The Republican party’s dominance-based authoritarianism is fueled by alpha displays of economic, political and physical violence inside and outside the party. Everyone must be kept off balance, distrustful, in competition for what limited security exists. The cruelty is the point 
How will the GOP’s extremist authoritarianism culture play out in future legislation, tax policy, women’s rights, immigration, social security, healthcare? In a dominance-based political culture, leaders vie for power by one upping each other’s displays of dominance.
You pass a law outlawing abortion? I’ll pass a law putting a $10,000 bounty on women who seek an abortion. This need to escalate displays of dominance is why the downward spiral of authoritarianism accelerates as it takes hold. We are seeing this spiral now in the GOP.
This is why various Republican leaders are signaling the end of marriage equality, social security, the affordable care act, voting rights, Medicare. This is why Lindsey Graham prematurely signaled an national abortion ban. He’s frantic to signal his dominance by attacking women.
This is why some GOP were surprised by Graham’s announcement supporting a national abortion ban. That wasn’t supposed to come before the midterms. The GOP message discipline was “we’re not outlawing abortion rights by overturning Roe, we’re letting states decide.” That’s toast.
Which tells us something crucial to our collective survival. GOP message discipline has always been in lock step. Why would Graham break message discipline and announce a national abortion ban? Because he’s afraid of falling behind, of not being seen as cruel enough by the base.
The cascade of cruelty displays includes and Abbott and DeSantis putting immigrants on busses and shipping them north. Once Trump called COVID “just like the flu” the entire GOP had to get on the anti-mask, anti-vaccine bandwagon. What shocking is how quickly they all did.
This signals both our salvation and our grave peril. The GOP is infighting, not because they are splitting between moderates and extremism. The moderates are gone. They’re fragmenting as they battle to one up each other’s next display of cruelty, pushing the envelope on that.
Ind/ex GOP voters see the danger. We must all join behind fed, state, local Dem candidates and win the midterms. If the GOP get their hands on the levers of power again, their fear driven spiral will accelerate with shocking speed. The cascade of competing cruelty will drown us.
The GOP has weaponized white supremacy, forced birth, climate change denial, Christian nationalism, anti LGBTQI violence, COVID denial, overturning elections, judicial corruption, and absolutely anything else the 1% wants attacked. We lose? They’re coming for us all. #BlueWave
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