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Here’s the thing: Many scholars and observers saw this clearly and spent the entire Trump era trying to get America’s civic and political institutions to acknowledge the threat and act accordingly - while constantly being derided by the Very Serious Pundit class as “alarmists.”
When it comes to the authoritarian threat to democracy - and the anti-democratic radicalization amongst conservatives in general - the “alarmists” have been right every step of the way. A lot of self-proclaimed Very Serious People should really grapple with that fact in earnest.
The issue is that those who actively worked to obscure the threat to democracy with their anti-alarmism - whether or not they fully understood that’s what they were doing - are still shaping the political discourse going forward. And few have engaged in sincere introspection.
The fact that America’s slide towards authoritarianism and the anti-democratic radicalization of the Republican Party have so clearly outpaced what most of the country’s political class and mainstream journalists were capable of imagining or willing to admit is really concerning.
To a considerable degree, the fate of American democracy depends on whether or not the country’s political and civic elites are willing to adjust their expectations going forward and move beyond any residual notions of “It can’t happen here” exceptionalism.
What’s scary is that acknowledging the nature and extent of the authoritarian, anti-democratic threat is the easy part. The hard part is figuring out what it means to act accordingly. When democracy dies, at some point, “normalcy” and business as usual are no longer an option.
“It’s true that there is a discordance between the pitch of the rhetoric on climate and the normalcy of the lives many of us live.”
@ezraklein wrote this in his latest column. And exactly the same applies not only to climate, but also to democracy.
nytimes.com/2021/07/15/opi…
@ezraklein wrote this in his latest column. And exactly the same applies not only to climate, but also to democracy.
nytimes.com/2021/07/15/opi…
Working to close this gap between recognition and rhetoric on the one hand and the alarming lack of concrete action on the other is a challenge for every citizen. But is has to start at the top, with America’s sole pro-democracy party and with the country’s civic elites.
That’s what stood out about Biden’s voting right’s speech. It is important that the President publicly recognizes the threat to democracy. But as @EJDionne captures precisely in this piece, Democrats aren’t exactly acting like they truly believe we’re in an emergency situation.
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Many people employ historical analogies to make sense of the situation. Biden himself compared the assault on voting rights to the Jim Crow era. And he’s right! But as @KevinMKruse points out, if that’s what we’re up against, then imploring the people to “go vote” won’t cut it.
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This incoherence, as @Leahgreenb puts it, really captures the crux of the matter. It is the biggest challenge right now: How do we break out of “normalcy” if that is no longer a modus operandi capable of producing political action commensurate with the problem?
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I really, really hope that Biden and the Democrats will ultimately prove @michaelharriot wrong. But time is running out. Unless the system is dramatically democratized, there won’t be many more chances to stop America’s slide into authoritarianism through elections.
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It seems clear that there is a causal relationship between the tendency among Very Serious Pundits to dismiss “alarmism” and the fact that mainstream punditry is dominated by white men whose everyday normalcy is indeed not really under threat, even if democracy very much is.
Because that’s precisely what the political system was for most of U.S. history, and what reactionaries want to restore: A herrenvolk democracy - a system that was fairly democratic for white Christian men, and something entirely different for everyone else.
The Very Serious Pundits are correct that for them, personally, the Right’s authoritarian onslaught isn’t all that alarming. That is indeed the reality in a racial caste democracy. Their failure to recognize that the stakes are much higher for others is what is so revealing.
Anyway, let’s stop paying attention to those who told us we should dismiss the “alarmists” and start elevating the voices of those who have been consistently right about the anti-democratic dangers emanating from the American Right and the Republican Party itself.
Addendum: @ThePlumLineGS has no more patience than I do for the pundits who were adamant that “It won’t happen here!” all the way until January 6 and now have the gall to present democracy narrowly escaping the Insurrection to fight another day as validation.
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This is a great piece because @ThePlumLineGS accepts the central political challenge of the moment: If we acknowledge the threat to democracy, we need to come up with solutions that are commensurate with the problem. Just muddle through and hope for the best won’t be good enough.
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