During my Twitter chat on Tuesday, I spoke a little about a theory I have regarding the origins of the Republican Party’s retreat from democracy. The question to answer is why Republicans are so adamant about the notion that they cannot lose and that any Democratic victory is illegitimate. In addition to partisanship and polarization and material issues of political economy (the larger forces responsible for shaping conservative politics in the United States), there’s also psychology, the mental frameworks that shape how individual people, in this case Republican politicians, react to events in the world. |
My theory about the psychology behind the rejection of electoral democracy is straightforward: Many Republicans are convinced, in their bones, that this is an ideologically conservative country committed to Republican governance, so long as those Republicans are ideologically pure. |
The belief has a basis. President Ronald Reagan won two consecutive victories — one of them an outright landslide — as a staunch conservative. His successor, President George H.W. Bush, rode to victory on a promise to continue what Reagan started. The Democrats who followed conformed their party to the contours of Reagan’s revolution, and even then, Republicans won control of the House of Representatives for the first time in a generation, led by one of the most doctrinaire conservatives in Congress, Newt Gingrich. |
For a generation of Republican politicians, many of them still in office, this was the status quo of American politics, a place where policy and governance happened on conservative terms. And the first eight years of the 21st century saw another conservative Republican president who secured a second term with a majority of the vote, albeit a much narrower one. The country belonged to conservatives. And then, suddenly, it didn’t. |
Democrats captured Congress in 2006, and then Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008. You could chalk that up to circumstances — and the 2010 congressional Republican victory seemed to suggest a return to normal of sorts — but then Obama won again in 2012. |
Some Republicans conceded reality and worked to revamp the party for a more liberal electorate. Others denied that there was any change to make. America was still a conservative country, they insisted; the problem was that Democrats were cheating with fraud and, as Senator Mitt Romney said after his defeat, “gifts.” |
The Republican turn toward voter restriction after 2012, and especially after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Shelby County v. Holder in 2013, reflects this belief that there’s a stymied Republican majority, suppressed by Democratic fraud. Of course, that isn’t true, and the 2016 election underscored the point by giving Republicans an electoral victory without a popular one. And while Donald Trump never stopped speaking as if he won in a landslide, the truth is that he and his conservative allies were always fighting a rear-guard action, hoping to burrow themselves in our counter-majoritarian institutions in anticipation of popular defeat. |
That defeat came, but Republicans have not been able to reconcile themselves to it. They still believe that this is Reagan’s country, and if the voters don’t agree, they’ll just get rid of the voters, with new restrictions and, as we’ve seen, an effort to overturn the results themselves. |
For Republicans to change course, they would have to reconcile themselves to the reality that this country doesn’t belong to them (or to Democrats, for that matter). But that would require humility as well as a belief in the political equality of all Americans, two qualities that appear to be in short supply on that side of the aisle. |
Republicans proved they could compete in high-turnout elections and still plowed right back into restricting the vote. I try to explain why: |
Republicans, in other words, have developed a habit — an active disposition ready for overt manifestation — toward restricting the vote when met with electoral setbacks. And this reflex is so powerful that it overwhelms the evidence that Republicans might actually be better off with more low-propensity voters in the electorate. |
Along these same lines, a large portion of the Republican Party has decided that it has simply had enough of democracy: |
We have learned that the Republican Party, or much of it, has abandoned whatever commitment to electoral democracy it had to begin with. That it views defeat as on its face illegitimate, a product of fraud from opponents who don’t deserve to hold power. That it is fully the party of minority rule, committed to the idea that a vote doesn’t count if it isn’t for its candidates, and that if democracy won’t serve its partisan and ideological interests, then so much for democracy. |
Tim Barker on socialized investment and the specter of full employment at Verso. |
Zeynep Tufekci on the president’s coup attempt and the politics of language, in The Atlantic. |
Leslie M. Alexander on Haiti as the “Black republic” for the African-American Intellectual History Society. |
If you’re enjoying what you’re reading, please consider recommending it to friends. They can sign up here. If you want to share your thoughts on an item in this week’s newsletter or on the newsletter in general, please email me at jamelle-newsletter@nytimes.com. |
I have been in a photographic rut of late, partly because I can’t really get outside of Charlottesville, Va., to take photos and partly because the short days and cold weather mean that opportunities for wandering town are a little limited. This week, I’m pulling from my archive. I took this photo two and a half years ago in Birmingham, Ala., while I was on a reporting trip. One of my favorite photographers is William Cristenberry, and I think you can see that influence here. |
Now Eating: Chicken Enchiladas With Salsa Verde |
I don’t recall ever eating enchiladas as a kid, but as an adult — and especially as one preparing food for a family — they are a go-to meal. All enchiladas are good, but I prefer green ones for the tangy salsa verde. I have no advice beyond what Sam Sifton offers for this recipe, which is to save time by using a store-bought rotisserie chicken for the filling. I’m a little extra about these things, so I actually went to the trouble of going to the butcher, getting a whole chicken, breaking it down and going from there. But that’s totally unnecessary! |
A pro tip for the tortillas: Turn your oven to 350 degrees, brush tortillas lightly with olive oil, place them on a baking sheet (you can probably fit six at a time) and bake for 3 minutes. When you remove them, they will be very pliable and easy to fill. |
For the chicken (if you’re not using store-bought) |
- 2 pounds bone-in chicken thighs or breasts, or a mixture
- 1 small white onion, cut in half
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
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- 1 pound fresh tomatillos, husked, rinsed and cut into quarters
- 1 small white onion, peeled and chopped
- 1 clove of garlic, peeled and chopped
- 2 serrano chiles or more to taste, seeds removed if you want it less spicy, stemmed and roughly chopped
- 4 to 5 tender stems of fresh cilantro, with leaves, roughly chopped
- Salt to taste
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- 12 yellow corn tortillas
- 1 cup crumbled queso fresco or cotija cheese
- 1 cup Mexican crema, or crème fraîche or sour cream
- 1 medium-size white onion, peeled and diced (optional)
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Prepare the chicken: Place chicken parts in a large saucepan with onion, garlic and salt, and cover with water. Heat pan over high heat until liquid comes to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and let simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 20 to 25 minutes. Remove chicken and let cool, reserving stock for another use. Using your fingers or two forks, shred meat from chicken and reserve, discarding skin and bones. (Alternatively, shred meat from leftover or store-bought roast chicken and set aside.) |
Meanwhile, heat oven to 350 and make the salsa verde: Combine tomatillos, onion, garlic, serranos and cilantro in a blender or food processor and purée until smooth, adding water as needed to thin it out a little. Season with salt to taste. |
Meanwhile, prepare the tortillas as directed above. |
Assemble the enchiladas: Use a ladle to put about ½ cup salsa verde in the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch baking pan and spread it out a little. Roll a few tablespoons of shredded chicken into each tortilla with a teaspoon or so of salsa verde and place it seam-side down in the pan, nestling each one against the last. Ladle salsa verde over top of rolled tortillas and sprinkle with about half the crumbled cheese. |
Turn heat to 375. Transfer to oven and bake until sauce bubbles and cheese is melted, about 15 minutes. Dot with crema, sprinkle with remaining cheese and, if using, chopped onion, then serve immediately. |
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