Complex Republican beliefs

My friend and debate partner is currently in debate mode. He strongly objected to my post yesterday, titled Yup, it’s racism. He even called it extreme. He’s mentioned this briefly at lunch, so I think this is a long-term complaint. I’ll try to respond to his points.

My debate partner began with the definition of fascism from the Merriam Webster online dictionary. I’m sure it’s in response to the definition of fascism I wrote yesterday. The one I included was from Jason Stanley, who wrote the book How Fascism Works. One would think Stanley would know the definition of fascism, though I see it seems rather weak and not all that general. Here’s the Merriam Webster version:

1 often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition 2 : a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control

Debate partner wrote:

Notice that tendencies toward autocracy can come from the left or right (or the military or the NRA or California (which now grotesquely underfunds its schools), or from one-true-way religiosity or. exasperated parents (ask any child), or …).

Every center of political power has ethical people and evil, greedy, self-serving people -- and many people in between.

I quite agree.

I had written about a study by Larry Bartels that concluded that what drives the anti-democracy efforts of the right is racism. Debate partner wrote:

It does NOT follow from Bartel's "study" (how, by the way, has he structured that and with what agenda?) that we have fascism going on in Republican politics.

It certainly does NOT "prove" or even support so broad a generalization as "we've now got yet another study showing that racism, violent racism, is the impetus behind Republican anti-democratic beliefs." Republican beliefs are much more complex than that.

I did not read Bartel’s study. I did read the summary by Hunter of Daily Kos. Daily Kos proclaims it is news source for progressives. It’s writers have a progressive slant (some would call it bias). I read it because I am suspicious of “mainstream media.” They are under corporate control and, though they try (or pretend) to be unbiased, they are not. I have seen many examples (yes, pointed out by Kos but also by others) that certain stories may look balanced, but there are many ways in which they are not.

On to a central issue: What drives the Republican Party?

I’m coming up to the 13th anniversary of this blog in a couple months. During that time I’ve developed an understanding of supremacy, a belief that a person or a group of people are supposed to be placed in the social hierarchy above other groups of people. When this belief is strong there is a great deal of effort into enforcing the social order. Many times it is accomplished by making the lives of those lower in the hierarchy worse. That effort is felt by those pushed lower in the hierarchy as oppression, as violence (where violence is much more than being beaten). There are many aspects of this supremacy which we have labeled racism (white supremacy), misogyny, homophobia, religious intolerance, transphobia, and many more. I see all of them as aspects of supremacy, of one person or group saying “I’m better than you.” It is a strong force and leads a person to violence, including murder. Our society is permeated by supremacy, so much that we think it is natural. People talk of evil. I now see that everything we associate with evil is some aspect of supremacy

Back to the Republican Party. Everything I’ve seen them do over the last 25, maybe even 30-40 years (which goes back to when I was young and stupid), has been driven by supremacy. Even before then much of what they did was related to supremacy. It hasn’t always been racism, though a great deal of it has. Sometimes it is misogyny or religious supremacy.

My friend had written, “Republican beliefs are much more complex than that.” From my understanding, no they’re not.

I’d be glad to debate any particular policy with you, though not over lunch, I’m not all that quick recalling facts.

Do Democrats engage in supremacy? Of course, they do. I was uncomfortable with Bernie Sanders because while he promotes progressive policies that don’t look supremacist, he tends to act like a supremacist and certainly attracts supremacists – the Bernie Bros were quick to attack those who differed from what Bernie said and he didn’t call them off.

I’m also troubled by Joe Biden who seems to court (at least not turn down) corporate support. And it is corporate support (more like buying souls) that brought the GOP to where it is today.

As for the Democrats as a whole, when they were in power they left a lot of racist policies in place. That was even under a black president.

Debate partner wrote:

Yes, Trump is a racist would-be dictator and yes, the Republican Party, to its shame, failed to "cancel" him. Their bad, indeed. That's mostly because Republicans (as has been true my whole life) are greedy for power and feel entitled to it. Republican supremacy is not the same as white supremacy (although there is some Republican white supremacy).

How does that differ from fascism?

In my writing I’ve quoted Sarah Kendzior many times, including discussing several of her Gaslit Nation podcasts. She studies fascism and did her thesis on it (though I don’t recall whether it was Kyrgyzstan or Tajikistan) and has written a couple books since then. So when she says the nasty guy and the GOP as a whole are acting like fascists, I’m inclined to believe her. Kendzior and her podcast partner Andrea Chalupa are not the only ones saying the GOP is acting like fascists. There was also Melissa McEwan (who discontinued her blog Shakesville a year ago), Malcolm Nance, and a guy who tweets under the name Benjamin Franklin. I’ve quoted from all of them and many more.

Debate partner wrote:

Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Greens, Liberals, Social Democrats (etc.), some religious leaders, some business leaders, some labor leaders, some media personalities, some educators... (I could go on) are sometimes greedy for power, control freaks, resource-grabbers, liars, con-men, untrustworthy, etc. (Some UAW leaders were convicted of corruption in cahoots with GM. Shame!)

I quite agree. Since supremacy of all kinds is embedded so deeply in our society many people will take the opportunity to be supremacist when they can. They will turn a job to serve the public or a group and turn it into a way to fill their own pockets, which is a supremacist thing to do.

Trump's political evil does not encompass the whole Republican Party. Scores of Republican leaders have endorsed Biden in the past few weeks. They smell the stink from Trump.

Yeah, the nasty guy is losing – he’s down in the polls because people see he has made the last year horrible and it didn’t need to be. So, of course, Republicans are fleeing. But it’s because they want to still be around to implement their supremacist policies after he’s gone.

I've always despised Republican politics and have no desire to defend it. I see all of the above as reason to defeat them. I always want to defeat them.

Again, I quite agree.

I see your fears running away with your good judgement in blog posts like this one. I do not respect the sources you repeatedly cite... they demand that our ugly, messy, divided, partisan national politics conform to their pure standards of ethical political behavior... while they have no dogs in the fight and bear no responsibility for the tripe they spout.

“Conform to their pure standards of ethical political behavior”? Sorry, something got lost in translation, I don’t see that they demand pure behavior.

“No dogs in this fight”? You don’t see the daily stream of emails that I get from *Daily Kos* pleading with me to donate to these campaigns or to those charities. I usually don’t because they ask for $3-$6 at a time and I’d rather donate in larger chunks.

“No responsibility for the tripe they spout”? And the mainstream media bears responsibility for the tripe they spout?

When we get a year or so out beyond Trump, passions will cool and some Republicans will decide they like some pie more than no pie -- then governing can resume. And these posts will ring untrue.

I seriously doubt it. The nasty guy isn’t a GOP aberration. He is what they’ve been building towards since Nixon and his Southern Strategy and the Powell Memorandum from Lewis Powell. The GOP may not like how uncouth and cruel he is, but they aren’t denouncing what he has done. And they certainly didn’t remove him when they had the chance. They don’t want Trump but want what he sells.