Here Comes the Renegade!

My book debuts next week, buy it now!

More than a year in the making, my book Renegade will hit bookstores on Tuesday, October 31. (Purchase: https://www.amazon.com/Renegade-Defending-Democracy-Liberty-Divided/dp/0593654161?nodl=1&dplnkId=8a4add52-ada9-486b-b468-c13fe26afe5f). Like so many things that followed the Trumpist attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, it’s an event I couldn’t have expected.

In the book I consider first how the majority of the Republican Party had joined a cult of personality devoted to a president who was determined to bring authoritarian rule to the world’s greatest democracy.  I then examined how it was that I had found myself barricaded in my House office, a pistol on my desk, knowing that at any moment a mob might try to break down the door.

In the 245 years since 1776, we had never seen a president even remotely like Donald Trump. Determined to divide and conquer, he had fractured the country in a way not seen since the Civil War. Refusing to accept his defeat at the polls, he incited a violent attempted coup that was, thankfully, thwarted by a Congress in a rare display of strength.     

Renegade does describe my on-the-scene experience of January 6 and its aftermath.  It covers the process that led me to become one of just two Republicans on the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack. And it reveals the torrent of threats and abusive messages that came as Trump’s rabid followers, including members of my own family, identified me as a traitor.   

Before I found myself transformed from a rising Republican star into one of the party’s most hated figures, I had spent a lifetime in the community Trump has overtaken. I knew the faith tradition and the commonsense conservative policies that had prevailed in my party for generations.  My patriotism had led me to serve in the post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and 12 years in Congress as a GOP loyalist.

During this time, I didn’t believe that the fringier elements in the church, the party, and the mostly-rural district I represented would become predominant. I didn’t fully appreciate the drift to extremism and didn’t understand the dissatisfaction that made it possible for a political arsonist like Trump to set the old order ablaze and replace it would a movement marked by such anger, rage, and blind commitment that thousands would answer a call to Washington where they would carry crosses, Confederate flags, and weapons to a battle against their own democratically elected government.

As I considered my own life, and the changes that occurred from the Reagan era (I’m still a Reagan Republican) to today, I could see how self-appointed revolutionaries had brought us to the point where January 6 was possible. In Renegade I address the outside factors that contributed to their cause and the changes in Americans’ lives that created the conditions for the populism that Trump exploited.  I also explore, in a most direct and personal way, the elements of politics that can cloud an insider’s vision. Like every other person who seeks election, I was driven in part by ego. Once I was elected, the attention I received and the (limited) power I possessed became addictive. Add my loyalty to the Republican team and you can see why I didn’t reach my breaking point until January 6.

Of course, the book includes details on the day of the insurrection and my insider’s account of the investigation and hearings that followed.  Together they informed prosecutors who have brought criminal charges against the former president and others. I believe they also provided a record that began to move some Americans toward the political center where a respectful civil discourse may one day return us to a productive politics of responsibility, compromise, and effectiveness.      

I think that years will pass before we return fully to a sane sort of politics. After all, it took decades for us to get where we are now. The change we need requires us all to answer the basic questions I pose in Renegade.

Do we want a democracy governed by free and fair elections?

Can we consider our differences in matters of politics, ethics, and faith in a respectful way?

Do we want to discard what the Constitution gave us?

What do we, as Americans, stand for?

Renegade will help you answer these questions and, I hope, support your commitment to fighting for the values that made America the envy of the world.

Purchase: https://www.amazon.com/Renegade-Defending-Democracy-Liberty-Divided/dp/0593654161?nodl=1&dplnkId=8a4add52-ada9-486b-b468-c13fe26afe5f