Brian Klaas: There are huge pressures pushing Republicans toward embracing authoritarian extremism.

[Nevilledog]

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1. I've devoted much of my career to understanding authoritarianism and the breakdown of democracy. And I'm growing increasingly pessimistic about the prospects for American democracy, because of one simple question: what could slow down the GOP march toward authoritarianism?

2. I've thought a lot about this and I can come up with hundreds of reasons why the increasing authoritarian extremism in the Republican party/base is not just self-sustaining, but likely to accelerate. Let's start with just a few key reasons for this ratcheting extremism here:

3. Primaries: Republicans who try to govern by consensus, compromise, or democratic principles rather than relentlessly kowtowing to autocratic Trumpian dogma now end up with primary
challengers. Everyone knows this in the GOP, so even moderates become more extreme over time.

4. Gerrymandering: this is bad and getting worse. Most districts are uncompetitive, leading to electoral landslides, so the only way for a Republican to lose is to provoke a primary challenger. That means that the rational strategy is to pander to the authoritarian extremists.

5. (Social) Media breakout power. Two/three decades ago, someone like MTG would have been expelled from the GOP immediately. Now, she's a Republican breakout star on TV and on social media even though she's a first term Congresswoman. Authoritarianism now comes with star power.

6. The point is this: there are huge pressures pushing Republicans toward embracing authoritarian extremism. And here's the problem: there are no countervailing forces. There's nothing that rewards being a sober moderate who believes in democracy and tries to govern by consensus.

7. In fact, the people who try to defend democracy within the GOP become pariahs. Their careers die. So what happens? Even the moderates at heart start acting like zealots because it's the only way to maintain power and stay in good stead in the Republican party.

8. Many thought Jan. 6 would be the breaking point. But it wasn't. In fact, the authoritarian attempts to overturn the election have, if anything, become more mainstream, more of a litmus test for future GOP candidates. "Do you believe Trump won?" is an authoritarian loyalty test

9. Here's the bottom line: nobody has come up with a convincing explanation for how this authoritarian trend reverses itself. That's why, as someone who studies these dynamics for a living, I'm worried that the GOP is becoming irreversibly authoritarian. (Sorry to be depressing)
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[Champp]

1. .

[moondust]

2. Gone With The Whigs

Returning them to sanity may require some kind of penalty/punishment since they don't seem to respond to reason and sanity. Lock up insurrectionists, censure their backers in Congress, find a way to fix the culture of misinformation and disinformation, get rid of big money in politics because as long as there are big rewards for bad behavior there will be any number of people doing whatever they feel is necessary to get rich quick. Etc.

[sanatanadharma]

3. Is republicanism an inate malfunction, an as though defect at birth?

Those self identified republicans who are not criminally insane, or simply base people, have options. They can return to democratic ideals and shout it loud from the rooftops to their family, friends and neighbors, "You are not only wrong, but also sociopathic." This kinder than to call them psychopathic.

If one can turn on all their religious, moral, and kindergarten teachings, what to speak of the Nation's values, then they are trapped, caught, imprisoned by their desires and base motivations. They are not free individuals. Free individuals can change.

To be human is to choose the right path, to seek the better not the worse and to accept any discomfort that may come from granting others their rights.

The bigger the 'ego', the more 'me, my and mine' in one's mind, the greater the likely-hood that choices will manifest destruction rather than creation.

The Republican Party may be spiraling to destruction, but that does not preclude a future that is reasonable and rational.

[BootinUp]

4. The blue states win in the end... 8 -12 years

IOW they get their ass beat in 2 or 3 more Presidential elections before it runs out of gas.

[maxsolomon]

9. And an across-the-board whipping in the Senate in 22 will help immensely.

But these concerns are valid AF.

[Poiuyt]

5. K&R

[Corgigal]

6. When they didn't attempt

to expand the party after the Romney lost, that sealed the deal. Old or white only need apply.

[Hortensis]

8. He seems to see all factors progressing as is. Maybe that's hohw

he missed the meaning of voters giving Democrats the house in 2018 and then the presidency and technical majorities/tie in congress the next election. They didn't fit a picture that didn't include voters beginning to react to what they were doing and starting to oppose them?