It finally all makes sense, though not in a good way:
Most Republicans in a January 2020 survey agreed that “the traditional American way of life is disappearing so fast that we may have to use force to save it.” More than 40% agreed that “a time will come when patriotic Americans have to take the law into their own hands.” (In both cases, most of the rest said they were unsure; only one in four or five disagreed.) I use 127 survey items to measure six potential bases of these and other antidemocratic sentiments: partisan affect, enthusiasm for President Trump, political cynicism, economic conservatism, cultural conservatism, and ethnic antagonism. The strongest predictor by far, for the Republican rank-and-file as a whole and for a variety of subgroups defined by education, locale, sex, and political attitudes, is ethnic antagonism—especially concerns about the political power and claims on government resources of immigrants, African-Americans, and Latinos. The corrosive impact of ethnic antagonism on Republicans’ commitment to democracy underlines the significance of ethnic conflict in contemporary US politics.
Emphasis mine. Link to article. My interpretation: White men were just hunky dory with democracy as long as they perceived democracy to work in their favor. Which meant among other things as long as minorities and immigrants were largely shut out from it and women voted for whom they were told to (or so the dudes thought). But now these same White guys have come to view democracy as benefiting women, minorities, and immigrants more than themselves — and so they abandon democracy in droves in favor of something like Trump. (Full disclosure: I’m a White guy, but also an immigrant.)
Implications:
- This explains IMO why large numbers of Republicans continued to back Trump through the impeachment. It’s not that they didn’t believe the accusations — it’s that they were quite OK with Trump acting like a two-bit caudillo.
- It’s not the case that Trump’s supporters fail to understand that this guy is trying hard to break democracy in this country. On the contrary: they support him because they understand very well what Trump is doing.
- Republican politicians are keenly aware that Trump is putting our democracy at risk with his attacks on the election and our democratically elected institutions. The reason they’re not doing anything about it isn’t just that they’re afraid of Trump — it’s that they realize that their base has already lost confidence in democracy and very much want Trump to take a wrecking ball to it.
Caveat: the decline of support for democracy over the last couple of decades is not restricted to the U.S., as data from the World Values Survey shows. So a parsimonious explanation should take into account the possibility that what’s been going on in this country might be just a special case of a global phenomenon.
Most important conclusion: Trump supporters’ loss of faith in democracy and embrace of authoritarianism (not just cultural authoritarianism, but actual political totalitarianism) is endangering us all. How can we share a planet with these yahoos? What can we do about them?