Hungarian scholar Balint Magyar offers a theory that explains why the US is holding out against the same tactics that caused other countries to collapse into autocracy.
His theory also explains why comparisons across nations doesn't always work. @juliaioffe 1/
While writing about post-communists mafia states, he talked about the “big bang” theory:
He says that the “conditions preceding the democratic big bang have a decisive role in the formation of the system.”
2/
Here's how I understand the theory (to use Russia as an example)
At the time of the Russian Big Bang (early 1990s, when a Democracy struggled to be born) the Communist Party had a monopoly on power and resources.
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All industries were centralized and in the hands of the government. The citizens had come out of decades of totalitarianism. @mashagessen explains this well. In fact, I discovered Magyar from her work.
So this is sort of the default.
4/
At the time of the American Big Bang, we lived in a hierarchy with white men at the top.
We had operating democratic institutions (local governments, courts that applied common law, juries) but the institutions protected the freedom of white men only.
So that's our default.
5/
When anti-democratic forces in the United States try to undo democracy, what they're trying to take us back to is the time when democratic institutions protected the interests of white men.
Trump is also trying to create a Russian-style mafia state.
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But if the anti-democratic forces succeed in the US, we're more likely to return to the kind of oligarchy that @HC_Richardson explains we've had in our past.
Reactionaries loop us back to what used to be.
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The thing to notice from Tweets like these (@marcorubio and @LindseyGrahamSC) is that it's now a badge of honor for members of the Trump-Fox-GOP to be criticized by the media and the left.
Similarly, convictions are a badge of honor: Flynn and others are given a hero's welcome.
Not at all. It looks to me like the ultimate defiance. They actually rejoice in their defiance.
They consider themselves heroes for bucking rules and norms and laws.
Convictions and criticism (for them) enhance their status as victims.
Another Republican attempt to prevent ballots from being counted loses in court.
(The ballots were received on time, but the voter failed to write the date. No allegations of fraud. Just a simple mistake. GOP wanted the votes not to count)
As it turns out, I have some experience in Nevada. I spent two elections as a volunteer lawyer for the NV Dems, so I have some familiarity with NV voting.)
The first problem is that there is nothing to back up the claims of fraud . . .
The second problem is that the proposed remedy is to either declare Trump the winner (which makes no sense) or completely disenfranchise every voter in Nevada in the presidential election.
Raffensperger deserves credit for refusing to bow to pressure, and for coming forward with this. According to other reporting he and his wife have received death threats since his refusal to lie for Trump.
What we've seen for 4 years its that a number of Republicans refuse to go along. Think of all those people who marched in to testify in the impeachment hearings.
Had Raffensperger gone along, the outcome wouldn't change because a case needs evidence. . .
Had Raffensperger bowed to pressure, we'd have a Pennsylvania situation where the GOP bring cases claiming fraud, but without evidence, eventually the cases dissolve.
It's stunning that people like Graham don't even PRETEND anymore to care about free and fair elections.