If Trump were to be reelected and went on a purge of similar bloodiness per capita to the Dirty War in Pinochet's junta in Argentina, that would mean ~350,000 dead Americans.
It's the most appalling betrayal of American political ideals I've ever seen. Anyone who signs onto an opinion like that has no business judging so much as a parking ticket.
They really do want a caudillo. All that idle fantasy about a "Lycurgian Moment" has really gotten to them. They *want* it.
Yes. They believe that the United States is on the verge of destruction by the left and Trump is their man on horseback come to restore the nation to its rightful owners. They are giving him the tools he needs to do this job.
The fools. They have no idea the Pandora's Box they're opening, or that the hurricane that comes out of it is going to be as dangerous to them as everyone else.
There is literally nothing more certain they could do to ensure a hard break with the traditions and mores they think they're protecting.
the only tradition the american conservative movement finds important is their homogenous bloc has a divine right to wield absolute power. that tradition has been under threat my entire adult life, wherein they have never won a presidential popular vote, and they’re responding accordingly.
That, having to follow regulations, or just needing to tolerate minorities as equal under the law. All of which they see as so intolerable it would be better to burn down society as we know it.
Republicans that hitch their ride to authoritarianism should realize that it is an existential risk to the American way of life—beyond any electoral defeat.
US politicians, corporations, and churches cannot thrive in an authoritarian environment.
After sidelining the people, authoritarian elites build new coalitions and violently dispose of rivals. Aging leaders like Trump risk violent removal—and so do their supporters.
Some will float to the top. And they'll destroy the remainders of their coalition.
To live in fear.
I think they can - that is, the politicians, corporations, and churches that have been supporting and working toward this moment for decades. Those ones will do just fine, and they know it.
I think revolutions eat their own is a long time truth, and Donald Trump eats his followers is also a thing. Doesn't always end in death, you can be Lepidus in relative ignomity, but continued power is no guarantee.
There is no compelling case that the left is about to destroy the U.S. There never has been. From Hayek conflating Nazis and Communists, to Hoover attacking civil rights leaders, to Lewis Powell averring that college students and professors were out to destroy capitalism, it's all bullshit.
They're reactionaries. They want to reverse the Enlightenment and go back to the Divine Right of Kings, they're just aware that's a bad look and still need to pretend to defer to public will. Monarchists in robes, pining for the whig.
And plus all the language in Roberts opinion about virile, power leaders needing to be unrestrained by law. Like a chat GPT trained on the writings of Carl Schmitt.
