Debating whether or not Republicans *really* want to erect a cruel regime of merciless white patriarchal dominance is futile. The proof is in the pudding, and the pudding is the state level: Wherever they are in charge, they are embracing an authoritarian vision of society. (Thread!)
We discussed this on today’s episode of Is This Democracy: The idea that Republicans are just nihilists who want to burn the system down is not plausible because wherever and whenever they can, they pursue a specific vision to which they are fully committed. 2/ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/10-republican-extremism-maga-nihilism-and-the-rise/id1652741954?i=1000594264018
‎Is This Democracy: 10. Republican Extremism, MAGA Nihilism, and the rise of Ron DeSantis on Apple Podcasts

‎Show Is This Democracy, Ep 10. Republican Extremism, MAGA Nihilism, and the rise of Ron DeSantis - Jan 13, 2023

Apple Podcasts
Ban abortion, control women; criminalize LGBTQ people.
 
Install an authoritarian white nationalist education system, ban dissent.
 
Restrict voting rights, purge election commissions, criminalize protest.
 
These are not disparate actions - it’s one political project. 3/

It’s really hard to keep track of everything that’s happening, on so many levels, in so many states, so many communities, all at the same time.

But it’s all one big story: A multi-level reactionary counter-mobilization against egalitarian multiracial, pluralistic democracy. 4/

Let’s be clear: The country is the United States of America, and it is the twentieth century, any time before the 1960s rights revolution - that’s the vision.

Mercilessly restore and entrench traditional hierarchies of race, gender, religion, and wealth - that’s the project. 5/

Conservatives are pursuing a deeply anti-democratic, anti-liberal, anti-pluralistic vision for American society, and the Right has a clear strategy for how to impose it on the country against majority will. They are fully committed to this reactionary political project. 6/

More news from just the past 48 hours.

Wisconsin. Nebraska. Michigan. North Dakota.

One political project. A comprehensive reactionary offensive. Everywhere, all the time. 7/

@tzimmer_history This is beyond upsetting. It’s inhuman.