The Republicans Are Not Crazy

Listening to our nation's "political discourse" the last few years, it is tempting to see everything as a struggle between one party that, however flawed, is still in some sort of contact with reality and moral decency, and one that has entirely spun off into a delusional universe of insane conspiracy theories and lies.  This leaves Democrats wondering what could have caused 30% of our population to have taken leave of their senses, and subscribed to a program that is destroying their lives.  

In fact, that is not what is going on at all in the Republican party.  I rashly propose here to explain what is in fact happening.

I guess it was back in the 1980's or so that I, and a pretty large number of other people, realized that white people were losing the death grip on American politics that they had had since the founding of our country, and that demographics were in the process of destroying their majority status.  In a democracy, that meant that, within decades, they were going to have to share some of their power with other people.

This was a massively frightening prospect for the white race, and here is why.  It has always been one of my fundamental beliefs that the typical person, when guessing how someone else will react to a situation, simply project onto others what they themselves would do in the same situation.  Unfortunately, white people have a history stretching back several hundred years of how they have treated minority groups, and it is not a pretty picture.  Most of them simply assume that, if the tables are turned, they will be subjected to the same abuse that they perpetrated on others.

Maybe if white people had acted with a little more charity over the years, they would not be so fearful of the demographic landslide they are now facing, but it is too late for that.

So here is the problem:  White people, or at least a hell of a lot of them- enough to make up a strong majority of one of our two political parties- are not willing to give up their centuries-old domination of others.  But of course, once you are not a majority, you cannot have that power and democracy, so democracy, and common human decency too, have to go into the trash.

Liberals are stunned with the out and out viciousness of the Republican politicians of the Trump era and beyond.  They assume that somehow, Republican voters have spun off into a world of unexplainable hatred, but that is not what is happening.  In fact, these white voters openly know something that the rest of the American people cannot yet face:  minority rule, rule by force regardless of what is right and wrong, is evil, and only an evil ruler can be counted on to do what is necessary for their minority to retain control.  It is not madness, but a totally rational choice that Republican voters are making, to choose their leaders based on who is the most openly contemptuous of right and wrong, because whoever that person is, they are the one that can be most counted on to carry out what needs to be done to ensure that white rule is maintained.  What the Republicans are doing is conducting auditions for the team that will destroy America, and Trump and DeSantis, Lindsay Graham, Ron Johnson, Ted Cruz and Lauren Bobert and Marjorie Taylor Greene have answered the call.

Thus, all of Donald Trump's 30,000 lies, for example, actually serve to strengthen his grip on the Republican base, because they prove his moral bankruptcy, and only a morally degraded leader can be counted on to maintain white minority control.  With all of his lies, his base knows that he has told them the truth about one thing: return him to power, and he will unleash the white demons to crush everyone else in the country.  This sets a high bar that only a truly degraded person like Ron DeSantis can approach, but remember, this willingness to surrender to evil is a positive feature in potential Republican leaders, because without it, there is no hope that they will do what is necessary to keep white people firmly in charge.

What is important to remember here is that siding with these morally degenerate leaders is not a sort of madness on the part of Republican voters; it is a rational decision by people who have determined that white control is more important than everything this country was ever supposed to be about.  It is not madness, it is maliciousness.  The people who vote for Republicans today know this perfectly well.  They are not mad.  They have made a rational choice; it is just an extremely deplorable one.  Without understanding this fact, we cannot appreciate the implacable nature of the threat we face, and will be unable to muster the strength that will be necessary to beat it back and restore some sense of decency to the American experiment.