Thread: It is scary, but also weirdly fascinating, how a coherent anti-democratic ideology is taking hold on the American right today. It has three distinct parts. /1
First, there is the idea that the United States is not a democracy, but a republic. This idea has a long pedigree, of course, going back to the founding, even if most subsequent American political history contradicts it. /2
Its practical significance is that it allows the right to dismiss the importance of the popular vote, and to defend all the non-democratic and anti-democratic mechanisms that give the aging white non-urban minority such disproportional power in this country... /3
namely unequal Senate representation, the electoral college, the filibuster, gerrymandering, voter suppression—and ultimately, perhaps, the right of state legislatures to overturn their own states’ popular votes. /4
Second, there is the theory of “replacement,” recently championed by Newt Gingrich and Tucker Carlson: i.e. the idea that the Democrats are deliberately encouraging both legal and illegal immigration... /5
in order to “replace” the existing population with foreigners who do not have the same commitment to our “values.” This allows them to present the “crisis at the border” as an existential threat to the country’s existence, and not just as a source of scary Mexican criminality. /6
Finally, there is the explicit praise for authoritarian leaders abroad, past and present, who claim to be acting in defense of “Western values”: Portugal’s 20th-c. dictator Salazar, Vladimir Putin, and most prominently of late, Viktor Orbán of Hungary. /7
These men’s thuggery, corruption, and brutal repression of political enemies, LGBTQ people and minorities are dismissed as lies and exaggeration by the “lamestream” media. /8
Put these 3 elements together, and a simple message emerges. The Democrats are using illegal methods to “destroy the country,” and in response, the right is justified in using all the “republican" methods at its disposal to put a traditionalist, Orbán-like figure into power. /9
For the moment, we shouldn't assume that this ideology has conquered the GOP. Most Republican office-holders at this stage have not in fact condoned legislatures overturning their states' popular vote, or endorsed replacement theory, or expressed admiration for Viktor Orbán. /10
Despite Tucker Carlson’s best efforts, most rank-and-file Republicans have probably never heard of Viktor Orbán. /11
The Claremont Institute--which has probably done the most behind the scenes to shape the ideology--does not reflect the views of most Republicans. /12
But the fact that the large majority of Republicans still believe that the election was stolen clearly indicates that they are receptive to the ideology, and ready to support explicitly authoritarian measures in order to "save the country." /13
Will it end up being a set of fringe ideas that cannot, in the end, compete with long-standing American political tradition? Or will it end up being something considerably more dangerous? I have no idea. But I do think it is worth taking seriously. /end
