Over the years, [Ian Bassin] said, that kind of alliance has mobilized against autocratic movements in countries including the Czech Republic, France, Finland, and, most recently, Poland, where the center-right joined with its opponents on the left to topple the antidemocratic Law and Justice party. The chilling counterexample, Bassin noted, is that during the period between World War I and World War II, “center-right parties in Germany and Italy chose a different course.” Rather than directly opposing the emerging fascist movements in each country, they opted “instead to try to ride the energy of [the] far-right extremists to power, thinking that once there, they could easily sideline [their] leaders.”
That was, of course, a historic miscalculation that led to the destruction of democracy in each country. But, Bassin said, “right now, terrifyingly, the American Republican Party is following the German and Italian path.” The belligerent Jordan may face just enough personal and ideological opposition to stop him, but whether or not he becomes speaker, his rise captures the currents carrying the Trump-era GOP ever further from America’s democratic traditions.
My sense is that most of the Republicans who hate Matt Gaetz and now support Jordan have no sense whatsoever of the historical consequences of their fluctuating allegiances. They don't think in terms of historic calculations. It never enters into their minds. They and their staff just calculate what's good in the short term for their careers. As a group, these are not thoughtful, well-educated, or well-informed people. And so, while I hope at least some of them prove me wrong, they strike me as intellectually and emotionally incapable of making choices that support the long-term health of American democracy. Such thoughts are beyond the scope of their thinking.
Do the voters who elected Republicans to the House in Biden districts in New York and California regret giving the GOP the majority? How many even think about majorities and minorities? And unless they voted for George Santos, most don't regret their votes because they don't even remember who they voted for or could tell you his or her name. Most are not paying attention to what's going on now in Washington. To the agree that they're aware of it, it's just the same old, same old with little significance for their lives. And the radical, anti-democratic force the Republicans have become is papered over by old caricatures about what they used to be, like fiscally responsible. What they have become is beyond the scope of their thinking because these voters rely on such cliches to navigate in a world they don't have the time or interest to understand more deeply.
So most voters don't understand that we're on a razor's edge. And either they will not understand the historical significance of what we're going through until it's too late, or if somehow we avoid Germany's and Italy's fate, they will never understand how close we came.