A startlingly large element of the "conservative" movement is openly embracing patrimonial authoritarianism. All the focus on Trump has been on the racism, sexism and corruption, and that's fine. But if we understand that Trump's real appeal to millions of Americans is precisely the sort of "Strongman" authoritarianism - which comes wrapped in sexism and ethnonationalist racism - then we can see how it is not limited to one guy...and yet it kind of is.
Trump's ban from Twitter has pretty much worked. Denying him the oxygen he was given in 2016 to spew his "I alone can fix it" rhetoric has seen his following reduced to a small cult. It is certainly possible someone like DeSantis can fill Trump's clown shoes, but Trump had the CEO/Reality TV persona down in a way that DeSantis doesn't. DeSantis can be cruel - he's excelling at that - but cruelty might be the point, but it's not the whole point. Resentment politics only goes so far.
Someone tweeted that all the things social conservative say they care about are worse in red states (and red towns, let me assure you). This was presumed to be a dunk on their hypocrisy. In fact, it's why they embraced Trump's American Carnage spiel. Their communities are riven with opioid abuse, divorce, bankruptcy, child abuse and early death. Patrimonialism is a direct response to the loss of control they feel. Of course, the reason things suck in Alabama is in large part because of how Republicans choose to govern. Whether intentionally or not, their decades long assault on competent governance has created the conditions for someone like Trump to ascend to the head of their party.
The question that will consume us is whether this move towards Orban-style soft dictatorship has an off-ramp. Is there a way to divorce "normal Republicans" (still bad at governance) from those actively working to destroy the fabric of our democracy? If so, we'd better reach for that soon.
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