GERMAINE’S DELISH TOXIC STEW
Ingredients:
1 mendacious, narcissistic cult leader (~330 lb)
1 corrupt, enraged republican party in existential crisis
2 buttloads (metric) lies, slanders and crackpot conspiracy
theories (Fox News, Breitbart, Gateway Pundit, Qanon, etc.)
1 society in social and racial flux
½ buttload out-group bigotry
Seasoning: weak public education, 4 buttloads of
special interest money in politics, a pandemic, lots of grumpy,
misinformed voters, lots of angry White supremacist groups, 1 weird guy with a funny hat
On the conservative Bulwark podcast this week, two admirable never-Trumpers marveled at what has become of the Republican Party since President Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the election.
“I am a little amazed by the willingness to go just authoritarian, to really go anti-democratic,” Bulwark editor-at-large Bill Kristol said.
Columnist Mona Charen was likewise puzzled. “The attraction of authoritarianism, I don’t know, Bill,” she said. “I’m really at a loss.”
And I’m at a loss to understand their confusion. The Republican Party’s dalliance with authoritarianism can be explained in one word: race.
Trump’s overt racism turned the GOP into, essentially, a white-nationalist party, in which racial animus is the main motivator of Republican votes. But in an increasingly multicultural America, such people don’t form a majority. The only route to power for a white-nationalist party, then, is to become anti-democratic: to keep non-White people from voting and to discredit elections themselves. In short, democracy is working against Republicans — and so Republicans are working against democracy.
Then, on Wednesday, House Republicans mounted lockstep opposition to H.R.1, a bill by Democrats attempting to expand voting rights. The bill would, among other things, create automatic voter registration, set minimum standards for early voting and end the practice of partisan gerrymandering.
In the House debate, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), sounding like Trump, made unfounded claims of “voter fraud” and asserted that the law would mean “future voters could be dead or illegal immigrants or maybe even registered two to three times.”
“This,” McCarthy said, “is an unparalleled political power grab.”
So, in the twisted reasoning of this white-nationalist incarnation of the Republican Party, laws that make it easier for all citizens to vote are a power grab by Democrats.
The toxic stew
Milbank's explanation is arguably somewhat off. It's more than race that has turned the GOP into an authoritarian personality cult. Race is one of the core drivers of the irrational fear, but it's not the only factor. Other significant factors include blind loyalty to the cult leader and widespread belief in his main lies about stolen elections and a satanic, socialist-communist democratic party. And there is a perceived existential threat that the republican party will become, or already is, a long-term or maybe permanent minority.
But the factors overlap. The republican lust for power drives widespread voter suppression efforts in the anti-democratic but innocent-sounding name of "election integrity." Part of that is indeed aimed at racial minorities. But part of it is also aimed at democrats, the LGBQT community and other out-groups the republicans love to hate and slander. Another part is what Erich Fromm called the urge to escape from freedom due to an unsettling and changing society. The psychological burdens of freedom are more than some people can bear. They want to escape from freedom to authoritarianism, even if a fascist personality cult is the only escape route.
When one tosses all those ingredients into the cauldron, the stew gets pretty toxic. Some way to soften the fears, prejudices and susceptibility to the dark free speech would be helpful to say the least. This is where Mona Charen’s comment “I’m really at a loss” is appropriate.
Funny hat guy’s mug shot
Quote after his arrest: “I was wrong. Period.”
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