. He and Katie Packer Beeson, the executive director of Our Principles, were the only ones who didn’t join the new group, Future 45, according toWhy We Did It.
Jeb Bush and Tim Miller.Courtesy Tim Miller
While some people thought Jan. 6 would result in politicians distancing themselves from Trump and the MAGA base, Miller says it was more incentive to stay.
“They all knew Trump was bad already, right, before January 6th, but they had justified sticking with him because they needed to stay in the mix or they needed to help their career,” says Miller. “Or because they decided the left is a greater evil, or they decided that they cared about the game and their tribals team more than they care about particulars.”
Former First Lady Laura Bush and Tim Miller.Courtesy Tim Miller
He continues, “All those things were still going to be true after January 6th. And all January 6th showed those enablers was Trump’s power. Look at the power he has over these voters that we need. He was able to convince them to storm the damn Capitol!”
(In February, the Republican National Committeeannounced that the attack on the Capitol was “legitimate political discourse"and reprimanded Reps.Liz Cheneyof Wyoming andAdam Kinzingerof Illinois for participating in the House investigation, according to theNew York Times.)
Miller explains that theoverturn ofRoe v. Wadeis further proof that the Republican party will continue to focus on punishing its enemies, rather than watching out for its constituents. He says that politicians who are “genuine pro-life” would restrict abortion after a certain number of weeks during pregnancy and would also emphasize things like prenatal care and paid family leave. (Not to say such restrictions would be okay with pro-choice advocates, he says, but there could have been a different way to go about “responsible governance.")
“That’s not what is happening in these states. You can already see it coming with the bounties in Texas, they’re going to restrict abortion and go after the women and the doctors, and the activists that are fighting for abortion rights,” Miller says. “I think that’s really scary. And I think that that part is going to escalate.”
Even if Trump doesn’trun again— though Miller thinks he will — the former Republican “dark artist” believes the GOP will continue to operate as it has since the Trump presidency.
“Anybody that is wish casting thatJohn McCainis going to come back through that door is just lying to himself,” says Miller. “It’s not going to happen.”
Why We Did Itis on sale now.
source: people.com
