See also: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.111…
Reactionaries (far right wing paranoids) reject democratic institutions.
They have taken over the GOP.
See, particularly the @JonHaidt lecture in the first tweet:
Because the GOP has become a full-on white nationalist / reactionary party, true conservatives have no party.
The GOP couldn’t figure out why they couldn't appeal to Blacks🙄
Even when they cloaked their anti-civil rights position in terms like originalism and states' rights, Blacks weren't fooled.
For a fuller recounting of how the Party of Lincoln became the party of white segregationalists, see:
At the same time, the GOP talked about conservative "values" to attract what Haidt calls real conservatives.
nytimes.com/1998/09/14/us/…
💠Its demographics are shrinking and aging.
💠Trump exposed the GOP for what it really is, and how it used lies to disguise its goals.
Political scientists @Jacob_S_Hacker and Paul Pierson include this chart with citations in their recent book:
For more on Hacker and Pierson’s book, see⤵️
Let Them Eat Tweets describes much of the same things that Stevens discusses in It Was All A Lie.
h/t @TulliusCicero43
Next up: It Was All A Lie, Part II.
How about another quotation from the book?
Stevens doesn't blame Trump voters. He blames the GOP leadership (himself included).
He's now trying now to live up to the ideal of personal responsibility.
I think the clue is our history of slavery and Jim Crow. What was there to "conserve"? The status quo was racist.