It's Endemic: State-Level Republican Parties 'Radicalizing Against Democracy' In Front of Our Eyes
'It's endemic': state-level Republican groups lead party's drift to extremism,' The Guardian, Jan. 31, 2021.
In Arizona and Oregon, they rebuked opponents of Donald Trump’s assault on democracy. In Hawaii, they defended followers of the QAnon conspiracy movement. And in Texas, they adopted a slogan with dark historical connotations:
“We are the storm.” To understand the future of the Republican party, start with the army of increasingly radicalised foot soldiers who shape it at state level. Far from responding to the loss of the White House to Joe Biden by tacking to the political centre, local parties appear to be racing to the extreme right by giving safe harbour to white nationalism, QAnon – an antisemitic theory involving Satan-worshipping cannibals and a child sex trafficking ring – and “the big lie” that the presidential election was stolen by Democrats.
“The central story of American politics right now is that one of the two parties is ‘radicalizing against democracy’ in front of our eyes,” tweeted Chris Hayes, an author and host on the MSNBC network. “There are tons of other stories as well, but they all come after that, I think.”
The Republican party has been drifting towards rightwing populism for years, with notable examples including the Tea Party movement, the nomination of Sarah Palin for vice-president and the total capitulation to Trump. Moderate Republicans hoped that Trump’s failures at the ballot box – he was the first president since 1932 to lose re-election, the House and the Senate – might generate an “autopsy” similar to that which followed Mitt Romney’s defeat eight years ago and a reset aimed at broadening its appeal.
But recent evidence suggests that state parties are embracing Trumpism with renewed zeal, along with the fantasies of the far-right fringe.
The most explosive demonstration came on 6 January, when a violent mob stormed the US Capitol in Washington in a bid to overturn Trump’s election defeat while displaying the Confederate flag, a sweatshirt that said “Camp Auschwitz” and “Q” shirts and “Q” banners. Tim Miller, former political director of Republican Voters Against Trump, said: “The evidence is overwhelming that local parties across the country, in blue states and red states, are radicalized and support extremely far outside the mainstream positions like, for example, ending our democratic experiment to install Donald Trump as president over the will of the people.
“They believe in insane Covid denialism and QAnon and all these other conspiracies. It’s endemic, not just a couple of state parties. It’s the vast majority of state parties throughout the country.”
In the internal battle between conservatives and extremists, the extremists appear to be winning...
Read More, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/30/republicans-radical-extreme-state-parties
- RINO rally against Rep. Liz Cheney in Wyoming last Thursday.
= new reply since forum marked as read
some extremist censure or whatever. One more than the last article I read on this subject.
This is a good article on a widespread and dangerous development, the culmination of 40 years of growing GOP and other RW extremism. But at least in by far most places RW extremists are not yet storming and taking their seats of government.
The Republican party has been drifting towards rightwing populism for years, ...
Yes, but another hugely important development is that the majority of citizens -- whose responsibilities have always included control of extremists -- are finally becoming aware of what's happening.
It's taken far, far too long, dangerously so, but then it always does.
