After America E1: Elephants in the Room - The GOP's Authoritarian Makeover

What happens when the very fabric of American democracy is put to the test? Join us as we confront the alarming state of our nation in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election, featuring a rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. We begin by dissecting the chaos of January 6th, 2021, when a Trump-incited mob stormed the Capitol, marking a pivotal moment in our history—a moment that saw many Republican members of Congress attempt to overturn the election results, forever altering the party's trajectory toward authoritarianism.

Our journey takes us back to the 1960s, exploring the origins of racially charged rhetoric and the pivotal shifts of the Republican Party. From Barry Goldwater's extremism to Nixon's Southern strategy and Reagan's unifying conservative factions, we unravel how coded language and strategic political moves laid the groundwork for today's divisive landscape. The rise of figures like Newt Gingrich and the influence of Fox News further transformed Republican politics, setting the stage for the Tea Party and the ideological battles that followed Obama's election. And, then Trump.

As we examine the aftermath of the 2020 election and the January 6th attack, we spotlight Trump's baseless voter fraud claims and the disturbing rise of far-right militia groups. With the 2024 election on the horizon, we discuss the precarious state of American democracy and the erosion of democratic norms.

 Guests: Dr. Ian Haney Lopez, Dr. David Faris, Dr. David Gushee, & Dr. Edward Watts

Sources:
January 6th Audio Footage – Courtesy of the January 6th House Committee
Nixon/Reagan Call – Courtesy of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum: Tape 013-008
Ronald Reagan 1980 Campaign Ad – Courtesy of the Reagan Foundation
Ronald Reagan Campaign Remarks 1976 – Courtesy of the Reagan Library
Ronald Reagan Remarks at Liberty Park – Courtesy of the Reagan Library
Ronald Reagan Inaugural Address – Courtesy of the Reagan Library
Obama Inaugural Address – Courtesy of President Barack Obama White House Archive
Trump Sworn In – Courtesy of President Donald Trump White House ArchiveKevin McCarthy Statement on Trump – Courtesy of C-Span
Mitch McConnell Statement on Trump – Courtesy of C-Span
Liz Cheney Statement on House Floor – Courtesy of C-Span
Confessions of a Republican – Courtesy of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library
Infados - Kevin MacLeod
News Theme · Kevin MacLeod
Dark Tales: Music by Rahul Bhardwaj from Pixabay

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Transcript

Shawn: 0:05

Given what we had all in America gone through over the previous four years under the mercurial, transactional and chaotic presidency of Donald J Trump, it was not unexpected that the election of 2020 was going to be reflective of that High stakes, lowbrow, provocative and inflected with falsehoods, demagoguery and venom. But then, maybe, what wasn't so expected January 6th 2021. The day a mob, incited by a sitting president, stormed the US Capitol in a brazen attempt to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power, the first non-peaceful transition in American history. It's a day that marks a clear turning point in American democracy. And now we're staring down the final months of this 2024 election, with the same two candidates we had in 2020, joe Biden and Donald Trump. But this isn't 2020. For all of its anxieties, gutter politics and chaos, the 2020 election eventually ended and the winner won, the loser lost. Democracy prevailed, but this time around, as we approach the 2024 presidential election, while much feels the same the we approach the 2024 presidential election while much feels the same the players, the conspiracy theories, the norm breaking, etc. The shadow of January 6th is long and everything seems like it's gotten worse, not better. Donald Trump and his supporters haven't been chastened, they haven't gone away, they haven't been exiled. In fact, they're stronger, more experienced, more emboldened and more angry, and they're determined to finish what they started four years ago to burn it all down.

Shawn: 1:56

Welcome to After America, a limited podcast series intended to confront the dire state of democracy in the United States. Intended to confront the dire state of democracy in the United States. In many ways, this 2024 election is existential to democracy in a way that we, as a country, have not confronted before, and so, over the course of about 12 episodes releasing Sundays via our flagship Deep Dive channel, we will examine the foundation of American democracy, its vulnerabilities, what forces threaten our democracy today, how we got here, what life in America might look like if democracy were to fail, and if we're already past the Rubicon. I'm your host, s C Fettig. The clock is ticking, democracy is at a crossroads and the time to act is now.

Shawn: 3:00

At 1.05 pm, january 6, 2021, congress met in a joint session at the United States Capitol to confirm the results of the November 2020 presidential election, an election in which challenger and former Vice President Joe Biden defeated incumbent Donald Trump.

Shawn: 3:19

At the same time, donald Trump was concluding a speech to a crowd of supporters at a park near the White House, called the Ellipse.

Shawn: 3:27

He had been speaking for about 70 minutes, a stemwinder that was peppered with grievance, baseless and discounted allegations of election fraud, stolen votes and descriptions of a country in extreme distress. He concluded with a call to action and a call to violence, stating we fight like hell, and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore. And then he directed all of the people gathered, many armed, to the Capitol to support the rioters that were already there, breaching the perimeter to, in Trump's words, make sure they do the right thing. Over the ensuing seven hours, the Capitol was under siege as a mob of Trump supporters made up of Republican voters, republican politicians, members of far-right militia groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, christian nationalists and others breached the perimeter barriers, overwhelmed the Capitol police and forced their way into the building. The electoral count proceedings were interrupted as lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence were evacuated or took shelter, as rioters roamed the halls, breaking windows, vandalizing offices and looting.

Unknown: 4:44

We have a breach of the Capitol. Breach of the Capitol. We have a level.

Unknown: 4:50

We advise they're requesting additional resources on the east side, as they have broken into that window and they're trying to kick it in.

Shawn: 4:57

The rotunda, an iconic symbol in the Capitol, became a battleground. The Confederate flag, a stark symbol of division, racism and terror, replaced the United States flag as it was paraded through the Capitol's halls, rioters clashed with police in brutal hand-to-hand combat. Tear gas and pepper spray filled the air, glass shattered. People shouted, some in aggression and violence, others in fear. People shouted, some in aggression and violence, others in fear. In the Senate chamber, an armed standoff occurred as law enforcement officers barricaded doors to prevent those who were trying to break through and chanting Hang Mike Pence, hang Mike Pence, hang Mike Pence. And the entire world was watching it all unfold in real time as the events were live-streamed. Finally, at 8 pm, capitol Police declared the building secure and lawmakers reconvened to finish counting electoral votes. Despite the violence, the destruction and the five deaths that occurred as a result of the mob storming of the Capitol on that day at the direction of Donald Trump, a significant contingent of Republican members of Congress, eight senators and 139 members of the House, while standing in the rubble of the attack, objected to certifying the results of the votes in a number of states, attempting to succeed where the mob had failed to unconstitutionally keep Donald Trump in office beyond the only term he had won four years earlier to finish the coup. This is a surreal scene because it is at this moment that it becomes clear that this isn't the work of some outside forces and this isn't spontaneous. The murderer is inside the house. In this first episode of After America, we are going to examine how the Republican Party became the party of Trump and the party of authoritarianism, to understand January 6th and why so many Republicans would support an insurrection and the guy that fomented it against the country they represent. We have to rewind.

Shawn: 7:26

The stage was set by a decades-long transformation in American politics, particularly in the Republican Party. Congressional politics in the first half of the 20th century were largely congenial and relatively bipartisan, especially in comparison to our congressional politics today. Differences between members of Congress often lined more closely along regional lines than party lines. It was common for Democrats to vote in coalition with moderate and liberal Republicans in the Northeast, while Republicans often voted with conservative Democrats in the South. Consequently, it was less frequent for the two parties to vote as unified blocs against each other. This was in part, due to the collapse of the Republican Party's influence on the national stage for its handling of the Great Depression and the rise of the Democratic Party's influence for its response the New Deal programs under President Franklin Roosevelt, which created a diverse majority coalition of voters composed of labor unions, urban voters, ethnic minorities and Southern whites. Black voters, while they were generally more supportive of the Democratic Party at this point, were still loyal to the Republican Party of Lincoln, giving nearly 40% of their vote to President Eisenhower in the 1956 election. This all changed in the 60s.

Shawn: 8:52

In 1964, conservative Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater mounted an insurgent campaign against the Republican establishment, which at the time was dominated by moderate and liberal figures, and, against all odds, captured the party's presidential nomination.

Shawn: 9:06

Goldwater represented a new kind of Republican, having developed a coherent conservative ideology centered on small government, states' rights, increased militarism and extremism in pursuit of conservative goals. He stood against New Deal programming, welfare programs and communism, and he stood for limited spending, strong national defense, a more forceful hand in Vietnam and strong state autonomy from federal intervention or meddling what we know as states' rights. He also voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made racial discrimination illegal. Against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made racial discrimination illegal, then actively courted white Southern voters, especially segregationists, through what was called the Southern Strategy, which employed coded language, thinly veiled cover for racist policies and positions. It was a coordinated effort to exploit white backlash to civil rights and pull voters particularly in the South, where the Democratic Party dominated into the Republican Party, without appearing to be explicitly racially dimensioned. Here's Dr Ian Haney-Lopez, a researcher of race and politics at University of California, berkeley, and author of the book Dog Whistle Politics and author of the book Dog Whistle Politics.

Dr. Ian Haney Lopez: 10:27

In the 1960s or in the 1950s, let's say there were open conversations about white supremacy, white superiority, white dominance, white way of life, indeed open uses of the N-word as a racial epithet. With the success of the civil rights movement, all of that conversation now becomes a marker of somebody who's backward and immoral. So instead you get a new conversation. Southerners begin to talk, in particular Southern defenders of segregation, of the humiliation of African Americans through law and custom, begin to talk in the language of states' rights, and states' rights on its surface is a conversation about federalism, the appropriate balance of power between the federal government and the states, but in fact what it was designed to communicate was the idea that states should be free from federal coercion to conduct race relations in whatever way they see fit, free in particular, to ignore the federal government's command in Brown v Board of Education that states end segregated schooling.

Shawn: 11:39

This Southern strategy was seen for what it was racist and extreme, needlessly fomenting racial resentment in the country. Goldwater leaned into it.

Reagan Clip: 11:49

I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.

Shawn: 12:01

And it worked. This message resonated powerfully with white Southerners opposed to the Civil Rights Movement. Gallup polling at the time showed that 59% of the American public supported the Civil Rights Act, but only 24% of white Southerners did. This helped Goldwater carry five Southern states, three of which Louisiana, georgia and South Carolina were states that had been won by John Kennedy just four years earlier. While Goldwater's campaign would go on to end in a landslide defeat to President Lyndon Johnson, it marked a pivotal moment the birth of the modern conservative movement, one in which extremism, at least in the Republican Party, would be embraced, not avoided.

Shawn: 12:46

The ideas Goldwater championed—small government, states' rights, militarism, extremism— may have been too hard-line for voters in 1964. But just four years later, in the 1968 presidential election, the Democrat Hubert Humphrey carried just one southern state Texas. Johnson had carried six in 1964, and Kennedy had carried seven in 1960. Democrats were losing the South In that 1968 election. The southern strategy was employed even more effectively by Richard Nixon, who devised and pursued an appeal to racism against African Americans, embracing racially coded language such as states' rights, as Goldwater had, and weaponizing another phrase intended to trigger racial stereotypes law and order. Here's Dr Lopez again.

Dr. Ian Haney Lopez: 13:42

A conversation about law and order arises during this era. This again sounds race neutral on its surface, but when it begins in the South, it's a way of talking about African American civil rights protesters, who were indeed purposefully breaking laws, but they were breaking Jim Crow segregation laws in order to demonstrate their illegitimacy, their injustice. Re-describing them as lawbreakers sought to diminish them as common criminals, and from the South that language then went national and crime. Law and order, an urban jungle all of these phrases came to stand in as coded references to the supposed criminality and violence of African-Americans.

Shawn: 14:33

And lest we be tempted to relegate and dismiss discourse and rhetoric like this to nothing deeper or more nefarious than simple political or electoral strategy, listen to this phone conversation between President Richard Nixon and then-California governor and future president Ronald Reagan, and last night I tell you to watch that thing on television that I did to see those monkeys from those African countries.

Confessions of a Republican Ad: 15:00

They're still uncomfortable wearing shoes.

Reagan Clip: 15:05

And then the tail wags the dog there, doesn't it? Yeah, the tail wags the dog.

Shawn: 15:10

In case that was difficult to understand, in this recording Ragan tells Nixon quote last night. I tell you to watch that. Then laughs and replies quote Well, and then the tail wags the dog. There, doesn't it? End quote. While Nixon was hardly the first Republican to notice that Lyndon Johnson's civil rights legislation had alienated white Southerners, as the GOP's leader and United States president Nixon's embrace of the Southern strategy marked a major realignment. By the 1970s, the GOP was overwhelmingly the party of white conservatives, especially in the South. The a lesser degree, but to a degree nonetheless. The conservative wing of the Democratic Party, particularly in the South, has become more endangered. By the end of the 70s and heading into the 1980 presidential election, the Republican Party had become the party of white people, while the Democratic Party became a bigger, more diverse tent.

Reagan Clip: 16:39

If we're going to stop inflation, we must do it now, not with bigger government. It takes better government. That's what we owe ourselves and our children. That's why I'm running for president. Only one man has the proven experience we need Ronald Reagan for president. Let's make America great again.

Shawn: 16:58

Ronald Reagan, a devoted Goldwater acolyte, took the conservative movement. Goldwater started to new heights, kicking off his 1980 presidential campaign near where three civil rights workers had been murdered by the KKK in Neshoba County, mississippi, in 1964. Reagan's campaign leaned into a strong states' rights argument that he had honed over the years. It was a wink to segregationists.

Reagan Clip: 17:26

The truth is, washington has taken over functions that don't truly belong to it. In almost every case, it has been a failure. Now understand. I'm speaking of those programs which, logically, should be administered at state and local levels. Welfare is a classic example.

Shawn: 17:43

Campaigning on a platform of small government, low taxes, deregulation and law and order. In the face of urban unrest, reagan assembled a durable conservative coalition that united white Southerners who responded to his state's rights advocacy in opposition to welfare. Pro-business conservatives seeking lower taxes and deregulation with a new cohort religious conservatives.

Reagan Clip: 18:09

But restoring the American dream requires more than restoring a sound productive economy, vitally important as that is. It requires a return to spiritual and moral values.

Shawn: 18:25

Founded in 1979 by Baptist minister Jerry Falwell, the Moral Majority quickly became a prominent political organization that sought to mobilize conservative Christians. It played a significant role in bringing evangelical voters into the Republican Party by emphasizing culture, war issues such as support for traditional family values and school prayer, and opposition to abortion and, later, lgbt rights. Reagan embraced these positions and folded them into the Republican platform, turning up the temperature on partisanship and polarization that would grow from a simmer in the 80s to boiling over today. We'll talk more about the influence of religion and evangelicals on our American politics in a future episode of After America. Reagan also planted the seeds of distrust in government by railing against it, a position that would become a hallmark of Republican politics over the next few decades.

Reagan Clip: 19:22

In this present crisis. Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.

Shawn: 19:31

As a result of these things promoting conservative economic policies, aligning with social conservatives, demonizing the federal government, employing polarizing rhetoric and also appointing conservative judges Reagan's presidency reshaped American politics in a way that has contributed to the extremism observed in the modern Republican Party, where ideological purity and combative politics often take precedence over bipartisan cooperation and moderation. It also embraced Christianity and the values that came along with Christianity intolerance, patriarchy and a belief that government should reflect biblical teaching. Despite this, reagan was still considered too genial, weak, even to some on the far right. Newt Gingrich of Georgia was elected to the House of Representatives in 1978. He represented a new kind of Republican, one who challenged the status quo, utilized media extensively to propagate his message and advocated for more confrontational tactics, both with Republicans he felt were insufficiently conservative and with Democrats, who he considered evil. His style was less about designing good policies for the most people as much as it was about winning, about defeating the enemy, and in that environment, anything goes. He also amplified and mainstreamed a conspiracy theory that had been percolating on the fringe right for a while the idea that the free press was an extension of the liberal left. In the early 80s, gingrich co-founded the Conservative Opportunity Society with the express mission of implementing a more combative style of politics, and throughout his tenure in Congress, he characterized Democrats and Democratic policies in demeaning terms, even publishing a memo through his political action committee, gopac. That listed words Republicans should employ to characterize their opponents whenever talking about them in interviews, at rallies and with voters Words like decay, destructive, sick, radical traitors, intolerant, incompetent, selfish, insensitive, bizarre, corrupt welfare, anti-family and anti-work.

Shawn: 21:47

And it was through these tactics that Gingrich led Republicans to a historic takeover of Congress in 1994. For the first time in 40 years, house Republicans rewarded him by electing Gingrich Speaker of the House. And as Speaker, gingrich instigated a new tactic to get what he wanted repeated government shutdowns in budget fights with President Bill Clinton. Over time, though, as it was clear that Republicans were taking the blame for the shutdowns, gingrich would ultimately strike deals with Clinton and Democrats in Congress to fund the government. And taking a page from Gingrich would ultimately strike deals with Clinton and Democrats in Congress to fund the government and taking a page from Gingrich's playbook. House Republicans, even further to the right of the Speaker, accused him of being too accommodating of Democrats and revolted against him following disappointing election results in the 1998 midterms and Gingrich resigned in 1999. Gingrich left behind a Republican Party that might have gotten away from him, but was bearing the fruit of seeds he sowed. Democrats are evil, never compromise and employ divisive, confrontational rhetoric and propaganda to paint your opponent as inhuman. He may have been run out of Congress, but Newt didn't go away and he didn't go far. He took his message and his tactics to the fledgling television network Fox News, becoming a regular contributor to the right-wing outlet. So that's totally not the Fox News theme music. I'm pretty sure they weren't going to grant me permission to use it, but I thought there was a natural break here. So that's just a stock newsy-sounding clip.

Shawn: 23:30

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch launched Fox News in October of 1996 with the specific mission to provide a conservative alternative to what Murdoch perceived as a liberal bias in mainstream media. By mixing traditional news with opinion programming, fox quickly attracted an audience, eventually dominating cable news ratings, and it made stars of opinion hosts Bill O'Reilly, len Beck, sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, who treated like-minded guests with kid gloves while striking an aggressive and confrontational approach to anyone who disagreed with them. Republican politicians flocked to appear on the network, while Democratic politicians avoided it, leaving viewers with an even more insular, one-sided presentation of information from the right and, as a result, fox News became an echo chamber of conservative viewpoints and framing, reinforcing pre-existing beliefs and inclinations without providing any opposing viewpoints. Over time, fox News has altered the Republican Party. Its willingness to give credence and legitimacy to right-wing conspiracy theories has contributed to skepticism of science. In fact, fact that has shown up in the halls of Congress, with politicians like House Member Marjorie Taylor Greene and Senator Ted Cruz embracing some of the craziest stories about the origins of COVID, the effects of vaccines, voter fraud, qanon and space lasers.

Shawn: 24:55

The Fox News model paved the way for even more extreme right-wing media outlets that followed, such as Breitbart, which gave the world far-right chaos, agent Steve Bannon, alex Jones' InfoWars and One America News Network, which openly peddles bizarre fringe conspiracy theories. As fact, this type of media, packaged and sold as news, has become the primary source of information for Republicans in the United States, and it has polarized the electorate, normalized violent and aggressive discourse and pushed the Republican Party toward extreme positions. The 2008 financial collapse triggered by the bursting of the housing bubble and the subsequent failure of major financial institutions led to a severe global economic downturn. In response, the US government implemented bank bailouts and stimulus measures which sparked outrage and gave rise to a new movement, a populist, conservative backlash against government spending and perceived overreach. At the same time, american politics turned a corner and broke a barrier.

Mitch McConnell Clip: 26:04

On this day we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises.

Unknown: 26:09

The recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.

Shawn: 26:16

The election of America's first Black president, barack Obama in 2008, was a watershed moment, but it further fueled the rise of the Tea Party, a grassroots, anti-establishment, populist movement named after the historic Boston. Tea Party initially focused on reducing government spending, lowering taxes and opposing the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The movement's vehement opposition to Obama's policies resonated with a significant portion of the Republican base, and Tea Party rallies became a source of anti-government rhetoric, featuring inflammatory language and imagery. The Tea Party grew rapidly and experienced incredible success in a very short period of time, propelling a new generation of hard-right Republicans into office in 2010. In the Senate, people like Mike Lee of Utah, ron Johnson of Wisconsin, marco Rubio from Florida, rand Paul of Kentucky. In the House, jim Jordan of Ohio, mick Mulvaney of South Carolina, kristi Noem of South Dakota and Raul Labrador of Idaho. Each of these people would play a significant role in turbocharging the transformation of the Republican Party, marking a significant ideological shift within the party itself. While traditional conservatives advocated for fiscal responsibility and limited government, the Tea Party infused these principles with a populist fervor and a deep distrust of the federal government.

Shawn: 27:46

This new wave of Republicans prioritized ideological purity over bipartisan cooperation. Quickly, the Tea Party's influence began to reshape. The Republican Party Established Republican figures who were seen as too moderate or too willing to compromise with Democrats, faced primary challenges from Tea Party candidates. This intra-party conflict led to the defeat of several moderate Republican incumbents people like Bob Bennett of Utah, mike Castle of Delaware and Richard Lugar of Indiana to Tea Party challengers, remaking the Republican Party into one that is more ideologically rigid and confrontational. At the same time that Tea Party candidates were toppling the moderate Republican establishment, they were also spearheading an invigorated, determined experiment in anti-democratic policymaking. Tea Party-backed politicians supported and enacted legislation that restricts voting access, undermining the democratic principle of broad and equal access to the ballot things like strict voter ID laws, reductions in early voting periods and purges of voter rolls. They also often supported aggressive gerrymandering, the practice of drawing electoral district boundaries to favor one party over the other, undermining fair representation. To entrench Republican power, they've also employed obstructionist tactics, including using government shutdowns and threats of default on the national debt as political leverage, which undermines the effective functioning of government and democratic processes.

Shawn: 29:18

Beyond their policy preferences, members of the Tea Party have also displayed a disregard for democratic norms and institutions through their rhetoric and actions, methodically attacking the judiciary, the media and other checks and balances essential to a functioning democracy. They often criticize judges and court decisions that don't align with their views, undermining respect for judicial independence and the rule of law. Sound familiar, tea Party-aligned politicians often embraced harsh, xenophobic, anti-immigration policies, which target marginalized groups and undermine the inclusive values that are central to a democratic society. Another defining and disturbing feature of the Tea Party is how it has trafficked in conspiracy theories which erode public trust in democratic institutions and processes. By spreading unfounded claims, they contribute to a polarized and misinformed electorate.

Shawn: 30:14

So between 2010, when the Tea Party settled into their newfound influence in the halls of Congress, and 2016, the presidential election, the Republican Party was evolving on two fronts. The middle ground of the party, the moderate ground, was giving way to the extreme fringes, while at the same time, those fringes were solidifying their control and their influence through anti-democratic means. It was a minority of one of the two major political parties in the United States, imposing ruthless, harsh and anti-majoritarian tactics and policies onto the rest of the country. But their most extreme agenda was limited. It hadn't thus far extended beyond some of the more deep red states and the House of Representatives. While they had toppled some moderates.

Shawn: 31:03

The Tea Party firebrands in the Senate were constrained by a larger contingent of traditional Republicans, more dedicated to norms and practices. That acted as a bulwark against the worst tendencies of its backbench flamethrowers, and the presidency was in the grasp of Democrats, and demographics and conventional wisdom at the time suggested it would remain that way for a while. In order to break through, the Tea Party needed something or someone remarkable to happen that would upend the entire game board. The 2016 presidential election marked another significant turning point for the Republican Party, with the rise of Donald Trump. His campaign capitalized on the populist sentiments that had been brewing within the Tea Party, but with a heightened emphasis on nativism, anti-immigrant rhetoric and a disdain for political correctness. Trump's ability to tap into the anger and frustration of a significant segment of the electorate propelled him to the Republican nomination and, ultimately, the presidency.

Donald Trump Clip: 32:04

I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, the office of President of the United States, the office of President of the.

Shawn: 32:17

United States. Under Trump's leadership, the Republican Party underwent another profound transformation. Traditional conservative principles were often sidelined in favor of a personality-driven, authoritarian style of governance. Trump's tenure was marked by an erosion of democratic norms, attacks on the free press and a concerted effort to undermine the legitimacy of the electoral process. Trump's tenure was marked by an erosion of democratic norms, attacks on the free press and a concerted effort to undermine the legitimacy of the electoral process. His rhetoric and actions emboldened extremist elements within the party and society at large and, as a result, extremist groups such as Proud Boys and QAnon experienced a period of rapid growth, gaining prominence and influence within the broader conservative movement.

Shawn: 33:01

In the 2020 presidential election, joe Biden defeated incumbent Donald Trump, winning both the Electoral College and the popular vote by decent margins. Despite Biden's clear victory, which was confirmed through recounts and audits and court rulings, trump plotted to sow chaos and confusion, refusing to concede and promoting the false claim that the election was stolen from him through widespread voter fraud, a baseless assertion that became known as the big lie. Trump and his allies continued to spread this disinformation in the weeks and months following the election. Continued to spread this disinformation in the weeks and months following the election, eroding public trust in the Democratic process and ultimately leading to the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters who believed the election had been rigged.

Shawn: 33:49

Mother Jones magazine leaked audio of Steve Bannon, an aide to the Trump campaign, discussing, days before the actual election, the plan they had devised to steal the election and sow chaos on election night 2020. In the audio he says and what Trump's going to do is just declare victory. Right, he's just going to declare victory, and that doesn't mean he's the winner. He's just going to say he's the winner. That's our strategy. He's going to declare himself the winner. Here's the thing.

Shawn: 34:22

After that, trump never has to go to a voter again. He's going to be off the chain. He's going to be crazy. Also, if Trump is losing by 10 or 11 o'clock at night, it's going to be even crazier. He's just going to sit right there and say they stole it. It's going to be nuts. He's not going out easy. If Biden is winning, trump's going to do some crazy shit. The Republican Party became increasingly divided between those who remained loyal to Trump and those who sought to uphold traditional conservative values, and this latter group was shrinking such that when high-profile figures like Senator Mitt Romney and Representative Liz Cheney criticized Trump and challenged his false claims about a stolen election in 2020, they faced significant backlash and political ostracization.

Shawn: 35:26

This is Dr David Faris professor of political science at Roosevelt University and author of a singular political figure who has ingeniously exploited the power of voters and modern politics to impose a kind of ideological and personal discipline and loyalty on the Republican Party.

Dr. David Faris: 35:44

That is, you had a politician who was seen as hostile and unworthy by most of the institutional Republican Party in 2016. And over the course of the next eight years, despite every outrageous thing that he has done, like every day when you wake up like Trump has consolidated a little bit more power over the Republican Party and what he saw I think that no one else in our system has seen in quite the same way is how he could wield the primary system to his advantage to eliminate rivals. You know, like it's not 1979 Iraq where Saddam Hussein is having his opponents like stand up at a meeting and like march them off to be shot. Like Trump did not have to do that. Like all Trump had to do was to discover his powers of disciplining and punishing renegade Republicans in primary elections before basically every elected Republican in the country understands that to challenge Trump means you may lose your next primary election and then be sort of cast out of institutional Republican politics altogether.

Dr. David Faris: 36:47

Like Trump's ingenious move was to use the perfectly legal, routine, existing mechanisms of internal politics in the Republican Party to find and eliminate his rivals without violence. I mean, like there's a lot of violence being threatened against people, right, but like, fundamentally, these folks are losing their seats in elections or not even bothering to run because they've seen the polling and they know that they won't get through. Now, like, have some people been able to survive this gauntlet? Yeah, like a few, right. But like, the fundamental transformation of the Republican Party has been that there is a clear party leader using his power with the electorate, with the party and the electorate, to eliminate any kind of rivals who would seek to challenge him. Or just as in terms of like how this happened, this is just people choosing their short-term political incentives over everything else. Over and over again, and the cumulative effect has been that the Republican Party is now in Donald Trump's pocket.

Shawn: 37:52

The January 6th attack was a wake-up call, exposing just how vulnerable American democracy is. It revealed the dangerous consequences of having a major party untethered from facts and willing to undermine faith in elections for political gain. It was the moment that the world got to see just how little remained of the old guard Republican Party. In the aftermath of the attack, there was a brief moment when it seemed the Republican Party might break with Trump, might come to its senses. House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy said Trump bears responsibility for the attack.

Kevin McCarthy Clip: 38:27

Last week's violent attack on the Capitol was undemocratic, un-american and criminal. Violence is never a legitimate form of protest. The president bears responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Congress by mob rioters.

Shawn: 38:46

Senator Mitch McConnell denounced the unhinged thugs and said Trump was responsible for the events.

Mitch McConnell Clip: 38:51

There's no question, none that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. No question about it. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president.

Shawn: 39:18

But that moment quickly passed. Under pressure from their base, most Republicans fell back in line. They blocked a full bipartisan investigation and punished the few Republicans who continued to speak out, like Liz Cheney. This is Cheney speaking on the floor of the House the day before Republicans voted to remove her from Republican leadership as punishment for her continuing to hold Trump accountable for the insurrection.

Liz Cheney Clip: 39:42

The Trump Department of Justice investigated the former president's claims of widespread fraud and found no evidence to support them. The election is over. That is the rule of law. That is our constitutional process. Those who refuse to accept the rulings of our courts are at war with the Constitution. Our duty is clear. Every one of us who has sworn the oath must act to prevent the unraveling of our democracy. This is not about policy. This is not about partisanship. This is about our duty as Americans. Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar. I will not participate in that. I will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president's crusade to undermine our democracy.

Shawn: 40:44

Meanwhile, the big lie of a stolen election has only further taken hold in the Republican Party. Numerous 2022 GOP candidates ran on platforms of election denialism and, as we head into 2024, the party remains enthralled at Trump. Even as he faces multiple criminal investigations and a recent conviction, and the base has been primed, his supporters will do anything to put Trump back in the White House. This is Reverend Dr David Gushee, a professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University and critic of the Trumpification of Christianity in the United States, talking about how Trump supporters, especially evangelicals, have justified their support of Trump, even in light of January 6th.

Dr. David Gushee: 41:29

They believe that the country has gone to hell by going liberal, going woke, by going progressive, that the government, especially under democratic leadership, is violating their values comprehensively every day, and that the secular progressives are their enemies and there's no common ground. And sometimes, when they lose, they feel despairing and feel like withdrawing or leaving, but other times they move into a more militant mode. Let's fight and get this country back. I would say that Trump helped to give hope to some of these folks that the country could be taken back and that the things that they're most opposed to could be pushed back, either through legislation or executive action or the bully pulpit. And I would say that when he lost in November of 2020 and wouldn't accept the results of the election, a chunk went right along with him in not accepting the results of the election, because the results of the election were unthinkable to them. That is, this can't be, because every right-thinking person knows that the Democrats are the spawn of Satan and could never have voted for Joe Biden. So we're going to believe the lie.

Dr. David Gushee: 42:52

But also more, my argument Trump is an authoritarian who doesn't believe in democracy and is willing to damage democracy to accomplish his goals, and he has attracted and deepened and seduced you might say a part of the population, the Christian population, to say, yeah, well, maybe democracy is not as important as winning, because good and evil are at stake, so maybe we don't need to play by those rules.

Dr. David Gushee: 43:23

So part of what the big lie did was to allow this population to deny the obvious, which was an unprecedented threat to democracy was being undertaken by the president of the United States by lying about the election and challenging its results in every way. By believing the big lie, they were able to say, hey, I'm just, I'm with him and he's right and I trust him. And if he says that was stolen, it was stolen. But then you do have a cohort of, you might say, smarter, more sophisticated authoritarians who were like no, as we think about it, the way America does, democracy is not sacrosanct and the values that have crept in and under the liberals and liberal government are violating our values and we need to try something radically different and Trump can help us get there. And that's the authoritarianism that could destroy American democracy.

Shawn: 44:32

From the extremism of Goldwater to the racism of Nixon. To the vilification of the federal government under Reagan. To the demonization of Democrats in the media and the uncompromising tactics of Gingrich. To the echo chamber of extreme views in right-wing media. To the embrace of conspiracy theories and the purging of any compromisers in the Republican Party by the Tea Party. To the shamelessness, cruelty and authoritarian tendencies of Trump. To the glaring realization that they simply cannot persuade a majority of the electorate to support them at the national level is the increasing sense inside the Republican.

Reagan Clip: 45:11

Party that they don't really command any kind of political majority in the country anymore,

Dr. David Faris: 45:15

In other words, this is a politics that's produced by the presumption and the fear of political minority status, right Like the loss of power. For you know, straight white men being challenged by, like a growing, diverse, ideological diverse, geographically diverse country where they don't really think that they can compete and win elections fairly, where they don't really think that they can compete and win elections fairly. I don't think it's like there was no mastermind that sat down with a map and charted out how this would work. There was no summit where they were like man, we can never win another election unless we start cheating.

Dr. David Faris: 45:51

But I do think there's a pervasive sense inside the Republican Party that they simply cannot go into an election, a one-person, one-vote election on a fair footing without being at a natural disadvantage. And that fear of that disadvantage, whether it's produced by immigration or expansions in voting rights or changes in the domestic social hierarchies in the US, I think that this whole move away from normative democracy to what the party is now is produced by that sense of impending loss, right Like that frustration with not being able to operate a single party authoritarian regime has happened in the US South for like 100 years after the Civil War, a realization that that kind of power wielding, the ability to like, subjugate people who are different than you is not possible in a fair, democratic politics, is like the narrative superstructure that explains a lot of the GOP's drift away from.

Dr. David Faris: 46:45

you know the bipartisanship of the 60s, 70s and 80s which I know is romanticized to a degree that I don't love, right, but like it certainly was easier for US political parties to work together 30, 40 years ago than it is today. I think that that's explained by sort of like changes in us society who holds and wields power in us society and like the fear of the republican electorate and the power centers and the republican electorate uh, that they're, they were losing control and that you had to do so. It's like we just have to bend the rules a little bit to stay in power, and each bending of the rules, like each march away from a norm, an important norm or informal expectation of how power should be wielded, each one of those decisions produced its own consequences in the form of further escalations that made the party march further and further away from what our understanding of democracy really should be.

Shawn: 47:33

Given this history and this reality, it maybe shouldn't come as a complete shock that the end product the Republican Party today would not only turn a blind eye to political violence, to desecration of the Capitol, but to justification, even advocacy, of it. And that suggests we've turned a corner and the worst may still be to come. This is Dr Edward Watts, a professor at the University of California, san Diego, who studies the fall of Rome and the factors that contributed to it, talking about the impact of January 6th on our politics, on our democracy.

Dr. Edward Watts: 48:08

Yeah, I think January 6th was a. It was a really significant shift in American politics, not because it did anything, but because it symbolized something. You know now, violence actually was a tool that you could use in political conversation and in political engagement to try to affect change in our political dynamics. But violence necessarily exists outside of a political system. Right, there's the old quote that politics is warfare by nonviolent means. And when violence is injected into politics, politics becomes more and more like warfare, and so people begin to strategize how to use violence better and more regularly and more effectively. And January 6th is dangerous because it shows that violence can be used as a political tool. Dangerous because it shows that violence can be used as a political tool, and I think people will be willing to try it again if we don't firmly and strongly preclude that as an option. So that's one great fear I have is the violent rhetoric after January 6th has not gone down, it's gone up in really significant ways that I think could lead to more actual political violence.

Shawn: 49:27

This is the state of play. The 2024 presidential election is just over four months away. Joe Biden and Donald Trump are polling evenly. Sometimes. Often, donald Trump is leading a bit In the battleground states, trump seems to have an edge.

Shawn: 49:45

The Senate map is increasingly difficult for Democrats to win this year, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives is a Christian nationalist committed to some of the most anti-democratic beliefs espoused by evangelicals in the country. Today, both houses of Congress have more fervent supporters of Donald Trump, trumpism and authoritarianism than they did in 2020. The Supreme Court has three Trump appointees and, as a result, the court has lurched right in the past few years, reshaping American policy and society, limiting freedom and liberty. Far-right militia groups have only continued to grow, recruit and plan for a post-democracy America in the past four years. The legal system is under incredible attack from Trump and his supporters and, as we discussed today, the Republican Party has transformed itself into a sycophantic organization dedicated to doing Trump's bidding, regardless of where it leads them or the country.

Shawn: 50:53

I'm going to leave you with a clip of a Republican voter in 1964 discussing why he can't vote for Goldwater. It's difficult, listening to this, to not see this through the lens of the choice that the Republican Party has given us today and the existential threat that the party now poses to our democracy. It's a longish clip about four minutes but it's worth the listen. It's kind of chilling, but it's worth the listen. It's kind of chilling. Check back next Sunday for the second episode of After America, where we'll be discussing the foundations of the American democratic system, the concept of democratic backsliding and why we're vulnerable to it.

Confessions of a Republican Ad: 51:36

I don't know just why they wanted to call this a confession. I certainly don't feel guilty about being a Republican. I've always been a Republican. My father is. His father was. The whole family is a Republican family.

Confessions of a Republican Ad: 51:50

I voted for Dwight Eisenhower the first time I ever voted. I voted for Nixon the last time. But when we come to Senator Goldwater now it seems to me we're up against a very different kind of a man. This man scares me. Now maybe I'm wrong. A friend of mine has said to me listen, just because a man sounds a little irresponsible during a campaign doesn't mean he's going to act irresponsibly. You know that theory that the White House makes the man. I don't buy that. You know what I think makes a president. I mean, aside from his judgment, his experience, the men behind him, his advisors, the cabinet and so many men with strange ideas are working for Goldwater. You hear a lot about what these guys are against. They seem to be against just about everything. But what are they for?

Confessions of a Republican Ad: 52:46

The hardest thing for me about this whole campaign is to sort out one Goldwater statement from another. A reporter will go to Senator Goldwater and he'll say Senator, on such and such a day. You said, and I quote blah, blah, blah, whatever it is, end quote. And then Goldwater says well, I wouldn't put it that way. I can't follow that. Was he serious when he did put it that way? Is he serious when he says he wouldn't put it that way? I just don't get it. A president ought to mean what he says. President Johnson now Johnson, at least, is talking about facts. He says look, we got the tax cut bill and because of that you get to carry home X number of dollars more every payday. We got the nuclear test ban and because of that there's X percent less radioactivity in the food. But, goldwater, often you can't. I can't figure out just what Goldwater means by the things he says. I read now where he says a wave, a craven fear of death is sweeping across America. What is that supposed to mean? If he means that people don't want to fight a nuclear war, he's right. I don't.

Confessions of a Republican Ad: 53:50

When I read some of these things that Goldwater says about total victory, I get a little worried. You know, I wish I was as sure that Goldwater is against war as I am that he's against some of these other things. I wish I could believe that he has the imagination to be able to just shut his eyes and picture what this country would look like after a nuclear war. Sometimes I wish I'd been at that convention in San Francisco. I mean, I wish I'd been a delegate. I really do, because I would have fought, you know, and I wouldn't have worried so much about party unity, because if you unite behind a man you don't believe in, it's a lie.

Confessions of a Republican Ad: 54:34

I tell you, those people who got control of that convention, who are they? I mean, when the head of the Ku Klux Klan, when all these weird groups come out in favor of the candidate of my party, either they're not Republicans or I'm not. I've thought about just not voting in this election, just staying home. But you can't do that because that's saying you don't care who wins. And I do care. I think my party made a bad mistake in San Francisco and I'm going to have to vote against that mistake on the 3rd of November. Thanks for watching.