Thread by @tzimmer_history

I think @ThePlumLineGS has this exactly right: The protection of voting rights is a partisan issue – because democracy itself has become a partisan issue.

It’s the fundamental reality of American politics, and it’s worth putting in historical perspective. A few thoughts:

https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1394666103620710403

It’s crucial to understand what “democracy” meant in the U.S. before the civil rights legislation of the 1960s: A system that was fairly democratic if you happened to be a white Christian man – and something entirely different if you were not.

Until the 1960s, there was a pretty stable, bipartisan elite consensus that democracy should not interfere with the established power structure, and so the system was deliberately set up in a way that left white Christian male dominance largely untouched.

After World War II, that white elite consensus began to fracture and America split over the question of whether the country should become a liberal, multi-racial democracy: a system in which all citizens count equally and elect a representative government with majoritarian rules.

Over time, one party came to advocate this liberal, multi-racial version of democracy – while the other is committed to do whatever it takes to prevent what conservatives believe would be the downfall of “real” (read: white Christian patriarchal) America.

In a way, conservatives never changed their stance: They were on board with the version of democracy that America always used to be – just not with implementing the version that the country has sometimes aspired to become and often pretended to be since the founding.

Why are conservatives radicalizing against democracy now? Because they understand and feel that America has been changing away from reactionary and towards liberal, multi-racial democracy.

The election of Barack Obama in 2008 marked a cesura. To many conservatives, it came as a shock and personal offence: It seemed to represent the impending triumph of multiracial pluralism – and thus, in their view, the downfall of “real” America.

In response, conservatives are radicalizing, yes – but what we’re seeing is not a departure, not a break. It’s simply not plausible to assume that Republicans who favor Trumpist authoritarian rule were on board with the idea of liberal, multi-racial democracy until recently.

Rather than going from "pro-democratic" to "anti-democratic," conservatives are shifting from "on board with this reactionary version of democracy" to "determined to prevent liberal multi-racial democracy."

The glass-half-full reading of recent U.S. history is that reactionary forces are radicalizing because America really has become more liberal, more pluralistic, and is closer to being a truly multi-racial democracy than it’s ever been.

That is something that is often overlooked in the "crisis of liberal democracy" discourse. Too often, it is assumed that the country used to be, until recently, a functioning liberal democracy and that this system has now come under fire.

The U.S., however, has never fulfilled the promise of establishing a system in which all citizens – regardless of race, gender, or religion – count equally and elect a representative government, certainly not in practice. Nor has any other country, for that matter.

So there’s a historic chance here: To demonstrate to the world that a stable multiracial democracy is possible. But it’s also an acutely dangerous situation in which reactionary forces might well succeed in establishing authoritarian minority rule.

Unless the system is dramatically democratized, there won’t be many more chances to stop America’s slide into authoritarianism through elections. @ThePlumLineGS is completely right: If Joe Manchin doesn’t understand that or doesn’t care, we’re in deep, deep trouble.