I think the notion of Sarah Palin being president of the United States is something that frightens me, frankly.
I do think there is every potential in 2010 and 2012 to begin to see independent candidates who are capturing a significant percentage of the vote and even win.
Whether they're for good or bad, all trends in the United States start in California.
Your average Republican member of Congress, if you played a word association game with them and said, 'Latino,' they're going to respond 'illegal immigrant,' as opposed to 'sergeant major' or 'surgeon' or 'professor.'
Conservatism accomplished a lot of its goals in the latter part of the 20th century. What does 21st-century conservatism look like?
One of the things that is for sure unique, we have never seen in this country a billion dollar propaganda industry in full service and in absolute control of an administration in the way that FOX News is.
A lot of people like me who worked in Republican politics had a personal set of beliefs on issues that were at variance with the candidates that we worked for.
Trump makes no pretense about being the commander in chief of all of the country, being president of all of the people, including the people who voted against him. He is, in effect, a tribal chieftain who has declared war on half of the country.
I would find it difficult to be involved in an effort that I think disenfranchises people from a fundamental right. How do you work with people who are opposed to marriage equality? I don't want to do it.
The reality is that our Founders always predicted that one day there would be a president like Trump, and that's why they designed the system of government the way they designed it.
I've certainly done more than my fair share of pouncing on a stupid issue to win the news cycle of the day, to distract from what are real and important issues.
There's never been an era absent of demagogues.
But I'm not particularly aligned with the Democratic Party's policy agenda.
I think it's important to understand the history of the Republican Party. It was founded in 1854 because of the moral collapse of the Whig Party, specifically around the question of race and the expansion of slavery into the western territories.
If you hang around politics long enough, you tend to get disappointed by people.
I don't want to sit here and disparage Paul Ryan the man, because he's a good guy. He's a moral person. He's a decent person.
One of the things I'm keen on doing is really revealing the degree to which the conservative movement, and by extension the Republican Party, has become a racket.
I just want to say about Beto O'Rourke and Andrew Gillum, I mean, every superhero has to have the right nemesis. And for Beto O'Rourke, he's been very lucky in his choice of oppositional villains to run against.
For there to be new growth of a conservative movement, of a right center party, the one that I joined in 1988, it needs to burn to the ground.
Trump was legitimized by birtherism, and he was abetted by a billion-dollar incitement industry.
