Review: Carlos Lozada’s “What Were We Thinking”

“Lozada’s book provides a comprehensive, incisive analysis of the intellectual debates that defined the Trump-era. As we plunge forward into a post-Trump presidency politics, it is a must read.”

Maya Angelou, the late poet and civil rights activist, and Donald Trump, the New York real estate developer and reality television star turned President, are not two names that often find their way into the same sentence. But as I read Carlos Lozada’s recent book, What Were We Thinking: A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era, I was constantly reminded of an Angelou quotation: “You can’t really know where you are going until you know where you have been.”

As President Trump nears his Oval Office exit on January 20th, we are slowly coming to grips with a post-Trump politics—or, at the least, a less Trump-centric politics. Even if President Trump creates his own news network or proactively remains in the public eye, his hold over the American mind will surely weaken when deprived of his presidential bully pulpit. That said, President Trump will still exert considerable sway over American politics, either directly or indirectly, for years to come.

Thus, it is essential for those of us hoping to construct a more workable and healthier American politics to come to grips with President Trump’s impact on our polity thus far, especially how he has affected the thought leaders who drive our conversations regarding ideas, policies, and history. To get a sense of where the intellectual currents and tides of political energy might be trending, we must understand where they have been in the era of President Trump. We cannot do so without reading What Were We Thinking.