The Republican Civil War: What Liz Cheney's Wyoming Tells Us about a Divided American Right

No state has been more Republican and loyal to Donald Trump than Wyoming. The appearance of homogeneity, though, masks a fierce battle for the future of the party. In The Republican Civil War, Stephanie Muravchik and Jon A. Shields draw on years of on-the-ground research and dozens of interviews with elected officials and activists, finding a party divided over whether it should abandon its traditional focus on governance for a new nationalized form of identity politics. While old guard Republicans aim to solve local problems within an ethos of noblesse oblige, MAGA insurgents position themselves as "true conservatives" leading a censorious crusade against the establishment. More surprisingly, the same social cleavages that divide red and blue American--class and ruralness--shape this civil war. Most of the new insurgents in the legislature don't have college degrees and see themselves as part of a rural uprising. By shedding light on a civil war in the deepest of red states, this book not only advances our understanding of the new conservative politics of identity, it also offers a clear portrait of a GOP establishment resisting--not just capitulating--to Trumpism.