3127

Yeah, but would Trump be stupid enough to —

Wait, wait. I think I’ve answered my own question.

3128

I think it’s hilarious that Sessions practically qualifies as a Never Trumper now, just because he occasionally paid attention to institutional norms.

3129

Sessions is part of the deep state.

(For what it’s worth, my phone autocorrected that to derp state like 3 times)

3130

A good run down

Conservative ideology over American ideology.

3131

Yes, that gets right to the heart of the matter. Most Republicans would rather live in an authoritarian country with Republican rule than a country with democracy and rule of law if that allows the wrong people to be in charge. The dispute over the importance of the rule of law has split the Republican party, and the people who value it turn out to be a very small fragment.

3132

Yeah, “split” makes it sound like it’s 50/50. It’s more like 95/5 in favor of only ever letting Republicans be in charge, no matter what.

3133

For me the most obvious tell is the barely-voiced because-deeply-assumed idea that any investigation of any Democrat can only be legitimate if it is carried out by Republicans… and any investigation of any Republican can only be legitimate if it is carried out by Republicans.

3134

What’s so nonsensical about this though, is that the GOP used to be diametrically opposed to the idea of authoritarianism. That was kind of THEIR THING at one point.

So now, they’re preserving “GOP rule”, but it’s not actually preservation of what they used to believe.

It’s just a preservation of the most superficial notion of what they once were. I can’t even really come up with a good analogy for how dumb it is.

3135

When was this? Not trying to be snarky at all, but I don’t remember anti-authoritarian tendencies ever being a big part of GOP politics. Anti-federalism, sure, but the GOP has been wildly inconsistent in its support for individual liberties since forever.

3136

So like if Republicans existed in A Canticle for Leibowitz.

3137
3138

It was their big thing. Opposing the Soviets was one aspect of it.

There is reason people like Gary Kasperov and others were drawn to the GOP back in the day.
Of course now they’re on the forefront of calls to burn the party to the ground.

3139

I’d suggest that the GOP under Reagan was pretty stridently anti-authoritarian.

3140

I feel like opposing the Soviets was a bipartisan thing. The GOP has always been law and order. They’ve always supported belligerent foreign policy. They’ve always tried to legislate morality. And have always equated nationalism and patriotism. Those are all authoritarian positions. They do oppose business regulation and taxation which are only accidentally anti-authoritarian, but their general tenor has not tended toward supporting pluralism and civil liberties.

3141

The GOP has really never been against authoritarianism. They have, in the past, defended the privileges of certain people (white, wealthy, male were obvious factors) in the face of government interference, but they did that at the exact same time they wanted government to actively oppress other people. They have always been authoritarian in service to the right people and causes.

Yes, Reagan, who quite famously conducted a secret operation to flout US law in order to fund death squads in Central America in support of authoritarian regimes, then lied to cover it up, then let a serving military officer lie on his behalf to protect everyone else, then pardoned everyone involved. Yeah, he was totally anti-authoritarian.

3142

Certainly it was bipartisan in that partisanship at that point hadn’t devolved to the point where one party was willing to embrace our enemies for political gain like the GOP seems willing to do today. When you go back to JFK, he was certainly no less anti-soviet than anyone else.

However, there was something of a difference in how the Democrats and Reagan’s GOP opposed the Soviets in the late 70’s, early 80’s. While not being “pro-soviet” by any stretch, Carter’s position regarding the Soviets was more accepting of their continued existence as just an inevitability, where Reagan believed the USSR needed to end. Opposition to the Soviet Union was the cornerstone of Reagan’s entire foreign policy.

However, my original statement here wasn’t meant as a differentiation between the Democrats and the GOP. It was more of a differentiation of the GOP in the 80’s, compared to the GOP of today.

In the 80’s, the GOP absolutely built a huge amount of its brand on the idea of standing up to the Soviets and the authoritarianism they represented.

And today, the GOP doesn’t seem to care about that at all.

3143

Yes, exactly. If the authoritarians were anti-capitalist, the GOP was totally against those guys. On the other hand, good capitalist authoritarian regimes like South Africa and Chile, etc? They were almost the last people still supporting those regimes.

3144

Worse, they’re all about sucking up to authoritarians, empowering them, while also talking about how great it would be if America was authoritarian. It’s insane.

3145

Let’s not forget his view on the Apartheid…

3146

Indeed.

Really, Americans believe the most obviously trite nonsense about our history.