A horrible thing indeed.
But it’s worth being specific: The forces that have come to dominate the GOP haven’t changed their mind about anything. Their acceptance of democracy was always conditional: “As long as it keeps people like us in power, fine; otherwise, it has to go.”
But it’s worth being specific: The forces that have come to dominate the GOP haven’t changed their mind about anything. Their acceptance of democracy was always conditional: “As long as it keeps people like us in power, fine; otherwise, it has to go.”
https://twitter.com/walshfreedom/status/1473450786017398790
The distinction matters greatly. At the core of modern conservatism is a vision that is steadfastly opposed to multiracial, pluralistic democracy and committed to the order that was the historical norm in this country until quite recently: Democracy for white Christian men only.
Too many observers and pundits tend to base their analysis of the current situation on the assumption that the country used to be a functioning liberal democracy, with an electorate of (small-d) democratic voters, and that this has somehow changed just very recently.
But it’s just not plausible to assume that those Americans who favor Trumpist authoritarian rule were on board with the idea of multiracial, pluralistic democracy until recently, when they were somehow, suddenly turned off by… what, exactly?
If your answer is “It was Obama!” then that’s exactly my point: If the election of a moderately liberal politician whose sole “radicalism” consisted of being Black led to you favoring rightwing authoritarianism, you were never on board with multiracial democracy to begin with.
Yes, conservatives are radicalizing against democracy – but rather than going from "pro-democratic" to "anti-democratic," what we're seeing is a shift from "on board with a restricted/reactionary version of democracy" to "determined to prevent multiracial, pluralistic democracy."
For decades, the GOP has been defined by the project of upholding a white Christian men’s democracy and staving off multiracial pluralism. But it has become more difficult to preserve white Christian patriarchal dominance within that traditionally restricted form of democracy.
That’s due to demographic, cultural, and political changes that have made the country less white, less Christian, less conservative. And so the proponents of a white Christian patriarchal order have decided that a more open, more aggressive form of authoritarianism is needed.
But none of this is entirely new, all of it well in line with the anti-democratic tendencies and impulses that have defined modern conservatism since at least the 1950s, and have steered the Republican Party since at least the 1980s. Trump is the result, not the cause.
To go back to the initial tweet: It is not wrong to say the Republican Party “no longer” believes in democracy, as it has certainly radicalized against democracy and is now willing to embrace a much more open, more blatant, more aggressive form of authoritarianism.
https://twitter.com/WalshFreedom/status/1473450786017398790
But while I am grateful for every Republican who decided to break with the GOP’s open authoritarianism, we also need to have an honest conversation about why they were willing to accommodate or even embrace the anti-democratic tendencies and forces on the Right for so long.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
