Ruth Ben-Ghiat: "Just what the Autocracy Doctor ordered." NYT runs op-ed from rightwinger telling people not to vote

[highplainsdem]

Link to tweet

Matthew Walther, the RWer who wrote that opinion piece in today's NY Times, is a contributing editor to The American Conservative, and founder and editor of the Catholic magazine The Lamp,

This is what he wrote:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/04/opinion/not-voting-elections.html

“Why does anyone vote?” I ask myself. The answer cannot be that we believe that by doing so, we will influence the outcome of an election. My vote, were it not withheld, would have no such effect. This is true even at the county or municipal level. The vote margins for the State of Florida in the presidential election of 2000 — the closest in modern American history — were in the hundreds, not the single digits. Voting is, strictly speaking, pointless.

-snip-

When I was growing up I was solemnly informed that voting was one’s civic duty. I fear that this quaint phrase does not quite catch in my throat. Civic duty is a protean concept. In the antebellum South, members of night patrols considered it their civic duty to hunt down fugitive slaves. In the course of our country’s history, the concept has also been invoked to describe obligations as various as membership in eugenics societies and the promise of Catholics to take up arms against the Holy See in the event of a papal invasion. To me, civic duty simply means paying taxes and obeying all reasonable laws (e.g., registering for the Selective Service). Your proverbial mileage may vary.

If patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, civic duty is surely the first. Some version of the civic-duty line is trotted out by the sort of do-gooder who hands out voter registration forms to strangers — an activity I find as off-putting as I would an invitation to sit down and fill out a handgun permit.

-snip-

What about those of us who remain on the wagon? If voting is expressive, then the same is true, surely, of not voting. My indifference is, among other things, a reflection of my view that the real problems in American life are deep-seated and structural. I cannot change the fact that financialization, environmental spoliation, drug addiction, the hollowing out of the public sector and the subsuming of virtually every aspect of human existence into reality-augmenting digital media are making this country an uninhabitable wasteland — and neither can any president I expect to see elected in my lifetime.

-snip-

This sounds hopelessly stupid and irrational...but Walther is neither.

He knows very well that government regulations can mitigate environmental damage and other problems he mentions, but he wants people concerned about those problems to think they can't and voting won't matter.

He wants people to associate the idea of voting as civic duty with antebellum Southern militias hunting down fugitive slaves, and with eugenics.

He isn't stupid. Those weren't random word choices and comparisons. He's trying to discourage minorities, especially blacks, and those who care about the environment (especially younger voters) from voting.

It's a disgusting opinion piece - and especially disgusting that the NYT ran it today.


Full text of Ruth Ben-Ghiat's tweet:

Ruth Ben-Ghiat
@ruthbenghiat

This is just very sad and frankly just what the Autocracy Doctor ordered. Not voting is a vote to let others decide your fate, and we know that many elections are decided by relatively few votes. The goal of many autocracies is "demobilization": people detaching from politics so they don't resist.

EDIT: See reply 14, which links to https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219103146 . Walther DID vote in 2020 and 2022.

[Lovie777]

1. RWers fear the voting bloc..........................

that's why they are doing everything they can to destroy it.

They do not have the numbers and they know it. They own corporate media and the polls. That is why they are relentless on President Biden.

[highplainsdem]

4. True. They've known for years that they need to suppress the vote.

[Kid Berwyn]

2. It's getting easy to spot the Enemies of We the People

Those with lots of money and the toadies who serve them.

[highplainsdem]

5. There certainly are a lot of these toadies. This RWer has one of the more original approaches, though.

I'm glad he's getting called out (and the NYT is, too) on Twitter and elsewhere.

[delisen]

9. They are letting us see the whites of their eyes

They are feeling confident after the SC immunity/kingship decision.and he wants us cede our citizenship right to vote without resisting. Apparently the fact that we win the popular vote for president is an embarrassment to coup

The timing is interesting because the Heritage Society just threatened us with bloodshed if we resist what they have dubbed “the second American Revolution.”

This op-ed published at this time seems to be part of their propaganda campaign.

[calimary]

22. Frankly my dear, those "Heritage" folks can go fuck themselves.

[DBoon]

28. actually, the Heritage Society said there would be no violence

if "the left" quietly submitted and did not resist

Like "I'll stop beating you if you stop talking back"

[returnee]

31. I like that phrase...

…”the whites of there eyes,” and the at least metaphorical suggestion that it is time to “shoot.” I will quibble just a bit, as I have seen those eyes since the 60’s. Now we can smell their putrid breath, the gun to our head and the knife tour throat. And I have seen Democrats be far too conciliatory to them. I have seen the history of the business coup against FDR, and Maddow’s podcast “Ultra.” We can only hope that we can open enough of our own eyes to the existential fascist threat, and the danger of conciliation and normalization, that has always been there in modern times.

[delisen]

34. Well written. nt

[delisen]

18. Post deleted

[Blue Owl]

3. The propaganda platform known as the NYT's Slop-Ed page

[highplainsdem]

11. Exactly. Good name for it.

[Liberal In Texas]

6. Just when you think the NYT can't get any lower.

This is exactly what the autocrats and theocrats want. This is why we have voter suppression - voter purges, well-funded organizations like True the Vote, limits on polling places, laws that make it difficult to become a voter register, etc. etc.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat is spot-on in her post.

[highplainsdem]

10. He knows MAGAts will vote. He's betting he can convince students, the poor and the elderly - who might

encounter more obstacles with voting, and who are more likely to vote Democratic - that it isn't worth their time and they won't accomplish anything or make a difference.

[Silent Type]

7. I'm fine with a white winger telling white wingers not to vote.

[highplainsdem]

8. It isn't aimed at them. Racists will not be put off voting by having voting as civic duty compared to

antebellum citizen patrols or militias going after runaway slaves.

[paleotn]

24. So am I. Voter suppression can go both ways.

[Azathoth]

12. I doubt we'd be worried about a right-winger telling people not to vote

if we were genuinely confident that our candidate was strong enough to win the vote.

"Let conservatives tell each other to sit this one out," would be the response.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

15. The Republican party has been suppressing voters for at least 4 decades. You do not address that.

Sly bashing of Joe Biden is still bashing.

[highplainsdem]

16. Did you read all of my OP? His target audience isn't conservatives.

[Azathoth]

19. Yes I read it. You fixated on his mention of the night patrols

You didn't mention that in the next sentence he also mentions that "civic duty" was also used as a euphemism to attack Catholics, especially conservative Catholics, for dual loyalty (the author is a conservative Catholic according to Google).

There's nothing in this article that makes it a "Dear Liberal Friends" piece. It's a standard "my vote doesn't count and neither does yours" piece from a conservative that we would happily dismiss under other circumstances.

[highplainsdem]

21. If his target audience was conservative Catholics, that would have been mentioned first.

The final paragraph I quoted is aimed at people concerned about "financialization, environmental spoliation, drug addiction, the hollowing out of the public sector and the subsuming of virtually every aspect of human existence into reality-augmenting digital media" - he's telling them their votes can't make a difference. Those are all liberal concerns. Conservatives are also concerned about drug addiction and social media, but often in very different ways. And the hollowing out of the public sector - aka privatization of public services - is a conservative goal, not something they'd be concerned about.

Btw, Walther was lying about not voting himself. See the edited OP or the link I posted in reply 14.

[Azathoth]

30. Again, this isn't a Dear Liberals or Dear Conservatives piece

You seem to think that because he's not just writing a Sean Hannity screed, and he makes one or two references that liberals can identify with, that this is an elaborate crypto operation to demoralize liberals.

The stuff about "financialization, environmental spoliation, drug addiction, the hollowing out of the public sector and the subsuming of virtually every aspect of human existence into reality-augmenting digital media" isn't exactly Fox News boilerplate, but it fits in with the kind of idiosyncratic complaint list that often comes from the type of people in the disaffected, dissident fringe who claim "voting doesn't work." I'd also be willing to bet that if you cornered him for details, or read his other stuff (I've never heard of him till today), you'd find that what he means by some these gripes is not exactly what the average liberal means.

I have absolutely no idea whether the guy is lying about not voting himself. Not sure if really matters since under normal circumstances, the vast majority of voters wouldn't be open to what he's saying anyway.

[highplainsdem]

33. You have "absolutely no idea" whether he's lying about not voting himself? The evidence shows he

voted in the last two elections, a fact he omits. A fact he'd've mentioned - along with an explanation of why he'd changed his mind about voting - if he actually meant this as the heartfelt personal lament about the uselessness of voting that he wants people to think it is.

He's a RW Catholic who has to be thrilled with a Supreme Court dominated by RW Catholics - a court that just gave presidents immunity for official acts.

This was obviously what he thought was a clever psyop. Which will fool very few people who know anything about him - especially that he has voted - and analyze what he wrote, but I suppose might fool some.

[ok_cpu]

32. "other circumstances" being

not an election where the choices are fairly baked in and, without much hyperbole, the future of our system of government rests on turnout?

When Democrats vote, Democrats win. If this guy wanted to express this view to conservatives, there are more efficient outlets than the NYT. Fourteen stories on the front page about how Joe should drop out, his campaign is in disarray, and Democrats can't win , followed by an Op Ed to not bother voting, by a conservative who does actually vote, absolutely reeks of suppression. The NYT knows they have the power to shape the news vs. report it and it appears they are making that choice.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

13. GOP knows their policies are hated by the majority so they want to stop voters from voting.

The NYT is an arm of the autocratic Republican party.

[highplainsdem]

17. Sure looks that way.

[highplainsdem]

14. Walther DID vote in 2020 and 2022. See this thread:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219103146

[kimbutgar]

20. The irony is if you tell people to NOT do something they end up doing it !

NYT = National Enquirer to me !

[Beartracks]

23. Republicans appreciate voter apathy.

It helps the right wing to consolidate power and control everyone's lives.

==========

[LymphocyteLover]

25. Ughhh!!!! This is the crap that was being pushed in 2016!

[oldsoftie]

26. he's wrong about single votes; I got Sunday alcohol sales passed 40 yrs ago

People I worked with always complained about it being illegal & when it hit the ballot I hassled them about registering to vote. between my friends & coworkers I got over 30 people to vote. The law passed by 32
yes, we CAN make a difference

[Mme. Defarge]

27. RIP NYT

Interesting that this was accessible in reader view view when other current articles are not.

[Hekate]

29. This is unbelievably vile