In what follows I imagine a conversation with someone like Sohrab Ahmari, about whom I wrote in a post entitled Radical Elites on the Right 1. I say someone like Ahmari, because I don't want to put words in his mouth. I'm just looking for someone who is smart enough to understand that Trump is an idiot, but sees him as a useful one because of the kind of American future that he hopes for. It begins with my question and follows with his answers:
Are you willing to risk the loss of American democracy to prevent Liberals from remaining in power?
I think Liberals are exaggerating the threat. Democracy will continue but with stricter controls on who gets to vote.
Are you saying that more than half the country should have no say in who gets elected?
I'm saying that it's better for the country that the party of traditional American values has the power to make decisions about what's good for America. Liberals are allowing the moral fabric of American society to unravel, and they need to be stopped for their own good and for the good of the country.
But you understand that in a democracy a minority can't just impose its will on a majority that doesn't agree with it, right?
I think most Americans do agree, but they just don't know it yet. Liberals are like people in a cult who need an intervention. Once we're in power, we will throw out the filibuster and enact programs that will enable them to see the error of their ways--the law is a teacher. And especially when we enact Bernie-Sanders type programs to support families, we will get the support of most of them.
But then how can you say that such actions will not destroy American democracy?
Well, because with or without Trump we'll be voted into power in '24 with broad popular support.
But you realize once you impose your 'law-is-a-teacher' program, it will be seen as very unpopular and will lead to your being voted out in the next cycle, right?
Well, I question that it will be as unpopular as you think, but while I hope it won't be necessary, we might have to temporarily suspend elections until our new Moral Majority regime gets broader support. What we're doing is truly revolutionary even though it's only restoring the old moral order. America has become deformed; we simply want to re-form it according to its original blueprint.
Do you think the people in Blue states in the Northeast and West coast will take this sitting down?
Once we're in power, what are they going to do? Take to the streets? Let them. They will be perceived as radicals with a far Left agenda who will broaden public support for our regime. Any violent counter-revolutionary actions will be violently suppressed. But not to worry--it's not as if we'll have to deal with armed militias, right? Not a Left kind of thing. Our militias are armed and ready, and they will take care of any serious problems of public resistance.
The great danger in the upcoming midterms, but especially in '24, is that Main Street moderates will vote for Republicans because they blame Democrats for inflation and baby formula shortages. In the next month, through the public hearings of the January 6 Committee, we will learn whether Main Street is capable of grasping the enormity of what happened in the last months of the Trump presidency and that it is likely to be repeated in '24 but with more success.
Democracies have shown time and again that they are perfectly capable of voting themselves out of existence. The question remains whether Independents and moderate Republicans understand that they might be doing just that if they throw the Democrats out. We will learn soon enough whether Main Street has any real understanding about what's at stake.