Some Reasons to Fear Republicans and the Republican Party

Deadly political war

Here's some delightful back and froth (not forth) on a recent thread here.

Commenter: If a political figure, such as Charles Murray, is invited to speak on a college campus, and a mob of leftwing students turn up and destroy the meeting by physically attacking him ..... is this authoritarianism?

Germaine: If a mob of leftwing students turn up and destroy a meeting by physically attacking anyone, LOCK 'EM UP!! LOCK 'EM UP!! LOCK 'EM UP!!

Lawbreaking, especially if anyone is attacked and harmed is bad, immoral and not tolerable. LOCK 'EM UP!!

That said, about 0.001% of the left might participate in that kind of illegality. Does that mean the other ~99.999% are just the same?

Because the people who carried out the 1/6 coup attempt were T**** supporters, does that mean that all T**** supporters are fascists who want to overthrow the government by force so they can install a corrupt, mendacious, treasonous dictator for life? I don't think so. Do you?

Commenter: Well, we agree here. Lock 'em up! And I also agree -- as a conservative and not a 'Never-Trump' conservative (although one who was'/is not happy to have this man in the leadership of American conservatism) -- that the US is entering a dangerous period, where authoritarian, or worse, 'solutions' could appear increasingly popular to a lot of people, both Right and Left.

Given a major American military humiliation by a newly-dominant China, combined with a major economic crisis, perhaps caused by the ending of the dollar as the world's reserve currency -- anything is possible.

However, I don't think the problem is confined to the Right. Liberals used to be for free speech -- in fact, they were better on this issue than conservatives. Now, liberals who speak up for free speech are a dwindling minority.

Then there is the race issue.
Here's a question for you: if one race has been dominant for a long time in a country, and is supplanted in this position by the previously-non-dominant race ... do the previously-dominant ones have anything to worry about? If they are unhappy about this change, are their fears rational?

Here's a related question: Mexico has a certain political culture. This culture is independent of which party is in power, and is persistent. It's rather like the mass culture of Sicily, with respect to the Mafia: for some, active support, for economic reasons; for others, passive acceptance; for others, weary acceptance reinforced by fear if they are seen not to accept it.

So, in Mexico, if you speak out against the drug cartels, your life may be in danger. It's even possible in some areas for the cartels to defeat the Mexican army. Lots of money (due to America's wealth and appetite for drugs) plus utter ruthlessness make the cartels, evidently, unremovable. So their existence and great power is accepted. The culture of the bribe, of corrupt police (and teachers unions) ... of people who are murdered if they get too uppity about these things -- it's just accepted, perhaps not eagerly embraced but ... accepted. If large numbers of people did NOT accept it, it wouldn't last.

Question: if large numbers of people who have grown up under this system transfer their citizenship to another country, is it guaranteed that they will leave this aspect of their culture behind them? Is it racist to assume they will, or to demand that they do? (After all, you're saying that this aspect of their culture is bad and you're demanding, or hoping, that they will embrace yours.)

Germaine: 

Now, liberals who speak up for free speech are a dwindling minority.

There are three kinds of free speech, all legal as I define them, honest free speech, ambiguous free speech and dark free speech. Sometimes the line between honest and dark can be fuzzy, so that's ambiguous speech, e.g., because some relevant facts are not known or are unknowable.

Dark free speech: deceit, lies of omission and commission, irrational emotional manipulation (unwarranted fear, anger, distrust, bigotry, etc.), unwarranted character assassination and flawed motivated reasoning.

My read of the history of tyranny, demagoguery, kleptocracy and failures of democracy, is that the most common way for authoritarianism and corruption to rise to power is to rely heavily on dark free speech.

Maybe some liberals are becoming intolerant of dark free speech. I don't blame them. I don't want to tolerate it any more either. T**** and decades of vicious GOP and conservative dark free speech (Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, Breitbart, InfoWars, etc.) has torn American society apart and severely damaged democracy and honest governance. In other words, American society, democracy and the rule of law are all under a ruthless, sustained attack by authoritarian radical right dark free speech.

The GOP is now hell-bent on massive voter suppression because republicans can't win elections without vote suppression any more. That is pure fascist authoritarianism. The GOP leadership and apparently most rank and file has come to accept that the free press is the enemy of the people, democrats are evil, inconvenient science is lies, bigotry is acceptable, convenient lies are truth and inconvenient truths are lies, the 1/6 coup attempt was just a little kerfuffle of no major import, and corruption in government is tolerable, at least for corrupt republicans like T****. I do not see anything close to equivalence coming from the left.

What are the top three threats you see coming from liberal extremists? Do you think Biden is a liberal extremist, as T**** and the rest of the GOP leadership and conservative punditocracy says? What exactly are the liberal threats? I don't get it. The left can be nutty but they aren't out to install a corrupt, incompetent, mendacious (dark free speech-dependent) dictator like T****.

.... do the previously-dominant ones have anything to worry about? If they are unhappy about this change, are their fears rational?

Excellent questions. Perfect. That nicely encapsulates the irrational fear and White grievance mindset. Let me start start with this insight:

If, democracy and the rule of law were to be respected, which they are not under current republican authoritarianism, the previously-dominant ones (White people) would not have anything to worry about. Some or most of those White people who are unhappy about this change, are feeling race- and social change-based fears that would be irrational in a democracy that operates under the rule of law.

But since the republican mindset is now open to a fascist demagogic dictatorship, they see how that kind of bad government and society could blow back on them in the form of oppression. Some or most White conservatives fear the same kind of oppression what White people have inflicted and still inflict on racial minorities, women and hated out-groups such as the LGBQT community.

In other words, some or most republicans fear what could happen to them if minority people start to gain social and political power. So they are now rushing to destroy democracy, the rule of law and establish a demagogic dictatorship under the rule of the dictator who promises to protect privileged White people and their privileges.

if large numbers of people who have grown up under this system transfer their citizenship to another country, is it guaranteed that they will leave this aspect of their culture behind them?

Yes, it is guaranteed if this country remains a democracy that operates under the rule of law. To the extent any aspect of an imported culture conflicts with the rule of law, it gets shut down by the law when conflicts arise. That is how the rule of law is supposed to work in a democracy.

In essence, what republicans are saying is that they have lost faith in democracy, the rule of law, social tolerance and social trust. That is the kind of poisonous wound that decades of authoritarian radical right dark free speech has inflicted on American society and governance. Millions of minds have been poisoned.

My assessment:
T****, the GOP leadership and rank and file republicans: ~85% responsible for the damage to democracy, rule of law, social comity, respect for truth, etc.
Everyone else: ~15% responsible

All of the foregoing is why the radical right terrifies me, but not the radical left.

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And so it goes. Hand to hand combat. One mind at a time. Very few moments of mutual understanding. No mind changes. This is hard work, grunt, grunt. Dang, I need a pay raise.

Happily at work