How Republicans Stoke Anti-Government Hatred
Tearing down faith in the common good has helped the GOP for years, but it’s killing the country.
In At War with Government: How Conservatives Weaponized Distrust from Goldwater to Trump (Columbia University Press, 2021), Fried and Harris provide a powerful exegesis of American politics and explain how conservative elites have cultivated a toxic distrust of government. This is not a traditional conservative argument about levels of spending and taxation or American commitments abroad. It means playing on the fears of citizens that their government is corrupt, undemocratic, elitist and their enemy. This, they contend, is “the fundamental strategy of conservative Republican politics.” It relies “on public dissatisfaction to build their movement, to win elections, to engage in separation-of-powers conflicts, and to thwart liberal policy advances.” Sometimes leaders struggle to control those they roused. Sometimes they egg them on. And whether implicit or overt, racism and xenophobia are essential components to these efforts.
https://washingtonmonthly.c...
Opinion A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending. By Robert Kagan Editor at large November 30, 2023 at 8:00 a.m. EST (Anthony Gerace for The Washington Post; photos by Getty Images, AFP) Listen 33 min https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/30/trump-dictator-2024-election-robert-kagan/ Comment 12074 Add to your saved stories Save Robert Kagan, a Post Opinions contributing editor, is the author of “Rebellion: How Antiliberalism Is Tearing America Apart — Again,” which will be published by Knopf in May. Let’s stop the wishful thinking and face the stark reality: There is a clear path to dictatorship in the United States, and it is getting shorter every day. In 13 weeks, Donald Trump will have locked up the Republican nomination. In the RealClearPolitics poll average (for the period from Nov. 9 to 20), Trump leads his nearest competitor by 47 points and leads the rest of the field combined by 27 points. The idea that he is unelectable in the
Comments
Post a Comment