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Republicans are shouting from the rooftops they believe in minority rule and want more of it. 
What Douthat and Vos are advocating for is the same thing Trump ran on: anti-democratic rule by a rich, white, male Christian minority.
It’s been the subtext of Republican messaging since Nixon. Now it’s just plain text.
It’s been the subtext of Republican messaging since Nixon. Now it’s just plain text.
The subtext version was powerful because it resonated with the dominant societal view of who are the Real Americans, but with enough deniability to let its subscribers tell themselves they believed in liberty and justice for all. Discussed further here-
Now that they’re getting more and more open about their belief in rich white Christian male supremacy, they’ve exposed themselves to a backlash. Not just that- they’re eroding the plausible deniability that was key to the con.
This new openness has been preceded by (probably triggered by) decades of increasingly ramped up propaganda. The base is ok giving up the subtext for the text. Hell, they’re tired of hiding how they really feel. A large minority of America is cool with this.
And that minority has powerful tools built into the system - the Electoral College, gerrymandering, Crosscheck, a media run by white dudes - precisely because they’re the minority this country has been run by and for since the beginning.
I’ll add that the gaslighting America was founded on- “this minority rule country is really a democracy”- is a double-edged sword. The founders gave us democracy for rich white guys, but also gave us ideals that make a lot of us- even a lot of white guys- want real democracy.
So now that the subtext is gone, will enough moderate whites and moderate men hear the text for what it is? Or keep living in the denial that lets us enjoy minority rule and our democratic ideals at the same time? nytimes.com/2018/01/13/opi…
