{"id":13991,"date":"2023-10-06T16:12:18","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T16:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=13991"},"modified":"2023-10-06T16:12:18","modified_gmt":"2023-10-06T16:12:18","slug":"this-isnt-democracy-its-the-heartbeat-of-authoritarianism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=13991","title":{"rendered":"This isn\u2019t democracy. It\u2019s the heartbeat of authoritarianism."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Joanne Freeman<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
\u201cI don\u2019t regret standing up for choosing governance over grievance,\u201d Representative Kevin McCarthy said at a news conference on Tuesday after the vote.Credit…Tom Brenner for The New York Times<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Without a doubt, the Republican ousting of Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy is a banner of dysfunction. Sifting through the chaos for its meaning is more complex. It certainly signals that something is broken, but what? It\u2019s not the Republican Party\u2019s fracture in and of itself. Fractured political parties are hardly new; the 19th century was the great age of splintering parties. We\u2019ve had contentious speakerships before (though a party ousting its own speaker is something special). Extremism runs throughout American history. Even election denial isn\u2019t new \u2014 though mostly congressional elections have been challenged. History teaches that much of the ugliness of the current moment has \u2026 well \u2026 a history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More noteworthy is the willingness \u2014 even eagerness \u2014 of some Republicans to abandon democratic standards, norms and practices. This isn\u2019t an ethereal matter of a broken spirit or wrong-headed ideals. It\u2019s a brass-tacks reality, a strategy in motion throughout the nation: election denial, contested voting rights, denouncing any and all opposition as illicit and un-American. For the most part, fellow Republicans have allowed this extremism to flourish unopposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s not an extreme faction of the Republican Party at fault, at least, not alone. The party\u2019s unity is the problem, its shared focus on ends (uncontested rule) over means (democratic practices). Norms and rules be damned, they feel entitled to maintaining power. This isn\u2019t democracy. It\u2019s the heartbeat of authoritarianism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At its core, democracy is governance by contestation. Debate and compromise, free and fair elections, are contests that test policies and leadership, reflect public interests and foster change. Kevin McCarthy\u2019s seeming sin \u2014 negotiation \u2014 is the lifeblood of democracy and Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Republican attack on democratic give-and-take has exposed a hard truth: Democracy doesn\u2019t go of itself. Americans have taken it for granted. We\u2019ve assumed that it\u2019s ours by right. It isn\u2019t. It\u2019s a process, not an endpoint. It must be bettered and defended, or it fails. So the answer to the question: what\u2019s broken? Our commitment to democracy is broken; many of us can\u2019t see \u2014 or refuse to see \u2014that yawning abyss; and Republicans are seizing that advantage and damaging democracy in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Joanne Freeman is the Class of 1954 professor of American history and of American studies at Yale University.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Joanne Freeman Without a doubt, the Republican ousting of Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy is a banner of dysfunction. Sifting through the chaos for its meaning is more complex. It certainly signals that something is […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[92,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-13991","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-slider","8":"tag-2024-election","9":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13991"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13994,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13991\/revisions\/13994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}