“Ah, but are the Emperor’s new clothes not wondrous?!”
Watching Republicans debase themselves would be more surprising if they were not so eager to declare themselves in his thrall. Publicly embracing Donald Trump’s Big Lie is the only purity test that matters. The Romneys and the Liz Cheneys who refuse are apostates. New York Rep. Elise Stefanik may replace Cheney as GOP conference chair as soon as next week.
What we are witnessing is not a tipping point for the Republican Party, but one for America, Stuart Stevens (“It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump“) told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Wednesday night. The past is not the place to look for parallels, but perhaps Hungary in this century: “This is a Viktor Orbán moment.” The Republican Party has become “a major antidemocratic force” in America, Stevens believes. “It is a dangerous organization that wants to end the American experiment.”
Stevens went on (sorry, no video embed available at the moment; UPDATE: C&L had the video):
These are people that are different than us. They are people who have decided that they are defined by power, power to no purpose. And it’s a very dangerous reality.
Look, we have seen this before in America in the [19]30s. There was a fascist movement in America. But we didn’t become fascist. Why? Probably because Roosevelt was president and not Henry Ford or [Charles] Lindbergh. So we elected someone [Trump] who does not believe in American norms, who has strong autocratic tendencies, and what we’ve discovered is what we used to study in Civics … that leadership matters.
And when you say that it’s okay to embrace the worst part of yourself, the self that doesn’t want to admit that the other side won, you are on the road to autocracy. Democracy doesn’t work when you’re for democracy when you win and you’re not for it when you lose. That’s a different system of government and that’s the threat out there.
Hayes added that what happened inside the Capitol on January 6 introduced the notion that with control of both houses of Congress a party so inclined could overrule the popular will. What once was a pro forma function of Congress accepting electoral votes won through elections in the states is now a contested idea (backed by a violent mob).
As we slowly emerge from this pandemic, all of us are realizing there is no pre-2020 normal to go back to. The same is true of Stevens’s former political party.
“This is normal to them. This is what they want. They do not want to believe in a system in which they can lose,” Stuart continued. “Most modern democracies die not because of tanks and coups,” he said, citing Chile, Hungary and the Philippines. It is “through the ballot box and through judicial fiat that democracies die.” He is not sure which side will lose, the autocrats or the small-d democrats.
“We are in a battle for democracy.” Suit up.
So long as they embrace the ceremonial trappings of a republic, the budding fascists living next door won’t know the difference, will they?
