Good thread. This is why I've been emphasizing how weak and thin the support for Trump and the GOP is, and how the fact that they are forced to rely on the most counter-majoritarian elements of the state is not a sign of strength but of weakness. Irving Kristol understood very
clearly that the task of conservatism is to create a popular ideology that can appeal to the majority and thereby make ancient modes of rule modern. Without that popular majoritarian element, conservatism risks falling back on its weakest elements: rotten boroughs. That is what
conservatism has now become. Because liberals believe conservatism speaks to the most virulent beliefs of a great majority of Americans, they've overlooked just how un-popular Trump/GOP are; they almost literally cannot see this. Even when it is staring at them in the face.
My hope is that as the evidence piles up, we'll focus less on the threat of the "popular" in Trump—which reinforce an elitist technocratic liberalism that only fuels the fires of Trumpism—and more on these contemporary equivalents of rotten boroughs: gerrymandering, the
Electoral College, the Senate, and now the courts. The latter can be fought, through democracy and in the name of democracy. That should be the left position. Not a cringing fear of the masses as somehow representing the dangerous toxic force of America.
Let me add one more point. People often say they're cheered up by my analysis, it makes them feel better (or they criticize it for that reason). No one should be cheered or made to feel better by this. Trumpism is weak, but it needs a counter-force to destroy it. We don't have
that counter-force, yet, and focusing on Trump (and the previous right-wing menaces) has allowed the left to confront its own weaknesses. As AOC points out, confronting the neoliberal center may prove harder than confronting Trump. Also, the reason Trumpism is weak is b/c
conservatism won. That's not good news for the left. So, yes, they're weaker than we think, but that only points out the challenge for our side, which is also weak.
