Obligatory not american lol
I think this opinion on lemmy is probably not unpopular, but I have been seeing people saying how republicans are dead as a political party, and more specifically the anti democratic/fascist element, believing that people have seen their mistakes.
This I strongly strongly disagree with. I think its wishful thinking, a thinking that we can return to “normal” politics. We absolutely cannot. The republican voter base, are not going to magically return to normal to rational politics (although knowing some history that has never been the case lmao)
I believe this is because:
- Trump will be blamed for incompetence. The idealogy itself will not face much critic from the Republicans.
- Trump is a symptom of things in our societies, and if those do not get addressed, simply a trump 2.0 will appear and very likely be more dangerous. I believe what is causing trumpist like politics is: break down of community bonds on all levels, hyper individualism, social media and economic inequality/exclusion. The socialist in me says the problem is “capitalism” buts its good to be specific.
- The only winning strategy for republicans is to basically play the authoritarian game but smarter. Choosing a leader who is more competent then trump, and who is more idealogically commited. In this sense, america was lucky that trump was so self interested and chaotic.
- Trust in politics has collapsed further under trump. Theres the worry of the growth fascists in america/the world, but another element is the growth of people no longer believing in politics and sort of taking a neutral position. Under these circumstances the 30% that are fascists take power, and the politically apathetic 60% will just shrug their shoulders and comment on how nothings changed. If democrats fail, this trust will fall further.
Im not sure if i am entirely right on my points, but I really want to discourage the belief that the democrats, without doing anything, will magically be in power for 50 years or something. In fact I believe the democrats will need to be generationally strong movement, and I think this will need strong socialist element.
I also want to discourage the belief that the republicans arent going to continue with their fascist politics.
One final point is that this line of thinking applies in every country when a particular instance of a fascist project fails.
Ok rant over
Edit: fixed a typo/missed words
Correct opening statement, incorrect analysis. The Democrats are not anti-authoritarian. Obama still has deported more people in his 8 years than Trump in his 6. Biden still has deported more in his 4 years than Obama’s 8. Trump’s deportation Czar (Tom Homan) was first appointed to the position by Obama.
Obama launched a war of aggression against Libya, following in the same footsteps as Bush and honestly the Italians (including Mussolini). He used NATO to keep attacking Libya as a way to make sure it could keep happening despite the backlash.
Democratic congress critters have been sanctioning the world’s poor for 50 years in a bi-partisan consensus with the Republicans. Sanctions from the US have killed 40M people in those 50 years. The Democrats remain unrepentant and believe starving children and the elderly and the sick remains a “non-authoritarian” alternative to war.
It was the Democrats that developed the Crime Bill, propagated the myth of the “super predator” and intensified the racialized mass incarceration of the US.
The US today, just on prison population alone, is worse than Russia, China, Hungary, Nicaragua, Panama. But worse, the US’s prison population today is larger per capita than the height of the Soviet GULAG system. And that’s JUST the prison population. The US police state has twice the number of people under constant surveillance and monitoring and active management under their parole system. That’s literally 300% more people being managed by the US criminal justice system than any other country in the world, with worse recidivism rates than pretty much anyone. And the US is the only country that charges prisoners (not all prisoners) a day rate for being in prison, like a hotel, and everyone who can’t afford it leaves prison with massive debt that they have to repay and the state criminal justice system monitors them while they pay it back and garnishes their wages.
Neither party has put a meaningful dent in the prison system. It has been built by a bi-partisan coalition for the last 50 years into the world’s most authoritarian criminal justice system.
Democrats aren’t anti-authoritarian. They just pander to the anti-authoritarian sensibilities of people via messaging and aesthetics. As you said in your post, they are smarter authoritarians. So smart they just got the whole country to vote for them en masse despite all of the above.
Yeah i agree the democrats are authoritian, i should have added that as a point. I mostly suggest that they have the potential to reverse course on that aspect of themselves through political pressure.
If they dont, I would expect the more fiery authoritians the republicans to basically stomp on them
The Democrats didn’t arrive at authoritarianism throuth political pressure. They aren’t going to abandon it via political pressure. Authoritarianism is required to protect hyper profits, protect US colonies abroad, protect the state against the racialized and genocided seeking justice and reparations. The USA is authoritarian by its very nature and the Democrats are a party of the USA.