How do we maintain our democracy when Repulbicans have given up on democracy and now want authoritarianism? (1 Viewer)

[coldseat]

It's hard to believe how far down the road we've gone towards authoritarianism. Republicans are not even trying to hide anymore. If they are able to recapture control of the House in 2022, I have serious concern about how much longer we'll be able to maintain our democracy. Just look at how far they're willing to go in the article below. How can we stop this speeding train towards authoritarianism and nationalism in the Republican party and get them to defend and support democracy once more?

Their polls found that after the election, a supermajority of Republicans backed Trump's efforts to overturn the results: 86% said his legal challenges were appropriate, 79% said they weren't confident in the national vote tally, and 68% said Trump really won. Another 54% said Trump should never concede, and a plurality said state legislatures should override the popular vote.
This set the stage for Trump, GOP lawmakers, and right-wing media outlets to continue pushing the lie that the election was "rigged," which Trump did yet again in a press release this week.


Additionally, only 34% of Trump voters said they would accept Biden as the legitimate president, according to the post-election polls. That pales in comparison to similar surveys conducted by Gallup after previous controversial elections -- 68% of Al Gore voters in 2000 accepted George W. Bush's legitimacy, and 76% of Hillary Clinton voters in 2016 accepted Trump's as president.
The organization was among the first to raise the alarm last summer about the potential for unprecedented political violence if the 2020 election was disputed -- warnings that became a reality with the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. They released the new polls as part of a series of reports about the manufactured "crisis of confidence" in US elections.

New polls show GOP willingness to subvert 2020 election

New polls released Thursday show just how far Republicans were willing to go to support then-President Donald Trump's unprecedented efforts to subvert the 2020 election.

www.cnn.com

An excellent podcast on how Hungary's democracy has fallen and the similarities between what Orban and his party have done and how Republicans are doing the same thing here in the US.

 

[not2rich]

There should be more locations to vote to eliminate long waiting lines.

But these "election integrity" laws don't address that - at all - because as Sandman said, the long lines are the entire point. Take away options - nope, you can't vote by mail; nope you can't drop your ballot at a drop box; nope, we're not giving your district more than one polling place - to force voters of a certain demographic into long lines and long waits in order to vote.

But of course, neither you nor any of the other "election integrity" cheerleaders ever had to wait in line for half a day or more to vote, so you're perfectly fine with that.

As an aside, everyone in my state has the option to vote by mail or use a drop box, and somehow the integrity of our elections has never been called into question.

 

[SFIDC3]

The Dems also play the game. They do! They rehearse and say what they think the minorities want to hear, I am a so called minority so I know.

Of course politicians say things folks want to hear, on both sides of the aisle, it's been going on for centuries.....what hasn't been going on for centuries is a GOP party completely flipping out because of a grifter/fraud that they are somehow bizarrely emboldened to....when your party is based on outrageous lies/claims and they deny the violence that happened on the 6th it makes me feel that some of them are complicit....meaning they knew what was going to happen....then it was ANTIFA....patently absurd....QFT below....

Don’t normalize the crazy. The Republican Party could have put a stop to it. But instead they are embracing it.

 

[Optimus Prime]

A quarter of the population is quite disturbing
=================================

We want to believe that goodwill can foster a return to less contentious and hyperpartisan times. But what if one side adopts noxious views antithetical to democracy — and, worse, rejects the basic premise of America?

We have witnessed Republicans’ reflexive defense of the disgraced former president’s illegal and corrupt conduct. We have observed that the majority of the party accepts the “big lie” of a stolen election and seeks to use that as a basis for suppressing the votes of minorities.

And we know that, once more, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has committed himself to one objective: the defeat and failure of a Democratic president.

In short, they have taken themselves outside the small-d democratic compact that requires, at the very least, that we respect election results and abide by normative guidelines in defeat or victory.

It would be somewhat reassuring to think this is a problem of Republican officials, donors and activists. Alas, the authoritarian temptation is luring millions of Americans away from the democratic experiment. “A scale measuring propensity toward right-wing authoritarian tendencies found right-leaning Americans scored higher than their counterparts in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom,” a Morning Consult poll finds. “26% of the U.S. population qualified as highly right-wing authoritarian, Morning Consult research found, twice the share of the No. 2 countries, Canada and Australia.”

This means that a large percentage of Republicans — that is, tens of millions of Americans — embrace an authoritarianism defined “as the desire to submit to some authority, aggression that is directed against whomever the authority says should be targeted and a desire to have everybody follow the norms and social conventions that the authority says should be followed.” This inclination to follow a demagogue and to reject democratic values is more pronounced than in other Western democracies.

The most authoritarian-inclined Americans tend to be over age 45, live in rural areas and don’t have a college degree. This is the profile of the GOP base, not coincidentally. It follows that many authoritarian-minded Americans are willing to abide by the cult of former president Donald Trump and reject rational analysis. They burrow within right-wing media, refusing to confront facts and views that contradict their philosophy.

That authoritarian mind-set leads to a host of bizarre and dangerous articles of faith in the MAGA-infused GOP. Those with authoritarian beliefs are much more likely to conclude that the Jan. 6 insurrectionists were justified in the attempt to violently halt the electoral count; they are much more inclined to think Trump should not have left office.

Although more than half of the strong authoritarian right-wingers “disagreed that Trump should have refused to leave office, that paled in comparison to the approximately 9 in 10 liberal and low-[authoritarian] respondents who said the same.” The authoritarian-inclined are much more inclined to resist mask-wearing and get vaccinated.

The right’s descent into authoritarianism to a large degree is religiously-based. As NPR reported after the Jan. 6 insurrection:

In an open letter, more than 100 pastors, ministry and seminary leaders, and other prominent evangelicals express concern about the growing “radicalization” they’re seeing, particularly among white evangelicals.
The letter notes that some members of the mob that stormed the Capitol carried Christian symbols and signs that read, “Jesus Saves,” and that one of the rioters stood on the Senate rostrum and led a Christian prayer. The letter calls on other Christian leaders to take a public stand against racism, Christian nationalism, conspiracy theories and political extremism.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/29/truth-about-gop-they-prefer-authoritarianism-democracy/

 

[MT15]

Despite this op-ed, my sense is that this stuff is waning. I don’t have data, just my feeling. The polls do still show a devoted base, but it does seem to be shrinking. Don’t be fooled by the polls that only cite the % of people who identify as R, without disclosing what percent of the total population that is. The R party appears to be shrinking.

It’s going down as a percentage of the total population. Fewer and fewer people are going to be willing to self-identify as R because of all the nonsense. Biden won because more moderate white people in mostly the suburbs flocked to him. Trump actually got a higher % of African American and Hispanic votes than he did in 2016 (still a very low percentage even though slightly higher than 16), where the biggest difference between 16 and 20 is in the more moderate white voters who tended to vote R in the past.

Another demographic that killed Trump was college-educated voters of all races. And also especially women voters of all races.

Even among Evangelicals, a resistance is growing. The recent Southern Baptist convention vote shows that a slim majority wants to turn away from extreme political involvement.

 

[Sandman]

Despite this op-ed, my sense is that this stuff is waning. I don’t have data, just my feeling. The polls do still show a devoted base, but it does seem to be shrinking. Don’t be fooled by the polls that only cite the % of people who identify as R, without disclosing what percent of the total population that is. The R party appears to be shrinking.

It’s going down as a percentage of the total population. Fewer and fewer people are going to be willing to self-identify as R because of all the nonsense. Biden won because more moderate white people in mostly the suburbs flocked to him. Trump actually got a higher % of African American and Hispanic votes than he did in 2016 (still a very low percentage even though slightly higher than 16), where the biggest difference between 16 and 20 is in the more moderate white voters who tended to vote R in the past.

Another demographic that killed Trump was college-educated voters of all races. And also especially women voters of all races.

Even among Evangelicals, a resistance is growing. The recent Southern Baptist convention vote shows that a slim majority wants to turn away from extreme political involvement.

I have been saying the Republican Party is dying out. They are mainly older white people. The younger generations are trending Democrat for the past few general elections in the exit polling I have seen. So as the older Republicans die out, there aren’t enough younger ones to replace them. At this point, Republicans are reliant upon crazy turnout of the far-right base, which Trump was able to deliver. I don’t know how many more election cycles where that will be enough. It wasn’t enough this past election.

 

[Paul]

I have been saying the Republican Party is dying out. They are mainly older white people. The younger generations are trending Democrat for the past few general elections in the exit polling I have seen. So as the older Republicans die out, there aren’t enough younger ones to replace them. At this point, Republicans are reliant upon crazy turnout of the far-right base, which Trump was able to deliver. I don’t know how many more election cycles where that will be enough. It wasn’t enough this past election.

This is quite true. The younger generation is totally different and much more liberal and non-racist in any shape or form. iI think schooling had something to do with it. They receive plenty of ethics in school.

 

[Optimus Prime]

I have been saying the Republican Party is dying out. They are mainly older white people. The younger generations are trending Democrat for the past few general elections in the exit polling I have seen. So as the older Republicans die out, there aren’t enough younger ones to replace them. At this point, Republicans are reliant upon crazy turnout of the far-right base, which Trump was able to deliver. I don’t know how many more election cycles where that will be enough. It wasn’t enough this past election.

People say that but there were more than a few younger people at Charlottesville and the Capitol

 

[UncleTrvlingJim]

This is quite true. The younger generation is totally different and much more liberal and non-racist in any shape or form. iI think schooling had something to do with it. They receive plenty of ethics in school.

They are all still human though, and no one is immune to all the stupid stuff humans do. Which is why, it's in everyone's best interests that we build strong rules, procedures, norms and traditions, to prevent society from discriminating against minorities. That will one day become old white, rich men -- which is why I find all this resistance to rooting out systemic racism to be so Quixotic. The stuff we put in place now will protect them later, but they're so bent on resisting it.

 

[Sandman]

People say that but there were more than a few younger people at Charlottesville and the Capitol

It isn't everyone, but the majority lean left. I live in a very Republican area, and even here you can see the younger generation is substantially left of their parents.

 

[Sandman]

They are all still human though, and no one is immune to all the stupid stuff humans do. Which is why, it's in everyone's best interests that we build strong rules, procedures, norms and traditions, to prevent society from discriminating against minorities. That will one day become old white, rich men -- which is why I find all this resistance to rooting out systemic racism to be so Quixotic. The stuff we put in place now will protect them later, but they're so bent on resisting it.

It is something I always say, if someone else has their rights protected, my rights are stronger. I just don't understand the thought process of trying to limit other people's rights. In the end, it is a self-inflicted wound.

 

[Paul]

They are all still human though, and no one is immune to all the stupid stuff humans do. Which is why, it's in everyone's best interests that we build strong rules, procedures, norms and traditions, to prevent society from discriminating against minorities.

It is a different era with a totally different culture. People are exposed to different people from all over the world and that makes a difference.

America is not an authoritarian nation and imposing rules, procedures, norms, and traditions is not a plan. The new generation is less racist because the culture has changed spontaneously not because it was mandated by the state. Cultural changes are spontaneous.

That will one day become old white, rich men

In the quest to be anti-racist some people practice ageism or assume white is bad. BTW, having money is not a sin either.

-- which is why I find all this resistance to rooting out systemic racism to be so Quixotic. The stuff we put in place now will protect them later, but they're so bent on resisting it.

The problem is that systemic racism is an abstract. Systemic racism is not like racism in the old days where the barriers were clearly palpable and visible. If the system is racist then you have to demolish the entire system. That is a tall order.

 

[JRad]

Isn't is common for generations to traditionally lean more liberal than the previous generation, or am I totally pulling that out of my butt?

 

[Sun Waves]

But of course, neither you nor any of the other "election integrity" cheerleaders ever had to wait in line for half a day or more to vote, so you're perfectly fine with that.

Let me get this straight...

You quote my post in which I state there should be more locations to vote to eliminate long waiting lines.

Then you say I'm fine with people waiting in long lines to vote.

 

[not2rich]

Let me get this straight...

You quote my post in which I state there should be more locations to vote to eliminate long waiting lines.

Then you say I'm fine with people waiting in long lines to vote.

Instead of trying to be clever, why don't you just respond to the rest of my post?

 

[DaveXA]

Isn't is common for generations to traditionally lean more liberal than the previous generation, or am I totally pulling that out of my butt?

I think it's more of a pendulum. Ebbs and flows. Right now, the trend is clearly the majority is moving left for the current younger generation. That probably will swing back the other way at some point.

 

[Paul]

I think it's more of a pendulum. Ebbs and flows. Right now, the trend is clearly the majority is moving left for the current younger generation. That probably will swing back the other way at some point.

European nations do this back and forth swing all the time. Any nation that is all in the left or all in the right will not do well. There is always a happy medium. However, don't tell the members of the tribes. most of them think they are 100% correct.

 

[Bigdaddysaints]

There should be more locations to vote to eliminate long waiting lines. Not being able to give water to people and requiring ID's aren't voter suppression.

I worked the polls for the presidential election. I live in Ascension Parish, My in laws live in East Baton Rouge Parish.
Within 5 miles of me there were 3 polling locations, each with at least three different precincts at each location. Baton Rouge? not so much, heck the city of Gonzales in the same parish isn't so lucky. The urban areas have less polling locations making it more difficult and more hassle to vote. Wanna guess why?

 

[Paul]

I worked the polls for the presidential election. I live in Ascension Parish, My in laws live in East Baton Rouge Parish.
Within 5 miles of me there were 3 polling locations, each with at least three different precincts at each location. Baton Rouge? not so much, heck the city of Gonzales in the same parish isn't so lucky. The urban areas have less polling locations making it more difficult and more hassle to vote. Wanna guess why?

In my neck of the woods there are plenty. This is made possible by the local citizens that volunteer to work in the polling station (schools). I would go to those counties and recruit the locals to works as volunteers and create more polling stations.