Summary: Stuart Stevens, who was Mitt Romney's chief strategist in 2012, and Real Clear Politics' Senior Elections Analyst Sean Trende discuss the factors that allowed Trump to succeed and whether the Republican party can avoid a similar crisis in the future. Stevens recently published a novel about a fictional strongman taking over the Republican party, and reckons with seeing the themes of his book play out in real life. In 2013, Trende wrote about neglected blue-collar white voters, a group that has fueled Trump's rise.
