Thread by @tzimmer_history

This week, @MaxBoot came out as a single-issue voter – his issue being the fate of democracy. That’s an important statement, because the key question in America today is whether or not enough people are as committed to preserving democracy as Republicans are to abolishing it. 1/

https://twitter.com/postopinions/status/1447881582879072259

I think the position @MaxBoot lays out is the one that all small-d democrats should adopt – because we need to acknowledge that most people on the Right already are single-issue voters, their issue being the fate of “real” (read: white Christian patriarchal) America. 2/

Focusing on the fate of democracy above all else is, analytically, the right response to the authoritarian threat precisely because democracy is, of course, not really a “single issue,” but an overarching concern that transcends and permeates nearly all areas of public policy. 3/

As a political concern, “democracy” is not on the same level as tax policy, welfare policy, guns, abortion… the struggle over democracy sets the conditions for all those public policy areas, and conversely, what democracy is depends on the decisions in any of these arenas. 4/

More importantly, making the preservation of democracy the central concern is also, politically, the only adequate response – because we need to counter the single-minded focus and determination of those who are striving to entrench white reactionary minority rule. 5/

“We must not get so distracted by relatively minor policy quibbles,” @MaxBoot writes - because those on the Right certainly aren’t distracted. They aren’t, for instance, quibbling over the inherent contradictions between the many far-right conspiracy theories… 6/

…or getting distracted by debates over whether Marjorie Taylor Greene’s militant extremism or Mitch McConnell’s extreme cynicism are the right approach to preventing multiracial pluralistic democracy. They are united behind the quest to install conservative minority rule. 7/

Let’s make democracy our overriding concern, just like those on the Right have made restricting the promise of democracy to groups they define as “worthy” their single focus. We need to match their commitment. 8/

“Aren’t you advocating just the kind of polarization that is the root of all evil that plagues America?” Well, I understand the concern that, by emphasizing how high the stakes are, they get even higher – making it potentially more difficult to solve the situation politically. 9/

But, well, if the key question at the heart of the political conflict is: “Multiracial, pluralistic democracy: Yes or No?”, then the committed (and increasingly radical) “No!” coming from the Right needs to be matched by a determined “Yes” from the pro-democracy camp. 10/

If anyone wants to call that “polarization,” then I’d say this kind of “polarization” is not the problem on which we need to focus – the actual problem is the anti-democratic radicalization of the Right, and pleas for unity are not an adequate response to that. 11/

Matching the rightwing commitment to preventing multiracial pluralism with an equally strong commitment to preserving democracy does also not mean that those two stances are equivalents, politically or morally. 12/

The reactionary vision wants to restrict democracy and refuses to accept a significant portion of the population as equal members of the body politic; no one in the pro-democracy camp, meanwhile, is demanding to exclude or disenfranchise Republican voters. 13/

Republicans are regarding their political opponent as a fundamentally illegitimate enemy who is pursuing a radically “Un-American” political project – that’s not the same as trying to keep rightwing extremists away from positions of political power by voting them out. 14/

Should America become a truly multiracial, pluralistic democracy – or should it forever remain a nation defined by white Christian dominance? The Right understands this to be the issue overriding all else. Those who prefer democracy need to match their commitment. /end