Spoiler: It’s all about race (and gender, and religion).
The GOP-Russia love affair has been evident for some time.
Last summer Tucker Carlson said the U.S. should “rethink America’s alliances.”
And remember when Sen. Rand Paul went to Moscow to “open the lines of communication”?
Guiliani attended a pro-Russia conference last year. He was about to attend another when the Ukraine scandal exploded and he abruptly cancelled.
Russia has been beckoning to America’s far right wing for decades, presenting Russia as the savior of white majority rule.
Russian money helped radicalize the NRA into an extremists group.
Remember Paul Hasson, they guy who planned to mass murder liberals? I was struck by a phrase on page 3 of the Motion for his Pre-Trial Detention. Hassen talked of “Looking to Russia with hopeful eyes . . .”
Katie Hopkins, with Ann Coulter sitting near her, says “Putin rocks.” She praises Russia as being “untouched by the myth of multiculturalism and deranged diversity.”
Putin’s regime is built on homophobia and fear of those who are different.
Remember that the idea of “equality for all” is fairly new.
Until the modern civil rights and women’s rights movement, power was largely concentrated in the hands of white men.
The “again” in MAGA signals reactionary politics, and a desire to return to a bygone era.
MAGA means take America back to the time when white men had almost unlimited personal liberty.
- They could grab land on the frontier
- They could grab people and enslave them
- Before modern rape & sexual harassment laws, they could grab women;
- Before regulatory agencies they could manipulate markets, fix prices, launder money, and pollute rivers.
The GOP is lining up behind Trump partly from fear (he crushes anyone who opposes him), and partly because they see growing diversity (and the Democratic party, which embraces that diversity) as an existential threat.
They prefer white-male-rule oligarchy, so they’re willing to let Trump turn the U.S. into a post-Soviet style mafia state.
One thing notable in this WSJ account of Trump’s clash with Georgia Governor Kemp is that Trump insisted that Kemp appoint a person who declared loyalty to Trump and who defended Trump.
A hallmark of post-Soviet mafia states is that the government is structured around family and ties of loyalty.
Also, the leader of a mafia state operates the government for his own personal benefit and wealth (so Trump is all in).
I’ve been reading this book:
What strikes me is that the impeachments we’ve had so far also occurred in times when minority communities were seeking to assert their rights.
This is what caused division and anger in America. Race.
Andrew Johnson was impeached because the Republicans were enraged by Johnson’s openly white supremacist and pro-Confederacy views. [That was when the GOP was the party of civil right and the Dems were pro-KKK. For more on platform shifting, click here.]
Basically Johnson supported the former Confederacy, undermined civil rights for the newly freed slaves, and used heated rhetoric indicating a willingness to see more bloodshed to protect Confederate rights and views.
The party of Lincoln called him an anti-American traitor.
The problem is that the Confederacy was, actually, also American.
Since the Civil Rights and women’s rights movement, the GOP has become more radicalized and desperate, seeing the growing diversity as an existential threat.
Johnson embraced the Confederacy. Trump embraces Russia. Because Russia is a mafia state in which the leader uses the levers of government for his own benefit,
Trump’s embrace of Putin’s Russia IS anti-American and anti-Constitution.
Magyar talks about the 3 stages of establishing autocracy. Stage 1, the “autocratic attempt,” is when potential regime change from democracy to autocracy is still reversible. Stage 2 is the “autocratic breakthrough.” The final stage is autocracy, or a mafia state.
We’re still in the reversible stage.
Our institutions are holding out.
The GOP may continue to line up beyond Trump, preferring white rule oligarchy to the growing diversity represented by the Democratic Party, but demographics are on the side of the Democrats.
The GOP base is a shrinking minority.
The democratic coalition: Young urban professionals and intellectuals and minority communities, are an expanding majority.
That’s why the GOP is in a panic and adopting desperate measures. The GOP may continue to line up beyond Trump, preferring white rule oligarchy to the growing diversity represented by the Democratic Party.
But the future belongs to the Democrats.
