Chomsky: Republicans Are Willing to Destroy Democracy to Retake Power

[BeckyDem]

June 16, 2021

Today’s Republican Party is an extremist force that no longer qualifies as a mainstream political party and is surely not interested in participating in “normal” politics. In fact, today’s GOP is so wrapped around extreme and irrational beliefs that even Europe’s far-right parties and movements, including Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, seem conventional in comparison.

The GOP’s political identity has been dramatically shaped by former President Donald Trump, but these recent shifts would not have been possible if there weren’t already an array of groups across U.S. society and culture (including white supremacists, right-wing Evangelical Christians and Second Amendment activists, to name just a few) that have long embraced extremist and “proto-fascist” views about the way the country should be governed and the values that it should hold. For them, Trump was and remains America’s “great white hope.” In this context, Trump’s voting base — which continues to believe in the idea of a stolen election and to support Trump-led GOP efforts to stamp critical race theory out of schools and restrict voting rights — speaks volumes about the anti-democratic and threatening nature of today’s GOP.

In the interview that follows, world-renowned scholar and activist Noam Chomsky explains what has happened to the Republican Party and why even more than democracy is at stake if the “proto-fascist” forces inspired by Trump return to power.

C.J. Polychroniou: Over the course of the past few decades, the Republican Party has gone through a series of ideological transformations — from traditional conservatism to reactionism and finally to what we may define as “proto-fascism” where the irrational has become the driving force. How do we explain what has happened to the GOP?

https://truthout.org/articles/chomsky-republicans-are-willing-to-jeopardize-human-survival-to-retake-power/

[Omnipresent]

1. Republicans are really tired of political competition..

Their ideology leaves them being pummeled against the ropes, so they would rather do away with fair elections.

When they get enough power (Supreme Court already in hand) they will suspend future elections. Democracy will be dead, and we will have a Republican dictator for life.
This is pretty much what happened in Russia with Putin, still in power from 20 years ago.

[BeckyDem]

2. I agree they are dead serious about controlling our right to vote. They are terrified of laws passed

that will make voting easier. The saving grace of the last GE was our judiciary. It worked really well! Although the fact that no fraud was found in any significant manner, that even Trump judges agreed there was no fraud, Trump still managed to form a coup against our government. But the courts did not indulge him, which was so crucial for our country and one aspect of Russia's government that doesn't exist. The corruption there is vast and I feel deeply for the brave activists that try and build democracy in their homeland.

We must politically stop as many Republicans in 2022 as possible, it is crucial to make them irrelevant.

[BeckyDem]

4. Yes, credit where it is due.

[lees1975]

7. That means voting, voting, voting, voting and voting some more

Cast ballots against Trumpies wherever they run, even if its an election for local dogcatcher.

[BeckyDem]

8. Yep, the only choice.

They must be politically crushed and stay that way for a long time.

[Skittles]

5. um.....that has been true FOR DECADES

seriously

[BeckyDem]

6. Yes. I believe that is reflected in the piece. Reagan was a virulent racist, but he was polite.

He also helped brainwash Americans to believe the government was the problem not the solution to their problems. Add all the deregulations mantras/policies, the Moral Majority faction, all of that helped perpetuate a Trump. A snake oil salesman of the worst order. I still have a hard time with the fact he was not found guilty for the insurrection riot. Very few voices on the Republican side speak up, and why I find the GOP seriously dangerous.