Republicans Have Their Own Private Autocracy
By: Paul Krugman - The New York Times
Loyalty signaling,
flattery inflation
and the modern G.O.P.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
"The Mechanisms of Cult Production" compares the behavior of political elites across a wide range of dictatorial regimes, from Caligula's Rome to the Kim family's North Korea, and finds striking similarities. Despite vast differences in culture and material circumstances, elites in all such regimes engage in pretty much the same behavior, especially what the paper dubs "loyalty signaling" and "flattery inflation."
Signaling is a concept originally drawn from economics; it says that people sometimes engage in costly, seemingly pointless behavior as a way to prove that they have attributes others value. For example, new hires at investment banks may work insanely long hours, not because the extra hours are actually productive, but to demonstrate their commitment to feeding the money machine.
In the context of dictatorial regimes, signaling typically involves making absurd claims on behalf of the Leader and his agenda, often including "nauseating displays of loyalty." If the claims are obvious nonsense and destructive in their effects, if making those claims humiliates the person who makes them, these are features, not bugs. I mean, how does the Leader know if you're truly loyal unless you're willing to demonstrate your loyalty by inflicting harm both on others and on your own reputation?
And once this kind of signaling becomes the norm, those trying to prove their loyalty have to go to ever greater extremes to differentiate themselves from the pack. Hence "flattery inflation": The Leader isn't just brave and wise, he's a perfect physical specimen, a brilliant health expert, a Nobel-level economic analyst, and more. The fact that he's obviously none of these things only enhances the effectiveness of the flattery as a demonstration of loyalty.
Does all of this sound familiar? Of course it does, at least to anyone who has been tracking Fox News or the utterances of political figures like Lindsey Graham or Kevin McCarthy.
Many people, myself included, have declared for years that the G.O.P. is no longer a normal political party. It doesn't look anything like, say, Dwight Eisenhower's Republican Party or Germany's Christian Democrats. But it bears a growing resemblance to the ruling parties of autocratic regimes.
The only unusual thing about the G.O.P.'s wholesale adoption of the Leader Principle is that the party doesn't have a monopoly on power; in fact, it controls neither Congress nor the White House. Politicians suspected of insufficient loyalty to Donald Trump and Trumpism in general aren't sent to the gulag. At most, they stand to lose intraparty offices and, possibly, future primaries. Yet such is the timidity of Republican politicians that these mild threats are apparently enough to make many of them behave like Caligula's courtiers.
Unfortunately, all this loyalty signaling is putting the whole nation at risk. In fact, it will almost surely kill large numbers of Americans in the next few months.
The stalling of America's initially successful vaccination drive isn't entirely driven by partisanship — some people, especially members of minority groups, are failing to get vaccinated for reasons having little to do with current politics.
But politics is nonetheless clearly a key factor: Republican politicians and Republican-oriented influencers have driven much of the opposition to Covid-19 vaccines, in some cases engaging in what amounts to outright sabotage. And there is a stunning negative correlation between Trump's share of a county's vote in 2020 and its current vaccination rate.
How did lifesaving vaccines become politicized? As Bloomberg's Jonathan Bernstein suggests, today's Republicans are always looking for ways to show that they're more committed to the cause than their colleagues are — and given how far down the rabbit hole the party has already gone, the only way to do that is "nonsense and nihilism," advocating crazy and destructive policies, like opposing vaccines.
That is, hostility to vaccines has become a form of loyalty signaling.
None of this should be taken to imply that Republicans are the root of all evil or that their opponents are saints; Democrats are by no means immune to the power of special interests or the lure of the revolving door.
But the G.O.P. has become something different, with, as far as I know, no precedent in American history although with many precedents abroad. Republicans have created for themselves a political realm in which costly demonstrations of loyalty transcend considerations of good policy or even basic logic. And all of us may pay the price.
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It is quite striking how this has become so obvious yet also so disregarded.
Fascists are openly assaulting the nation... and everyone goes about their business as if nothing were happening.
Kafka!
True, but this isn't a new thing. Fascists have been openly assulting the nation since it's inception.
This is not true. Many, many, many people are opposing fascism in many, many, many ways. From everyday people calling out "Kens" and "Karens" encountered in their communities, to sports/entertainment figures using their platforms to speak out, to activists organizing and pushing action, to cities - states - feds identifying and removing fascists from their ranks. To imply that nothing is being done is a lie and diminishes the work of those who are working hard on the issues of equality, diversity and peace.
Kafka? Yikes, after years of inane commentary based on the writings of Rand and Orwell you had to mention Franz ...you're going to pay for this.
I'm emoji illiterate, so whatever that means ...
Exactly!
These folks have condensed down and 'sat' in its political 'wallow.' They are content to have Donald J. Trump as lead hog. The GOP party has always desired an unrelenting, uncompromising, strongman to lead it and so it is finally whole-heartedly gleeful that it can show its natural "red-ass" with this leader who won't tell they "don't."
Looking forward the real question is this: We know what the GOP/Conservative is, now what will democrat/liberal do about 'it'?
That is the question.
However crazy they may be, the TrumpTrueBelievers obey their fascist masters. If Trump says "attack Congress", they do it. We can be sure that they will turn out to vote, and will vote a Trumpist ticket.
Meanwhile, there is no similarly mobilizable voting bloc to save democracy in America.
I am not optimistic.
If it is an all out political 'frontal assault' some conservatives demand, I say give it to them.
No fascist regime, once in power, has ever given it up. Since America's fascists have a long-term hold on the Supreme Court, they can subvert democracy permanently in the states they hold already. Later, every fascist victory at the national level will be permanent, too.
I am not optimistic.
A well-placed and precise set of boycotts can 'heel'' any political beasts. Democrats, like Speaker Pelosi is 'bout to do on Minority Leader McCarthy's butt, can turn loose all that 'elite' education coupled with commonsense on those who wish to declare 'political war' on their opposition.
On the otherhand, we can all just sit "pat" and let some conservatives win the House, Senate, and White House (by hook or crook) and then let people decide if they like the country fully conservatively "owned and operated."
It's an option: there are always options.
Obama spent (wasted) his entire Presidency trying to obtain collaboration from McConnell. Biden is a bit different, moving ahead regardless of McConnell. (McCarthy is a nonentity of no importance.) But Biden has always avoided conflict.
So Pelosi is once again the champion for democracy.