Robert Hubbell blogs about the frightening new face of the GOP and an important reason for the surprising victory of reproductive rights forces in Kansas.
He writes:
The GOP is rapidly embracing autocracy and white Christian nationalism as its rallying cry. That rightward drift is anxiety-producing and creates the understandable urge to look away. We cannot do so. However painful or revolting it is to watch the descent of the GOP into madness and hate, if we hope to defeat the anti-democratic forces animating the Republican Party, we must be clear-eyed about the threat the party poses to American democracy.
We must be explicit in naming and describing the threat. We must identify and defeat every foot-solider and sympathizer who promotes or excuses tyranny and white nationalism. If we do so, we will preserve democracy. We can win. We will win. But only if we fight from a position firmly rooted in reality. From that vantage, let’s look at the GOP’s latest flirtations with white nationalism and despotism.
The influential and ultraconservative Conservative Political Action Conference is holding its latest meeting in Dallas, Texas. (Where else?) CPAC’s two keynote speakers are Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Donald Trump. Both are wannabe dictators, though Orbán has made more progress towards that goal than Trump.
Orbán promotes an ugly brand of politics based on hate and racial superiority (for whites, of course). He has recently saidthat Hungarians “do not want to become peoples of mixed race,” causing one of his cabinet members to resign, saying Orbán’s remarks were “a pure Nazi speech worthy of Goebbels.” He blames much of the world’s troubles on George Soros—an attack line that is a dog-whistle for antisemites. Indeed, he went so far at the CPAC conference to claim that “a Christian politician cannot be racist” because . . . well, because they are Christian. And like the Nazis, Orbán has led a national crusade of discrimination against LGBTQ people.
In most of the world, an audience would recoil in horror at remarks that explicitly invoked the Nazi ideologies of antisemitism, racial superiority, and discrimination against LGBTQ people. Not at the CPAC convention in Texas. Orbán received multiple standing ovations as he delivered remarks that could have easily been delivered in Nazi Germany in 1935. See The Independent, Fresh from furor over ‘Nazi’ speech, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban welcomed by American conservatives.
Notably, no Republican politician has condemned Orbán’s remarks. Instead, they are lining up to speak at CPAC. Other speakers comfortable sharing the podium with a “Nazi-curious” dictator include Trump, Ted Cruz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jim Jordan, and Sean Hannity. No surprises there.
The despotic yearnings of CPAC are not an aberration. They have become part of the GOP DNA. Charles M. Blow addresses this trend in his column in the NYTimes on Thursday: Opinion | The Republican Party Is the Anti-Democracy Party. Blow notes that The Heritage Foundation (self-described as “the most influential conservative group in America) is actively promoting the idea that “America is not a democracy,” but a “republic.”
While that statement is a truism (there are no pure democracies in the world), The Heritage Foundation uses the term “republic” to mean “white nationalist patriarchy.” Strong words, I know, but here is what The Heritage Foundation wrote in 2020:
America is threatened by an egalitarianism that undermines the social, familial, religious, and economic distinctions and inequalities that undergird our political liberty.
That passage deserves re-reading. The Heritage Foundation claims that America is threatened by “egalitarianism.” What?! Egalitarianism is defined as “the doctrine that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities.” So, the Heritage Foundation is against “equal rights and opportunities for all??
Yes, it is! The Heritage Foundation goes on to say that “inequalities undergird ourpolitical liberty.” Re-read the preceding phrase—twice! It is breathtaking. In that phrase, “our” can only refer to the privileged, white elite that has ruled America since its founding. For The Heritage Foundation, “our political liberty” is based on “inequality.” Unbelievable.
So, the two leading Republican advocacy groups are actively promoting a white, Christian nationalism that is antithetical to the declaration that created America: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal . . . .
If we can get past the grievance mentality that Trump manipulates to his advantage, the positions embraced by CPAC and The Heritage Foundation are repugnant to most Americans. We need only articulate that truth in a way that resonates with their inherent belief in the American promise of equality. If we can do that, we have a fighting chance to turn the GOP’s message of hate against its most ardent promoters. The victory in Kansas points the way. Read on!
Messaging in Kansas.
With the benefit of 48 hours hindsight, it is becoming clear that a critical component of the victory in Kansas was messaging (a fact noted by dozens of readers in Comments and emails today). Charlie Sykes does an excellent job of reviewing the commentary on this issue in his Morning Shots newsletter. From WaPo,
Abortion rights supporters used conservative-sounding language about government mandates and personal freedom in their pitch to voters, and made a point of reaching out to independents, Libertarians and moderate Republicans.
And check out this television ad that describes the anti-abortion effort as an attempt to impose “a strict government mandate” that was “a slippery slope that would put more of your individual rights at risk.”
Messaging wasn’t the only reason that reproductive choice won in Kansas on Tuesday, but it was undoubtedly one of the reasons that a majority of persuadable Independents and some Republicans voted “No” on the anti-choice measure.
It will not require an advertising genius to draft ads demonstrating that the ugly ideologies of CPAC and The Heritage Group are antithetical to America’s founding ideals.
We can do that. We did it. In Kansas.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Libertarians absolutely hate, despise and loathe democracy. I recall Rand Paul having a hissy fit meltdown when one of the Democrats described America as a democracy. Rand Paul, in so many words, said how dare he, America was never a democracy, it is a republic. News flash to Rand Paul: a republic is a representative democracy. It’s not as if you are comparing tomatoes to rocks but rather lemons to limes. There’s lots of overlap between the two to such an extent that most people use the terms (democracy and republic) interchangeably. It shouldn’t be a big deal except to libertarians who want to stamp out democracy because it so offends their sense of entitlement.
Libertarianism is a sign of immature, stunted-growth political ideas. Their intellectual growth never outgrew the ideal of white privilege of a certain teenager who became a Justice. Which is why non-whites fall for it as well, that’s the world they want for their children.
The concentrated wealth of some of these liberatarian, Christian nationalist types makes it difficult for democracy to prevail. When we have a system that accepts money as free speech, it gives the ultra-wealthy a huge advantage in elections. The Kochs, DeVos family, the Waltons and others hiding behind dark money have a distinct advantage by flooding the media with their false narratives in election season.
In Utah, we are required by law to teach that the UD is a “Constitutional Compound Republic.” Took me 2 years of asking everyone I knew up to the level of the state office of education to find out what the “compound” meant. It’s referring to federalism. But we apparently can’t say “federal.” And that was 10 years ago, before this latest room and of crazy.
US. Sigh. Big fingers and small keyboard
Finished reading Malcolm Nance’s latest books and it confirms what I’ve been trying to ignore and downplay. Compare with Christopher Wray’s testimony before Congress this week. I’m led to only one conclusion: Lloyd’s been closer to the truth than any of us dared to imagine.
And with respect to the previous post and to better understand these “economic distinctions and inequalities”, there are two books I hope everyone will consider reading, two books that will fundamentally alter your lives: Douglas Blackmon’s Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II and Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. And they also explain why some folks will talk the tolerant talk in public and vote to preserve these “economic distinctions and inequalities” so that their self-perceptions remain the same and so that their children continue to gain advantages by limiting the pool of honest competition when they become adults. And why they will do nothing about and implicitly support state-sanctioned discrimination and violence to maintain their status quo.
Thanks, Greg. Ordering these.
Going forward, is Hubbell going to be as good as his words, “we must be explicit in naming…we must identify every foot soldier”?
(1) Matt Schlapp who heads CPAC is the subject of an article posted on-line. The story covers his Catholicism, his wife (who is also politically active in the right wing) and Opus Dei. (2) Catholic Vote praises Orban, the organization committed $3 mil to defeating Catholic Democrats in the midterms. If the group is successful, it will decimate the number of women in the U.S. House. (3) The co-founder of the Heritage Foundation, the religious right and ALEC was Paul Weyrich, who was Catholic. (4) A state’s media reported that a bishop prohibited his priests from voting in the Democratic primary for President on the advice of the state’s Catholic Conference, which claimed it was legal. (5) The almost 50 state Catholic Conferences were created for the purpose of carrying out the Bishops’ political agendas. In Kentucky, media report that the VP of EdChoice is the associate director of the Kentucky Catholic Conference. (6) The SCOTUS case that exempted religious schools from civil rights employment law was won by St.James Catholic school.
Sixty-three percent of White Catholics who attend church regularly voted for Trump in 2020.
It’s as simple as:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal . . . .
This is not their grandfathers’ or state’s “We” These white men and subservient others take 1787 “We” and “men” literally.
It is the years between 1954 and 2010s that they detest –> Racial integration and desegregation. IDEA. ERA and equal pay movement. Immigration. Gender orientation in non-discrimination policy. Gay marriage. Regulations on things they can’t see (the planet). “Equity” “Social Justice.” Overt attacks on their racism, sexism, homophobia, “American” values.
Regardless of age- young and old – the last 60 years sparked the right-wing and ticked-off persons’ agenda. Somehow, inclusion and 21st century “We” made them victims.
They have been shrewd with a simple consistent playbook and powerful with a big microphone. And, that playbook knows that for some inexplicable psychological reason, a whole mess of people WANT a dictator – a figure to think and feel and yell at their manufactured enemies and lies.
This is an extraordinarily important essay. The national Democratic Party really, really needs to grok the message of Mr. Hubbell’s conclusion and majorly alter its messaging. The way to win elections is NOT to field candidates barely distinguishable from Republicans but IS to make clear the UNPATRIOTIC threat that the current fascist version of the Republican Party presents to liberty.
That’s how we combat the rapid red shift that has us hurdling toward becoming just another dictatorship, just another democracy in name only like The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
I keep hoping that the insane attacks on a woman’s body autonomy, public schools and teachers will cause a backlash among the sane Republicans. The libertarian agenda is a dystopian vision that is a bridge too far, but many Republicans cannot see it. They are so smitten with party loyalty to see where it is all heading.
I agree the Democrats have a great deal of work to do as they are ill prepared for the fight they need to have. It is also difficult when wealthy Democratic donors hold economic beliefs that are similar to those of the Republican party. Our democracy is greatly skewed by the impact of big donors.
But the “impact of big donors” is their ability to make the media present their view in the most positive way and the opposing view in the most negative way. It’s not that Democrats are getting that much money from big donors. It is that they are listening to the MEDIA and the public that repeats right wing talking points. Even folks here were legitimizing right wing talking points during the 2021 Virginia Governor’s race and blaming the Democrat based not on reality but on the right wing propaganda that they believed. Those folks were certain that the Democrat’s strong defense of public schools that got applause from the audience in real time was instead the out of context sentence the right wing got the media to amplify to make the Dem look bad. And if the teachers and Democrats are bashing the people who defend public schools because they believe right wing propaganda, why do you think so many politicians have given up? Mayor de Blasio stood up for public schools and instead of having his back, progressives joined in and bashed him for “not doing it the right way”! Every way is the wrong way if it fails, and most times going up against big money is a losing battle. But Dems would do it if they got credit for fighting that battle instead of blame for not winning.
As Carol Burris wrote here, Biden’s DOE did NOT change the new regulations overseeing charter schools just because billionaire Mike Bloomberg and a whole slew of wealthy donors wanted them to. That’s because the media had not amplified the talking points of the ed reformers and the public school supporters weren’t whining that the regulations weren’t enough and Biden was co-opted, but were standing strong to support them. The Dems – aside from a few corrupt ones – haven’t been about pleasing their donors, but they have been about getting re-elected, and they needed strong defenders when the media demonized them for standing up for public schools. Too often what they got was public school supporters joining in to condemn them for doing it the wrong way and scapegoating Dems for causing all the criticism from public school haters! As if there is some nirvana whereby a Democrat could take progressive action and be immune to demonization from the right and their media shills. That will happen every single time — the only question is whether they get the folks on the left to legitimize and amplify it. With the recent charter school regulations, they did not, and the richest donors did not have influence. And I truly believe that the fact that the manufactured pro-charter “protests” got almost no media attention and were ignored. That’s unusual but enough other things were going on in the country that the public and media made it a one day story and it was forgotten. If the influence of big donors was simply about their money, the Biden DOE would have kowtowed to them. It has always been about how the public believes the donors’ propaganda and Dems feel pressure because their own voters (not donors) are blaming them.
“sane Republican”
Now there’s a rare and endangered species!
And yes, money distorts everything in American politics. There is an ENORMOUS disconnect between what the people want (poll them) and how politicians, Repugnican and Dimocrat, vote. It’s horrific. Take a poll. Americans want Medicare for All. They want marijuana legalization. They want abortion rights. They want a living minimum wage. They want immigration reform. They want DACA amnesty. They want higher taxes on billionaires. The Pugs absolutely oppose all of this, and many Dims are barely distinguishable from Pugs on these issues.
You’re correct Bob. And those polls……? I hang up now when they contact me. They don’t ever ask a direct question that I can answer. They beat around the bush trying to get info that they can skew for the media. Both sides are guilty of it.
Both sides… No. Only one side, comprising 40% of the American electorate, many of them violent, armed, and just waiting to be called up, are trying to destroy the very concept of a democratic-republic on American soil. To hell with anyone who claims “both sides” in this day and age. It’s not about issues anymore.
“sane Republican”, it’s not endangered, it’s extinct and being erased from history.
Bob,
Moms for Liberty has a map of their chapters posted at its site. I was surprised at the coverage they have in Florida.
At CPAC yesterday. Remember the fascist trope of The Enemy Within–the one that Hitler ran on and that Goebbels promoted?
SENATOR RICK SCOTT (At least I think it was; the guy looked a LOT like Voldemort): Great nations don’t automatically last forever. Writing about Rome, Will Durant said, “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has first destroyed itself from within.” Think about that. Great civilizations that have collapsed or been conquered by a foreign adversary are first hollowed out from the inside. We Americans are the most spoiled people on Earth. We have been given such a great heritage, but we’ve taken it for granted. The founding fathers of our country—men like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison—men who are now considered to be evil racists according to the top scholars in America’s most elite universities. These men put us on a course for success that the world has never before seen. We survived the War of 1812, the Civil War, World War [sic] I and II, Korea, Vietnam, the Cold War but now today we face the greatest danger we have ever faced: the militant Left Wing in our country has become The Enemy Within. Here you’re gonna say, “That’s pretty dramatic. You’re calling them ‘The Enemy Within.’” Yes I am, and here-’s why: Here’s a situation report: The Militant Left has now seized control of our economy, our culture, and our country. When you turn on the news at night, do you even recognize the country you see? Are you worried for your family? Are you worried for your freedom? The Woke Left now controls The Democrat Party, the entire federal government, the news media, academia, big tech, Hollywood, most corporate board rooms, and now even some of our top military leaders. They are working hard to redefine our country, silence their opponents, and that means each of you. They are destroying about [sic] everything they touch, and they’ve got their hands on everything. Here’s the thing about what they’re trying to destroy: American patriotism, border security, American history, gender, traditional morality, capitalism, fiscal responsibility, opportunity, rugged individualism, Judeo-Christian values, free speech, law enforcement, religious liberty, parental involvement in schools, and even private ownership of firearms. The Woke Left wants all of that gone. They want to end the American Experiment. They want to replace freedom with their control. The elites in government are telling us what we can and cannot believe, what we can think, and what we can do. They want to completely control our lives. Woke, government-run schools; woke, government-run healthcare; woke government-run everything. In their New Socialist Order, everyone will obey, and no one will be allowed to complain. If you do speak up—boom—you’re gonna be canceled. Your views, if you don’t conform with big tech, Fauci, or Neil Young, you’re going to be taken off Spotify, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. The Militant Left in America are the modern-day versions of book burners. Canceling, silencing, and banning from the Internet is [sic] book burning. These are the most narrow-minded, intolerant people our country has ever seen. . . . Let’s be clear. What the Militant Left is now proposing is evil. It is evil, and the results are evil.
“College alums demand Amy Coney Barrett be booted from Hall of Fame over ‘honor code violations.'” An analyst described liberal Catholics’ protests, “They write letters, march in demonstrations and volunteer.” The countervailing force is the fascists’ checkbook and the patriarchy.
Positioned below the Barrett article at Raw Story is, (a bro) of “MAGA ‘lions not
sheep’ ” merchandise has been “busted for putting bogus ‘made in USA’ on Chinese -made apparel.”
Deceit comes as natural to Republicans as breathing.
In possible good news, Eli Lilly which was once the largest employer in Indiana (now 13th) announced that Indiana’s response to Roe has led the firm to the decision that its future growth will be outside of Indiana. The company describes the abortion ban as making it difficult for them, “to attract diverse scientific, engineering and business talent to Indiana.”
The effect is probably mostly symbolic. Lilly has planned $2 bil. investments in Indiana that will go ahead. If their business plans include involvement in products like OTC
birth control (currently the HRA company is seeking approval for the product), the decision could become significant.
Presumably, the Lilly Foundation will continue to push school choice.
It strikes me that the rising tide metaphor refers to raising all boats. In this case, the rising tide sinks a lot of boats, separates most from the pack permanently, and builds a nicer shelter and club using other peoples’ money for those who remain.