How we got here

A useless explanation of the past

I’ve been too busy to write regularly lately, but Jonathan Last asked readers of his recent post to comment, and I had to oblige. So I’ve polished up my comment for my readers here at 6to64.

In a recent post, Jonathan Last at The Bulwark pushed back on arguments from both the right and the left that one can draw a straight line from Ronald Reagan to our current political climate of open authoritarian actions by one of the two major political parties.

Last’s approach is middle-of-the-road, arguing that the line is not straight but “squiggly.” In general, I agree with him because nothing, really, is a straight line.

But, as others noted in the comments, the GOP took specific political directions and actions, beginning with Ronald Reagan, on a direct path to authoritarianism generally and Trump specifically. Democrats, in general, avoided going in these directions.

Some of these were subtle and seemed unimportant at the time. For example, Republicans worked tirelessly to deify Reagan almost from the day he was first elected President. Any suggestion within the party that his presidency was less than perfect could get you thrown out.

A mere ten years after he left office, and while he was still alive, his name was officially attached to DC's airport, a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, and countless roads and official buildings across the country. No president has received this level of enforced adoration while still alive since Washington.

You may say this is trivial or even ancient ("those people are all dead now"). Still, it planted a seed in American minds, and in particular the core of the GOP, that a president—and in particular a Republican president—was more important than the concept of trilateral government.

Other actions and directions taken by the GOP were less subtle. Newt Gingrich, for example, had begun preaching that Republicans should stop negotiating with Democrats while Reagan was still in office. By the time he was Speaker of the House, thirty years ago, he was practicing what he'd preached, regularly calling Democrats "the enemy" and vilifying them.

The 2000 presidential election was a turning point for the GOP (and the beginning of the Democratic Party's downfall). In the turmoil of "hanging chads" in Florida, Al Gore's campaign maintained that the outcome hadn't been determined, and their legal actions were intended to ensure every valid ballot was counted correctly.

Bush's campaign, however, maintained from the beginning that Bush had one, and their legal actions were intended to ensure he was given the victory. In other words, democracy wasn't important. Power was all that mattered.

By the next decade, Republicans also embraced outright lying to maintain power. Racist lies about Barack Obama's birthplace and religion were so rampant among the GOP that Sen. John McCain, the Republican candidate for president, was booed at his own campaign rally when he tried to correct those lies.

GOP lies and hypocrisy continued throughout both of Obama's terms. For example, as the Affordable Care Act was being debated, prominent Republicans falsely claimed that the bill included "Death Panels" that would allow government bureaucrats to decide who received treatment and who didn't. The claim was based on language that would have standardized care recommendations, but the GOP's lies resulted in the removal of that stipulation. (In case you were wondering, its removal ensured that bureaucrats at for-profit insurance companies decide who receives treatment and who doesn't.)

At this same time, Republican leaders were actively, forcefully implementing plans to achieve one-party rule. In 2010, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by Karl Rove with the subhead, "He who controls redistricting can control Congress." The plan was called REDMAP (I'm not making this up), and it effectively tilted state legislatures to GOP control just as new congressional districts were being drawn after the 2010 census.

REDMAP gerrymandering is the reason that Democratic votes are hopelessly diluted in many Republican-controlled states. For example, in places like Texas and North Carolina, Democrats can win 48 percent or more of the vote in statewide elections. Yet, Democrats make up 20 percent or less of the state's legislatures and congressional delegations. Again, the goal wasn't "improved democracy." It was power for power's sake.

Throughout all of this, the Democratic Party has consistently acted as if this were all a fluke and things would soon return to normal, so the party bears some of the blame for where we are today.

So, no, it's not a straight line from Reagan to Trump, but the GOP has been firmly on the path to autocracy since the 1980s.