The Origin of Republican Authoritarianism: Race?

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

Washington Post editorialist Dana Milbank opines:

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.”

Trump’s Kryptonite…

 I'm still waiting to stumble upon it.

Just as Trump barely WON the presidency in 2016 by merely a handful of popular votes in critical “electoral-votes” states, he barely LOST the presidency in 2020 by that same critical handful.  But in that interim, between 2016 and 2020, we all got an up-close-and-personal look, indeed on a daily basis, at who Trump the man was and continues to be.

So let’s look at what HASN’T been his kryptonite so far.  Over these last 5-ish years, we’ve seen and/or heard about:

• Pu$$y grabbing and rape accusations
• Porn star payoffs
• 500K+ deaths from a botched virus containment
• 30k+ lies and misleading statements, per WaPo
• Staff turnovers dropping like flies in winter (due to scandal and/or disgust)
• Nepotism-ing his administration with blatant overriding of FBI security rules/checks
• Used ethnic and/or other slurs (Pocahontas, Little Marco, Lyin’ Ted, etc) on his opponents
• Advocated separating migrant children from their families at the southern border
• Trying to bribe a desperate Ukrainian ally
• Withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement
• Throwing paper towels at a hurricane ravaged country
• Mocked a disabled reporter
• Has no problem calling women he doesn’t like “pigs, dogs, slobs, disgusting animals”
• The hiding of his financials
• Palling around with dictators (Kim, Putin, Erdogan, etc)
• “Sharpie-gating” weather maps
• Proclaiming John McCain was not a war hero
• Called the military “suckers and losers”
• Called white supremacist “very fine people”           
• Told the Proud Boys to “stand by”
• Betrayed our Kurdish allies
• Suggested injecting bleach and/or light into the body
• Accused President Obama of spying on him
• With rare exceptions, refused to wear a mask, not setting a good example
• Two failed impeachment trials
• The pardoning of traitors
• A bloody and deadly D.C. insurrection in his name (“You’re very special, we love you”)
• Heretofore secret Covid shots for him and Melania in January
• A media who can’t quit him
• A GOP who can’t quit him

And hell, I’ve just touched on the more blatant shenanigans that immediately come to mind.  We have been here and historically witnessed, firsthand, all of this and so much more.

So other than his physical demise itself (likely attributable to too many Big Macs and KFC Buckets), I’m truly baffled at what on earth Trump’s Kryptonite could possibly be.  Truth hasn’t been able to do it.  His bad behavior hasn’t been able to do it.  His incompetence hasn’t been able to do it.

Question: Is there anything, anything known to humankind, that can finally “inactivate” Trump?  Any Ideas??

Myself, the only thing I can think of is if it is “proven” that he has paid for an abortion.  And even that will be iffy, since “proven” has become something in “the eye of the beholder,” it seems.  Time and distance, like with many (all?) things, could be another cure.  But we can’t seem to get away from him.  They won’t let us (she said, as she posted this OP 🤯).  So, I’m out of ideas. :/

Thanks for helping me out here.

Perception of Race and Political Ideology

A fascinating article, The neural basis of ideological differences in race categorization, examines if and how political ideology might influence perception and categorization of race by White liberals and White conservatives. Mixed Black-White images were used to elicit responses by Whites. The results hint at, or are consistent with, the possibility that there are differences in specific brain response activity (anterior insula) between liberals and conservatives. The insula plays a key role in processing emotional responses. The brain response was attributed mostly to racially ambiguous faces (racial ambiguity), and not to skin tone darkness and Afrocentric features (Black prototypicality). 

When people see racially ambiguous faces, there is an unconscious bias to categorize the face as belonging to a subordinate racial group, i.e., Black in this research. Other research found that this kind of discrimination (hypodescent categorization or discrimination) is more likely among conservatives than liberals. 

The researchers write:

Multiracial individuals are often categorized as members of their ‘socially subordinate’ racial group—a form of social discrimination termed hypodescent—with political conservatives more likely than liberals to show this bias. .... We found that conservatism was related to greater anterior insula activity to racially ambiguous faces, and this pattern of brain activation mediated conservatives’ use of hypodescent. This demonstrates that conservatives’ greater sensitivity to racial ambiguity (rather than Black prototypicality) gives rise to greater categorization of mixed-race individuals into the socially subordinate group and tentatively suggests that conservatives may differ from liberals in their affective reactions to mixed-race faces. .... White Americans’ use of hypodescent is often motivated by a desire to preserve the status quo racial hierarchy with Whites on top, and political conservatives tend to engage in hypodescendant categorization more strongly than liberals.

Whites perceive mixed Black-White faces in at least two different ways, on the basis of (i) prototypical features (skin tone and Afrocentric features), and (ii) racial ambiguity. The researchers used brain scan technology because standard behavioral research methods cannot disentangle how and why conservatives tend to categorize multiracial individuals as members of their most subordinate racial group more often than liberals.[1] 

Conclusion: One can see how complex and tentative this kind of research is. As usual, this work needs to be replicated and confirmed. To see how widespread and influential the differential race perception phenomenon is, the research needs to be expanded to include other mixed race images, e.g., Hispanic-White, Black-Asian, Asian-White, etc. If the results hold up, this knowledge can possibly shed some light on the biological source of one of the key issues that is tearing American society and politics apart, i.e., racial discrimination, racial bigotry and racism. 

It may be the case that the biological-cognitive source of conservative unease and its move toward authoritarianism can be slowed or stopped if the source of the fear can be understood and addressed. Conservative fear of the impending majority White to majority minority transition may be a significant driver of the social and political toxicity that is killing American democracy and social cohesion. If so, confirmation and more knowledge about the phenomenon could be very helpful to say the least.

Footnote:

1. For the science wonks in the crowd: The researchers comment that there are at least two possible explanations for the observed conservative vs liberal differences in race categorization. One is that conservatives have stronger tendency compared to liberals to categorize mixed-race faces as Black could be explained by sensitivity to increases in the Black prototypicality of mixed-race faces, and a desire to maintain a clear boundary around the conception or definition of Whiteness. 

The other is that conservatives might categorize mixed-race faces as Black because of a greater sensitivity to racial ambiguity.  Past research indicates that conservatives tend to show a stronger aversion to general ambiguity than liberals. Because of that, racial ambiguity might be particularly aversive to conservatives. The researchers write:

Political ideology has been associated anatomically with individual differences in insula grey matter volume and functionally to insula activity in response to political outgroup members, information about ingroup politicians, reactions to disgusting images and risky decisions. Furthermore, the anterior insula has been implicated in the learning of political allyship and White decisionmakers exhibit stronger insula activity when processing Black (versus White) faces.

In an article about this paper, the lead author, Amy R. Krosch (Cornell University), commented:

"We knew from our previous work that conservatives tend to categorize more mixed-race faces as their 'socially-subordinate' race, or according to hypodescent," Krosch said, "a principle closely related to notorious 'one-drop' rules, used to subjugate individuals with any nonwhite heritage by denying them full rights and liberties under the law from the earliest days of American slavery through the Civil Rights Era."  

Mixed-race faces vary on at least two critical dimensions, Krosch wrote: "Do conservative and liberals differ in their sensitivity to the racial content or racial ambiguity of such faces? Such questions are difficult to separate in behavioral investigations but might be critical to understanding the link between ideology and hypodescent."

 

March 4

 AS WE ALL KNOW BY NOW, DONALD TRUMP WILL BE INAUGURATED ON MARCH 4th, THIS YEAR.

READ ALL ABOUT IT!

https://disqus.com/home/discussion/snowflakes-forum/trump_to_be_inaugurated_as_president_march_4th/

But for those of us who would prefer to avoid the celebrations, what else is March 4th good for?

2021 Daily Holidays that fall on March 4, include:

• Benjamin Harrison Day 
• Brain Injury Awareness Day 
• Courageous Follower Day 
• Holy Experiment Day 
• Hug a GI Day
  
• International GM's Day - (GM = Game Masters)
• International Scrapbooking Industry Day 
• March Forth Do Something Day 
• Marching Music Day 
• National Backcountry Ski Day 
• National Dance the Waltz Day 
• National Grammar Day 
• National Hospitalist Day - March 4, 2021
• National Pound Cake Day 
• National Snack Day 
• National Sons Day
• Old Inauguration Day 
• Toy Soldier Day 
• World Book Day - March 4, 2021  - First Thursday in March (Primarily in United Kingdom and Ireland - most other Countries observe this day on April 23rd)
• World Hearing Day 

2021 Weekly Holidays that include March 4, are:

• British Pie Week - March 1-7 (Observed for 7 days starting on March 1st)
• Endometriosis Awareness Week - March 3-9, 2021
• Fairtrade Fortnight - February 22 - March 7, 2021
• Hearing Awareness Week - March 1-7
• Lent - February 17 - March 29, 2021
• Make Mine Chocolate - (Campaign kicks off annually on Feb 15, and ends on Easter which is April 4, 2021)
• National Aplastic Anemia & MDS Awareness Week - March 1-6
• National Cheerleading Week - March 1-7
• National Ghostwriters Week - March 1-7
• National Green Week - February 7 - April 30, 2021
• National Pasty Week - February 28 - March 6, 2021
• National Pet Sitters Week - March 1-7
• National Write a Letter of Appreciation Week - March 1-7
• Newspaper in Education Week - March 1-5, 2021 (First Full School Week in March)
• Read Across America Week - March 1-5, 2021 (M-F week of Dr. Seuss Birthday on March 2)
• Telecommuter Appreciation Week - March 1-7, 2021 (Week that includes Alexander Graham Bell's Birthday of 3/2)
• Universal Human Beings Week - March 1-7
• Will Eisner Week - March 1-7
• World Orphan Week - March 4-11

AS AN ADDED BONUS:

• 1952 - Ronald Reagan marries Nancy Davis
• 1960 - Lucille Ball files for divorce from Desi Arnaz

ALL THE GOOD NEWS HERE:

http://www.holidays-and-observances.com/march-4.html