Like an Infection

We live under the cultural delusion that for an idea or movement to catch on, it must be a good one. But examine the evidence. Do you really think daylight savings time is a good idea? Do you truly believe that Creed deserved to sell 27 million albums? Are you out there clamoring for more Transformers movies?

No, plenty of bad ideas become popular. That is perhaps no more evident (or alarming) than when we look at the Republican Party.

In previous decades, the GOP was a mishmash of smug libertarians, rich jerks, and uptight Christians. They were unpleasant but semi-reasonable. The psychotically fringe members of their party were tolerated but remained off-stage.

All that changed a few years ago when one bloviating billionaire demanded absolute loyalty and molded the party into a twisted reflection of his own black-hearted soul.

So today, we have neo-Nazis (as in literal, actual Nazis) openly mingling at a recent conservative gathering, shouting antisemitic conspiracy theories and offering “heil Hitler-style salutes in the lobby of the hotel where the conference took place [while] other members of the group reportedly used the N-word.” No, they were not asked to leave.

This Republican embrace of fascist ideology has cascaded into other corners of the GOP, so that today “conservatives have become more vocal in support of armed vigilante and militia groups that share their draconian and oftentimes illiberal view of criminal justice.” In many parts of the country, Republicans are creating armed militias that “operate as a de facto police force,” accelerating the conservative movement’s “troubling infatuation with vigilantes and other civilian forces that are even less accountable and subject to oversight than ordinary police.”

Meanwhile, when conservatives are not screaming in nationally televised speeches that all Democrats are pedophiles and pure evil, they are pledging undying allegiance to a man who sociopathy has contaminated the entire nation.

Republicans have made it quite clear that they are willing to destroy American democracy in “a misguided approach to trying to appease a dictator” who cannot be appeased. This is “a profound rejection” of the idea that “we all are created equal and have a right to a say in our government,” which are “principles so fundamental to human self-determination” that thousands of Americans “have given their lives for them.”

And they are doing this just to curry favor with a lunatic. At least people in traditionally autocratic regimes cower because of the threat of going to jail or getting shot. But for these spineless Republicans, “it is loss of office or reputations that are at stake,” which is “the saddest part” of this capitulation. 

Imagine selling your soul for so little.