Once again Thomas B. Edsall has put together a round-up of experts who are seriously worried about where the Republican Party is taking America. The title is a bit off:
It’s a quote from one of the people cited in the column:
Jack Goldstone, a professor of public policy at George Mason University, made a parallel argument by email:
One of the odd and scary things about American politics, more reminiscent of the 19th century than anything in the post-World War II period, is that when the Republicans lost the presidential election in 2020 and did much worse than expected in 2022 (even worse than in a normal midterm contest), they did not abandon the leaders and policies that produced these results. Instead, they have doubled down on even more extreme and broadly unpopular leaders and policies, from Trump to abortion and guns.
Goldstone believes that this development
is a sign that normal politics have been replaced by extreme polarization and factional identity politics, in which the extremes grow stronger and drain the center. As a minority seeking to exercise control of government, it is actually necessary that the Trumpist G.O.P. suppress democratic procedures that normally produce majority control.
If enough voters, Goldstone wrote,
are deeply anxious or frightened of some real or imagined threat (e.g. socialism, mass immigration, crime, threats to their religion, transgender takeover), they may well vote for someone who promises to stand up to those threats, even if that person has no regard for preserving democracy, no regard for the rights and freedoms of those seen as “enemies.” If such a leader is elected, gets his or her party to control all parts of government, and wants to turn all the elements of government into a weapon to attack their enemies, no laws or other organizations can stop them.
Goldstone warned “that should the Republicans manage to gain control of the House, Senate and presidency in 2024, building an electoral autocracy to impose their views without challenge will be their top priority.”
emphasis added
Read the whole thing — the link should allow passage through the paywall at The NY Times. Also read what Edsall put together last week — written up here by me: Must-Read: The Republican long march to overthrow democracy is nearing the end stage
If there is one thing Edsall doesn’t fully address, it’s what’s make this descent into Fascism possible: the power of money in politics. Paul Krugman addressed it several days ago. (The link should bypass the paywall.)
The rich are different from you and me: They have immensely more power. But when they try to exercise that power they can trap themselves — supporting politicians who will, if they can, create a society the rich themselves wouldn’t want to live in.
This, I’d argue, is the common theme running through four major stories that have been playing out over the past few months. They are: the relationship between Justice Clarence Thomas and the billionaire Harlan Crow; the rise and seeming decline of Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign; the trials (literally) of Fox News; and the Muskopalypse at Twitter.
First, some notes on the role of vast wealth in a democracy.
People on the right often insist that expressing any concern about highly concentrated wealth is “un-American.” The truth, however, is that worrying about the dangers great wealth poses for democracy is very much part of the American tradition. And our nation basically invented progressive taxation, which was traditionally seen not just as a source of revenue but also as a way to limit excessive wealth.
In fact, if you read what prominent figures said during the Progressive Era, many expressed views that would be hysterically denounced as class warfare today. Theodore Roosevelt warned against “a small class of enormously wealthy and economically powerful men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power.” Woodrow Wilson declared, “If there are men in this country big enough to own the government of the United States, they are going to own it.”
emphasis added
This is among the history Republicans don’t want our children to learn about in schools. To skip a bit:
It’s a simplification, but I think fundamentally true, to say that the U.S. right has won many elections, despite an inherently unpopular economic agenda, by appealing to intolerance — racism, homophobia and these days anti-“wokeness.” Yet there’s a risk in that strategy: Plutocrats who imagine that the forces of intolerance are working for them can wake up and discover that it’s the other way around.
The conclusion?
I still believe that the concentration of wealth at the top is undermining democracy. But it isn’t a simple story of plutocratic rule. It is, instead, a story in which the attempts of the superrich to get what they want have unleashed forces that may destroy America as we know it. And it’s terrifying.
emphasis added
Read the whole thing. And then read a relevant earlier post here at Daily Kos by Thom Hartmann that expands on this.
Louise and I just finished watching the Netflix short series Transatlantic, and it prompted us to consider what happens when a rightwing social movement takes over a country, as we’re currently experiencing in the US with more than a third of our states openly embracing fascism.
Transatlantic is a gripping drama about a group of Jewish refugees — including Hannah Arendt and Marc Chagall — who are trapped in Marseilles trying to flee the Nazis as they sweep across France in late 1940. Complicating their flight, the American envoy and the head of the local French police are both in agreement with the Nazis that the Jewish refugees are “degenerates” and “animals” who should appropriately end up in the Nazi camps.
The parallels to today’s America are startling. The Republican rhetoric about the queer and Black communities — and, often, about Jews (usually coded as “George Soros”) — is startlingly similar to that of the Nazis and the Vichy French about Jews. Donald Trump, for example, is openly calling Alvin Bragg an “animal.”
But how do things get this far? How and why did it happen in Germany, and how and why is it happening here today?
Hartmann goes on to lay out the parallels between Hitler’s rise to power and what the Republican Party is doing here today in America in plain sight. His conclusion is essentially in accord with Krugman.
So, to the question about what’s really behind the war Republicans are waging against American democracy, the answer is simple: rightwing billionaires who want more, more, more money and are willing to make common cause with bigots, fascists, and wannabee killers to get it.
Given how far we are down this road to fascism — and how the GOP’s fascist faction is being supported by both American billionaires and outsiders like Orbán, Putin, and Xi — the 2024 election may well be the equivalent of the November, 1932 German elections: a make-or-break moment for American democracy.
One of these days, the rich may be surprised to find themselves on the menu of “the Leopards eating peoples faces party” — which will be cold comfort to the rest of us. DeSantis and his war with Disney shows that if the right feels the need for a target, no one and no thing is safe, no matter how big and powerful it might be.
Meanwhile...
What’s interesting is how — at The NY Times at least — the in-house conservative opinionistas either seem oblivious to the threat, or are enabling it. David Brooks had a clueless fantasy piece in which he claimed people are fleeing blue states and moving to red states because they are more pro-business, have lower taxes, lower housing costs, etc. — but the growth is concentrated in blue city enclaves where Democrats push for better quality of life measures.
He asks “where is the political party that is conservative-leaning on business matters and more liberal-leaning on things like education, immigration and work force development?” Ah — neoliberalism, the best of both worlds. Yeah, that worked right? He comes up with classic Brooksian framing, noting that: “The G.O.P. is a working-class populist party that has no interest in nurturing highly educated bobo boom towns. The G.O.P. does everything it can to repel those people — and the Tesla they drove in on.” Gee Davey — maybe it has something to do with the way Republicans are claiming Democrats are all pedophiles and worse? SMH.
Ross “If only I were the Pope” Douthat published a screed saying DeSantis must run for president now because “it’s his time.” That’s it — nothing about his policies, his qualifications, his record, or his character.
David French is cheered by how a “Moral Center” on “Elite Campuses” is pushing back against students with their cancel culture shouting down a conservative judge, and their demands for trigger warnings. He admits there’s a problem coming from the right as well, but then he cites this equivalence: “Left-leaning students have led shout-downs and disrupted events, while right-leaning legislators have passed or considered laws stifling the expression of controversial ideas about race and gender.” Right — students exercising their right to protest are just the same as Republicans turning their opinions into laws that affect everyone. Yeah, that’s a real balance of power.
Bret Stephens is channeling talking points straight from Gym Jordan and FOX with “Undeterred Criminals Plus Demoralized Cops Equals More Crime”. He makes it all seem so simple: “When bad guys walk free and brave cops have to fear for their jobs for doing their jobs, crime tends to go up.” It’s all part of the GOP framing that big (Democratic-run) cities are crime-infested hellholes, where criminals rampage and cops are powerless. The answer is always the same: more force. Which is how we end up with a militarized occupation force in blue wearing body armor and driving around in assault vehicles. And if you think that’s paving the way for a right-wing coup, well…. Frankly, Stephens these days reads more like a right-wing troll than a ‘serious’ conservative voice.
Robert Reich has been sounding the alarm for some time. I’ll close this with a video from his Inequality Media project:
How Republicans Are Stepping Closer to Fascism