The Republican Party: A Prolonged History of Authoritarianism

I’m publishing this series of articles to share and discuss my ruminations on coping with a troubled and messy world. You can “follow” me to never miss an article.

In her riveting book, Democracy Awakening, the Historian Heather Cox Richardson details the prolonged History of Authoritarianism that has been a major feature of the Republican Party for a major part of its existence[i].

Thus, she writes:

“After the 2020 elections, Republicans controlled the legislatures in…key states, and they redrew congressional maps using precise computer models. They had essentially hobbled representative democracy,”

For another:

“Trump married Republican politics to authoritarianism. Speaking simply and with words that packed an emotional punch, he offered those left behind by the Republican revolution a way to recover a mythological lost world in which they called the shots. And, he promised that he, and he alone, could lead the way.”

Flash forward. The New York Times features an Op-Ed by David Firestone in which he makes the case that extremists in the Republican Party could care less about a Government shutdown[ii]. Thus, with regards to the Bill to raise the Debt Limit:

“Republicans…split into their…