Striking how the outside-the-system vigilante wing of the far-right are being arrested and charged with serious crimes while inside-the-system elected officials who encouraged vigilante violence are living their best lives & have faced almost no social or political consequences.
What’s the professional price for endorsing violence against your political opponents and calling deadly school shootings ”‘false-flag’ operations”? A seat on the House education committee and continued support from many big donors. georgiarecorder.com/2021/01/28/big…
Drawing on research by @daschloz & @sam_rosenfeld, @ThePlumLineGS notes ”the GOP and conservative movement have allowed the boundary between fringe and mainstream to remain ‘porous’ going back through Joe McCarthy’s anti-communist crusades in the 1950s.” washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Now, there are greater incentives for extremism & fewer costs. ”Donors are cheering on her continued false claims that Trump won, illustrating the perverse incentive facing newer members of Congress who find viral stardom in denying a legitimate election” georgiarecorder.com/2021/01/28/big…
How to create different incentives? As in other countries facing democratic erosion, broad pro-democracy movements can be a powerful check on anti-democratic forces. See @andrewmarantz’s prescient article highlighting @EricaChenoweth’s essential research. newyorker.com/magazine/2020/…
My research on the 1960s civil rights movement also found protest movements can powerfully bolster democracy. For more on that research, see this thread.
https://twitter.com/owasow/status/1265709670892580869
US is now easily 3 of 4: ”Levitsky & Ziblatt lay out a four-part test for identifying authoritarian leaders: rejecting democratic institutions, denying legitimacy of political opponents, tolerating or encouraging violence and curtailing civil liberties.” bookshop.org/books/how-demo…
Context from @jasonintrator ”It’s not helpful to think of fascism as a regime type or a set of coherent beliefs. Fascism is usually a cult of the leader who promises national restoration in face of supposed humiliation by immigrants, minorities & leftists” vox.com/policy-and-pol…
.@seanilling: What’s the biggest lesson for people like Cruz or Hawley…?
@jasonintrator: That there are no restraints, no punishments, no accountability. That you can go much further than you ever thought possible in seizing power in the United States.
vox.com/policy-and-pol…
@jasonintrator: That there are no restraints, no punishments, no accountability. That you can go much further than you ever thought possible in seizing power in the United States.
vox.com/policy-and-pol…
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