QOTD -- Who Governs

 

"... The culture war waged by today’s right has at least some of its roots in an unwillingness to be governed by different groups — a sensibility incompatible with liberal democracy. Fights over education curriculums, demonization of journalists, accusations of treasonous policies, veiled threats of violence and the use of 'woke' in a way that recalls epithets such as 'race traitor' and 'scalawag' all speak to a fear that people of color are supplanting White Americans.

"Attempts to use the courts to throw out election results, to compel state officials to change vote totals, to enact the independent state legislature theory to rig election outcomes and to challenge the legitimacy of democratic institutions all work to erase undesirable election outcomes — not to influence voters. Excusing the violence and sedition of the Jan. 6 horde, as well as repeated cases of armed militias swarming state houses, suggests the lengths to which some will go to change who leads our government..." --Theodore R. Johnson in today's WaPo, writing on "what election protests are really about."  This is the fear that fascist Republican outlets like Fox "News" constantly stoke in their viewers, some subtly; others, like Tucker Carlson, overtly.  At its core it's the racist "Great Replacement Theory", cited by murderous white nationalists like the shooter at the Buffalo supermarket.  As Johnson summarizes, it's an all- encompassing culture war, about which we need to be clear- eyed as to what's going on right under our noses.