Yes! And this isn’t just opportunism or cynicism. The underlying ideology is that Democratic governance is per se illegitimate, that Democrats are pursuing an “Un-American” political project fueled by a coalition of people who don’t deserve their place in the body politic.
Of course McConnell is a shameless opportunist and unabashed cynic. But ideology circumscribes and defines the realm of opportunity. For all those supporting McConnell and his party, this kind of “hardball” is a viable option because they see it as a strategy in a noble war.
The context-free focus on opportunism and lust for power is inadequate analytically, if we want to understand what animates the Right; and it is problematic politically: It obscures the fundamentally anti-democratic (small d!) tendencies among conservatives.
Ignoring the underlying ideology makes it much easier for the media to marvel at McConnell’s devious political genius - while emphasizing the nature of the reactionary, anti-democratic project he is pursuing would generate a very different coverage.
It’s not so much the act of playing hardball and ignoring norms that should worry us - but the fact that Republicans are playing hardball in service of a reactionary political project aiming to prevent America from ever becoming a truly multiracial, pluralistic democracy.
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By the way, I’m as tired of thinking about the Senator from West Virginia as everybody else is. It’s not exactly the sign of a healthy democratic system that no one seems to have a clue how to get a member of America’s sole pro-democracy party to actually defend democracy. 2/
Unfortunately, in the system that we have, Joe Manchin’s motivations matter a great deal, and it is important to explore his view of the world. Broadly speaking, there seem to be two schools of thought out there: Political opportunism vs reactionary convictions. 3/
These are excellent suggestions. But if @perrybaconjr is right - and I’m afraid he almost certainly is - that we need all of these things to happen in order to save American democracy, the situation is grim indeed.
What @perrybaconjr is outlining here is absolutely how we would expect a functioning democratic system to react. Unfortunately, however, a functioning democratic system is not what America is.
The final point @perrybaconjr brings up - mobilizing a pro-democracy movement - strikes me as particularly urgent. As it’s becoming obvious that the slide towards authoritarianism is unlikely to be halted from within the political institutions, such mobilization will be crucial.
As you would expect, @AdamSerwer demolishes the exculpatory myth of Republicans being afraid of and/or seduced by Trump and gets right to the heart of the matter: Republicans are convinced that if democracy yields Democratic governance, then democracy has got to go.
That’s why the intense focus on Trump’s #BigLie is actually somewhat misleading. It can easily obscure the real problem when it is taken to suggest that Republicans were wholeheartedly embracing democracy until they were seduced and overwhelmed by Trump’s brilliant propaganda.
What we need to focus on is that the “Big Lie” can flourish and have such a massive effect because it builds on longstanding anti-democratic tendencies and impulses on the American Right and among conservatives.
“Pride is part of our brand in America. ... Shame doesn’t fit easily into that story. The Germans decided that discomfort could make them stronger by creating guardrails against a returning evil. We instead have reached for blinder.”
As a German historian who works on the contentious history of American democracy, and as a German citizen who now lives in the U.S., I have often been confronted with - and frustrated by - the difficulty of finding an apt translation for “Vergangenheitsaufarbeitung.”
Interestingly, “Vergangenheitsbewältigung” used to be the more common term associated with Germany’s struggle to deal with the Nazi past. But the word “Bewältigung“ puts the emphasis on overcoming the past, with the aim of eventually leaving it behind.
Great reporting by @ThePlumLineGS on the “Statement of Concern” issued by eminent scholars of democracy.
A few comments on this important document: Some historical context - and one objection to the final sentence, the idea that “History will judge what we do at this moment.”
First of all, I am grateful to @leedrutman and all the scholars who participated: “Our democracy is fundamentally at stake,” they write, and that is exactly the heart of the matter.
I reflected on the world-historic significance of this struggle in this thread a few days ago:
I’m also grateful that the Statement is entirely free of “both sides” nonsense or obscuring language of “unity.” It leaves no doubt that we are looking at a Republican assault on democracy - that is the threat we need to face.
Again: This is the only free speech crisis that matters.
Republicans are using the power of the state to outlaw dissent, restrict critical debate, and punish anyone who dares to question the righteousness of past, present, or future white reactionary rule.