Large numbers of Americans want a strong, rough, anti-democratic leader

The Conversation ^ | 12/30/2023 | by Tarah Williams, Andrew Bloeser, and Brian Harward

[Lazamataz]

It might be comforting to think that American democracy has made it past the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. But our research shows that a wide range of the American people, of all political stripes, seek leaders who are fundamentally anti-democratic.

It’s true that many who participated in the insurrection are facing consequences, including prison time. Many candidates for state office who falsely claimed that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election lost their races. And the congressional committee investigating the insurrection voted to refer Trump to the Department of Justice for criminal charges.

But more than 100 members of Congress who objected to the results of a free and fair election won their reelection campaigns. And at least seven people who attended the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6 have been elected to state legislatures and two have been elected to Congress.

[Alvin Diogenes]

I see what you’re saying but I think it would be a massive mistake to allow our enemies’ reactions to determine our terms of discourse. There has been far too much of that.

I agree that we should reject their 1984-style linguistic perversions: we shouldn’t call left-wing idiots “progressives” (they represent the opposite of progress), we shouldn’t use the term “gender-affirming” when what’s meant is gender-denying, etc.

But we also need to be clear in our communication and not promote, even inadvertently, anti-liberty policies via exaggeration or satire that is easily misinterpreted or even intentionally mischaracterized as straightforward support.