This front page piece made me realize it’s time to remind everyone about the basic forces in play here. It all goes way beyond mere differences in policy preferences or opinion.
There are days when I very seriously wonder if we, and by “we”, I basically mean Democrats and reasonable people, aren’t taking authoritarians seriously enough.
http://www.electricpolitics.com/media/docs/authoritarians.pdf
If you have not read that, please do. It’s not a terribly long read, but it’s a very, very good read.
You will find it enlightening, perhaps scary or worrisome, and definitely a motivation to GOTV. This election, like all of them now that we are polarized to the degree we are, carries higher stakes than the one before. And that is status-quo now. Every single election will be like this. Authoritarians have obtained power, and now that they have it, they will continue to use it, no rest, no quarter given, unabashedly.
These people are psychopathic. They really don’t care how they actualize their policy vision preferences. They don’t even care if they won't work very well. It’s not about that.
What they do care about is seeing their authorities win. It’s not even about them as people! They will say it is, and they will go to some great lengths to support why and how that might be just and true, but really it’s about “their side” winning, and that’s not happening for them, until their authorities have complete control and dominance. Everyone else is a threat.
This is why compromise fails every time. I sure wish Obama had read this work, or even considered a few of the better ideas in it.
There are more of us reasonable people than there are authoritarians, but not by too much. As many as a third of us are all in, don’t care, win at all costs. Given the number of people who don’t vote, this puts most things neck and neck, and they have deep commitments that go well beyond what the average American may consider being active in politics. When we make any progress at all, and mind you we’ve made some, all that does is escalate them into war state. It’s not about a better outcome for everyone. Not at all. It’s all about making sure the authority is dominant.
Many people do not believe this is true! The idea that we have mere disagreement about how to realize a better outcome for the people in the USA is out there and frequently cited. So are things like people being dumb, or inexperienced.
But, for these people it is just not about any of that!
When we make progress, we’ve rejected their authority, and that is unacceptable. And they take it personally, even when they are worse off, because they have a deep personal commitment to their authority. They need that authority to provide the clarity and vision need to navigate a complicated world. They will do this even when they are personally better off! It takes a very significant, life changing type of experience for them to reconsider being authoritarians.
Authoritarians are muddled in their minds. Many thoughts, compartmentalized, beliefs and desires that run against the grains of basic reality, religion, norms, and other things all clash in ways that make it difficult for them to reason about what to do and more importantly, understand and be strong in who they are. Many of these compartments center on misinformation or faith elevated to absolute fact, and often they signal this with phrases like, “in the real world...” while referring to wet dream type fantasies having little to do with basic realities.
A complicated, nuanced world is terrifying to them, because they would have to think and make decisions. Being ruled is much easier, and it brings clarity they crave largely because they themselves do not possess it and they do not understand why.
Of course, the rest of us being non authoritarians, have no problem with this concept of democracy. We actually do want the better outcome and we’ve not defined who we are and what we believe in terms of specific authorities who we follow near blindly. Things like consensus, compromise, middle ground, common ground, etc… are all basic, human things necessary for people to get a long in a world that is more good than bad.
To us, a nuanced world is perfectly ordinary.
To the authoritarian, it’s good vs evil. You are either good, or not, and good largely means submitting and committing to the same authorities the other good people do, and if you don’t, then you are a problem. Simple as that.
Trump, for example, is speaking to these types loud and clear. Republicans have spent a lot of time, since the Southern Strategy, courting them, enabling them, elevating them to office, and messaging to them all with the intent to benefit the wealthy. Who are these wealthy people?
Authoritarians! The Kochs? Big time authoritarians, and they have the money which makes them the authority. The little peeps are either on board with that, or problem people doing bad, or being evil by rejecting the authority that is clear and valuable to authoritarians. Again, Trump as an example, is speaking the language, presenting as being on board with the authoritarians, and he’s wealthy, which validates his authority status. Trump supporters won’t care what the outcome is. They care deeply about electing an authority they will follow anywhere willingly, gladly.
When are we going to learn this stuff? When will we speak out on this and recognize that we need to all get along well enough, vote often enough, and in general, do the work to check the rise of authoritarianism?
These SCOTUS decisions are pure authoritarianism. Those justices working non stop to marginalize voting and favor Republicans aren’t completely understood. They do favor Republicans, but only in the context of validating and empowering the authorities. The people with the money authorities and to a smaller, but still important degree, the people who follow the right god type authorities.
Any rejection of the authority is wrong, or evil. There is no discussion on this. And once that idea has taken root, any countermeasure that holds the potential to restore and solidify the authority can be justified. Violence? No problem. Discrimination? No problem. Lies, misinformation, propaganda? No problem.
In their view, these are necessary acts. People who are not on board with the authority really don’t count! They are undermining all that keeps us safe, the world clear, etc… and without that influence, the world turns to complete shit, everybody going mad, doing whatever they want, end of days kinds of things!
And that’s one more thing to realize here. Authoritarians really don’t know what to do with personal freedom. To them, it’s the warm blanket of constraint that keeps them sane. This is true again, due to their befuddled state of mind. Conflicting beliefs, misinformation, and all that I mentioned before combined to make simple, clear, rational thought difficult. It’s difficult because they have compartmentalized their world around these conflicting ideas, and when thoughts cross those boundaries, the security blanket of authority is unraveled, leading to a basic worry that can and often does elevate into terror: “What do we do now?”
Authoritarians feel no shame at all for following and doing what it takes to compel others to follow their authority. Lies, cheats, abuses, don’t matter. The authority needs to rule so the world is simple, clean, etc…
All of this boils down to very simple, “those other people have got to go” type arguments. And who do we see those coming from?
Yes, exactly.
Republicans have spent decades shitting the bed to the point where they appear on TV with shit in their hair and reek of the smell as if it’s all perfectly ordinary. To them, all these lies and harmful policy is ordinary! They made that bed, and having slept in the worst with the worst doing the worst, have no problem with any of it.
Any of us who didn’t shit the bed, didn’t sleep in stench, who can see this for what it all really is are members of the class, “those other people who have got to go” and it’s as simple as that.
This SCOTUS decision should not be on the table. It’s a bold argument to differentiate the authoritarians, who should be voting for their authorities, and everyone else, including you and me, because we don’t have that shit in our hair, we don’t have befuddled, confused minds, and we don’t respect authorities who would do us more harm than good, because we respect ourselves and our peers more than we do following some authority that validates the worst in us.
That’s what this decision is about. And it’s time more of us realize this and get motivated to vote and really do the work to encourage others, and younger people seeing all of this in wonder, shock, discouragement and awe to vote too.
Vote every damn time.
Here’s the thing about that. The Democrats aren’t pretty from a Progressive point of view. We’ve got our share of corporate, coin operated Democrats to worry over, but the party is not authoritarian. We have meaningful debates and as of late, it seems like the Democratic party has the kinds of debates both parties used to have before Reagan. Crazy to think about isn’t it?
Not so crazy when the nature of authoritarians is clear. This outcome is a natural artifact of how authoritarians play out in our society.
Republicans are authoritarian. Every office they win, even when a reasonable one wins that office, is more power to the authoritarians who will gladly chew up and spit out “reasonable” party members to maintain power and advance the agenda of the authorities, and again, that is the people with the money.
This means voting for a crappy Democrat is still better than allowing authoritarians more power. They will use that power completely and unabashedly. They really won’t debate much, and this can be seen in the Republican party right now. Sure they are debating things like being complete assholes or only partial assholes. It’s no more nuanced than that, and for sure, it’s not a debate about what might improve things for the little people. Fuck the little people, and fuck those people supporting or who stand for the little people too.
Just think about that.
This next election is about SCOTUS as much as it is anything else. Whoever we post up needs to win and win hard, or we are in for a world of hurt that will make the Bush years seem cheerful and happy. We might even miss the guy.
No joke.