More fearful of losing power than losing democracy

by | Sep 24, 2021 | Editor's Blog | 8 comments

Over the past few months, several people have asked me about my audience and why I’m writing. My audience is people who follow North Carolina politics, but I also write for myself. I started PoliticsNC in 2013 because I was frustrated with the coverage of North Carolina government and politics and I had something to say about it. 

After eight years, I now write because it’s habit and a discipline. I don’t want to lose that. I’ve spent much of the past 30 years working in politics and grew up in a political family. I think a lot about how the state has changed in my lifetime and try to understand why those changes occurred. I’ve been thinking a whole lot about how we got to where we are today. 

In particular, I’m trying to understand how the people with whom I grew up and to whom I am related by blood moved from seemingly moderate conservatives to blindly following an authoritarian conman and supporting insurrection. Robert Kagan, a conservative intellectual and opinion columnist, argues that they are not an aberration but “normal” people who are acting “as people have for centuries. They put their trust in family, tribe, religion and race.” 

He points out that “Europeans who joined fascist movements in the 1920s and 1930s were also from the middle classes. No doubt many of them were good parents and neighbors, too. People do things as part of a mass movement that they would not do as individuals, especially if they are convinced that others are out to destroy their way of life.” That description also defines the lynch mobs that were part of keeping the social order of the South for almost a hundred years following the Civil War. 

I believe that is the root of the problem. White working class and middle class Americans feared a diverse country would lessen their power and influence in the country. Their reasons for opposing the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s have turned out to be correct. Over the past decade, White population has declined for the first time in the history of the nation. Within 25 years, White Americans will no longer make up a majority of the country. 

These Americans are scared of losing their way of life. Their towns and counties are losing population. Churches and civic organizations are dying. If their children leave for college or the military, they often don’t come home. In many cases, immigrants seem to be the only people moving into their communities. It’s not the America they want and they are angry about changes beyond their control.

I’m concerned about the lack of conservative voices within the GOP who are pushing back against authoritarian forces within the party. With the exception of the never-Trumpers, conservatives seem to have fallen into line, largely rejecting their reverence for institutions and embracing radical restructuring of the political process to preserve power. They are more concerned about Democrats than Trumpists. They are more fearful of losing power than losing democracy.

As Kagan points out, conservatives in Germany allied with Nazis because they feared the socialists more. And as Erik Larson’s book In the Garden of Beasts makes clear, the conservative establishment in Germany never took Hitler seriously and assumed they would be in control of the country. They never anticipated the horrors of Nazism even though they were complicit in its rise. 

Today, too many conservative thought leaders are quiet while too many Republican elected officials are enabling Trump. I believe, as Kagan does, that the threat to our democracy is real. With a largely populist mob making up the GOP rank-and-file, the Republican leadership is setting the stage to steal the next election by reducing the influence of independent organizations and replacing responsible gatekeepers of the democratic process with partisan hacks willing to do the bidding of the Trumpist movement. 

On these issues, my audience is anybody who wants to understand the anti-democratic currents running through our society today. I hope some of them are thoughtful conservative leaders who will stand up before it’s too late. I don’t believe that policy matters are the most important issues confronting our country. I believe preserving the democratic tradition and resisting the authoritarian movement should dominate the political discourse. And I don’t believe it will be a short fight. 

8 Comments

  1. Fred Mills

    I remember well the Larson book. Shamefully, it became a victim of a personal purge – no, not a burning, just a necessary victim of a geographical move that required the dispensing of many books and CDs for space purposes. So now I am re-buying it for my Kindle. Everybody loves a great horror story. Essential reading.

    As I also grew up as part of a politically-inclined bloodline in a small rural NC town – my last name may be a giveaway here on Thomas’ blog – I often simply cannot fathom the political and, more recently, the socio-cultural events, that have played out during my adult lifetime. Part of me recognizes the ‘50s mentality I seem to encounter in this state on a daily basis; the other part of me ruefully wonders what could I have done, but out of laziness I did not do, to help shovel the ‘50s into the dustbin of history back when I had a chance. Yeah, I’ve turned into the type of cynic I used to mock. Jessie Helms would probably be happy to call me a commie. Well, I’ll take what I can get.

    Just yesterday I was behind a spiffy new white pickup trundling down a Western NC avenue, its driver proudly flying a huge Trump flag along with the expected DT bumper sticker. On a whim, I drove closer and filmed the vehicle for a minute or so. “Facebook opp,” I thought to myself. At one point the young kid in the cab passenger seat turned and spotted and pointed at me, then the driver changed lanes; so did I.

    Fortunately sanity on my part prevailed and I motored on without engagement, even as I imagined how the father was telling young bubba to ignore the asshole behind them “Cos we gots to get to that Proud Boys rally, son.”

    • cocodog

      The property they live on is inherited or belongs to a relative that spiffy white truck is either borrowed, belongs to the boss man or financed up to the hilt. Makes one wonder how long these wannabe bad asses could survive alone. This country needs to reinstate mandatory military service. Perhaps, respect for this country and respect for their fellow man and themselves may become part of their make-up.

  2. cocodog

    “Trump sent us here”, was the battle cry of the insurrectionists as they were beating up cops and vandalizing publicly owned property. There is nothing political about that as a justification for inappropriate behavior. It is just an excuse to act stupid in a public place.

    These are the same folks who operate their motor vehicle by tailgating another vehicle traveling at the posted speed limit or set up supermarket isle blocks by holding long winded conversation with others yet beat their kids for getting out of line. We have an overabundance of them around here. They are very important red necks demonstrating to others they have no respect for due process or laws. Much less for their fellow man.

  3. Charles Davis

    Thanks, Thomas.
    As a moderate and casual observer, I admit to taking some pleasure in the shock on the faces of tv anchor people on election night 2016. The people had spoken against biased media and politics as usual. Hysterical efforts of the left to impeach etc early on only solidified his populist support. I thought this tv personality would be content with bragging about being president. I reassured some that Trump was only president
    Just like the ambassador and his family in the Garden of Beasts, the real danger was slow to reveal itself to me. Not until the “steal” did I see a threat to our government of laws not of men.
    Current politics give me no comfort. I fear that a serious blow to our democracy, through the sowing of distrust, has been dealt.
    Policy and platform I often feel inadequate to judge. I defer my old political neighbor. But as an Army Vet and a community psychiatrist, I know some about both irrational behavior, and the need for respect for institutions. I share your worry.
    And I appreciate your knowledge, but especially your earnest attempt at understanding, paired with a respect for the constitution over party or personality.
    Thanks for your service
    Charles

  4. Rick Gunter

    As best I can, Thomas Hill, I have taken your fight to my readership in rural Southside Virginia. It is full of Trump supporters, and I so despair of them. Obviously, they dislike me to a fault. I keep pushing back. Policy, as you say, is not in the saddle, and it certainly is not for this country editor. Democracy and its preservation are..

    We did not come to this rubicon all at once. Drip by drip, it has arrived on all our doorsteps. I would include in the drips the rise of Jesse Helms, the influence of Newt Gingrich, the Southern strategy of Richard Nixon, the virtually elimination of civics instruction in the public schools, the toxicity of Fox News, the hatred of birtherism.

    Now of the south side of 80 (I’m 77), I hope against hope that I can live long enough to know that somehow the country will be save from the louts. I know them. I grew up with them. I am not better than they. I have struggled all my life. I know life’s highs and lows. But I acknowledge that I was blessed with good parents, salt-of-the-earth parents. There was a family tradition in racist Mitchell County, N.C, that we would support racial equality — the biblical tradition of ” to the least of these..” I attended and graduated from the first interracial college or university in the South (Berea). But I have failed over and over again. I could have done more. And while I have waged many campaigns on seven newspapers for whom I have worked, the fight to save this country from losing its democracy is the most important. I harbor a resentment that I don’t have more time. I want to help in my tiny way to make this come out right, to save the country from the horrific condition in which it finds itself. This is why I am so thankful to you, Thomas Hill, for what you do. Your have stars in your crown.
    Thank you for listening to my rant.

  5. sebbiec

    I agree wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, the Dem Party leadership still hasn’t gotten the memo. The defense of free elections, putting an end to partisan gerrymandering, and making sure the gatekeepers who make sure elections are run and determined fairly, should be the number one goal for the Party now. Every Democratic elected official and spokesperson should be hammering the message home on a daily basis. Instead, they are bogging down over passage of Biden’s economic agenda.

    • Rick High

      Middle America has a very short period to gain control of American politics and government or American democracy will be a thing of the past. Some on the far left and many more on the far right want a civil war.

  6. Mike Nelson

    You are spot on. Center-left America must come to grips with the fact that one of our two political parties no longer believes in democracy. We have to understand not only what that means but also what is required of us. This may not end well.

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