\n\n“Around the world, they find two conditions that make political parties more likely to accept electoral defeats: \u201cwhen they believe they stand a reasonable chance of winning again in the future\u201d and when they believe \u201cthat losing power will not bring catastrophe \u2014 that a change of government will not threaten the lives, livelihoods, or most cherished principles.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the 21st century, these conditions no longer held among the GOP\u2019s conservative white base. Democrats were no longer a mere political rival, but avatars of a new and scary social order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNot only was America no longer overwhelmingly white, but once entrenched racial hierarchies were weakening. Challenges to white Americans\u2019 long-standing social dominance left many of them with feelings of alienation, displacement, and deprivation,\u201d Levitsky and Ziblatt write. \u201cMany of the party\u2019s voters feared losing … their country \u2014 or more accurately, their place in it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This, they say, is what made the party vulnerable to conquest by someone like Trump. Rather than fight the base in democracy\u2019s name, traditional Republican elites like Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) acted as \u201csemi-loyal democrats\u201d: leaders who say the right things about supporting democracy and the rule of law, but value partisan victory over everything else \u2014 including basic, non-partisan democratic principles. This enabled the entire party to become a vehicle for an anti-democratic agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOpenly authoritarian figures \u2014 like coup conspirators or armed insurrectionists \u2014 are visible for all to see. By themselves, they often lack the public support or legitimacy to destroy a democracy. But when semi-loyalists \u2014 tucked away in the hallways of power \u2014 lend a hand, openly authoritarian forces become much more dangerous,\u201d they explain. \u201cThroughout history, cooperation between authoritarians and seemingly respectable semi-loyal democrats has been a recipe for democratic breakdown.\u201d” “Around the world, they find two conditions that make political parties more likely to accept electoral defeats: \u201cwhen they believe they stand a reasonable chance of winning again in the future\u201d and when they believe \u201cthat losing power will not bring catastrophe \u2014 that a change of government will not threaten the lives, livelihoods, or most cherished principles.\u201d<\/p>\n In the 21st century, these conditions no longer held among the GOP\u2019s conservative white base. Democrats were no longer a mere political rival, but avatars of a new and scary social order.<\/p>\n \u201cNot only was America no longer overwhelmingly white, but once entrenched racial hierarchies were weakening. Challenges to white Americans\u2019 long-standing social dominance left many of them with feelings of alienation, displacement, and deprivation,\u201d Levitsky and Ziblatt write. \u201cMany of the party\u2019s voters feared losing … their country \u2014 or more accurately, their place in it.\u201d<\/p>\n This, they say, is what made the party vulnerable to conquest by someone like Trump. Rather than fight the base in democracy\u2019s name, traditional Republican elites like Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) acted as \u201csemi-loyal democrats\u201d: leaders who say the right things about supporting democracy and the rule of law, but value partisan victory over everything else \u2014 including basic, non-partisan democratic principles. This enabled the entire party to become a vehicle for an anti-democratic agenda.<\/p>\n \u201cOpenly authoritarian figures \u2014 like coup conspirators or armed insurrectionists \u2014 are visible for all to see. By themselves, they often lack the public support or legitimacy to destroy a democracy. But when semi-loyalists \u2014 tucked away in the hallways of power \u2014 lend a hand, openly authoritarian forces become much more dangerous,\u201d they explain. \u201cThroughout history, cooperation between authoritarians and seemingly respectable semi-loyal democrats has been a recipe for democratic breakdown.\u201d” <\/p>\n https:\/\/www.vox.com\/23873476\/america-democracy-authoritarianism-tyranny-minority-levitsky-ziblatt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[506,661,619],"class_list":["post-11927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-republicans","tag-tyranny","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11927"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11928,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11927\/revisions\/11928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
https:\/\/www.vox.com\/23873476\/america-democracy-authoritarianism-tyranny-minority-levitsky-ziblatt<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"