Chuck Darwin<p>Theda Skocpol, a professor of political science and sociology at Harvard, contended that many of the developments in states controlled by Republicans are a result of careful, long-term <a href="https://c.im/tags/planning" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>planning</span></a> by conservative strategists, particularly those in the <a href="https://c.im/tags/Federalist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Federalist</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Society" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Society</span></a>, who are developing tools to build what she called “<a href="https://c.im/tags/minority" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>minority</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/authoritarianism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>authoritarianism</span></a>” within the context of a nominally democratic system of government.</p><p>Skocpol outlined her thinking in an email:</p><p>The first-movers who figured out how to configure this new “laboratory of democratic constriction” were legal eagles in the Federalist Society and beyond, because the key structural dynamic in the current G.O.P. gallop toward minority authoritarianism is the mutual interlock between post-2010 Republican control, often supermajority control, of dozens of <a href="https://c.im/tags/state" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>state</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/legislatures" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>legislatures</span></a> and the <a href="https://c.im/tags/SCOTUS" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>SCOTUS</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/decision" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>decision</span></a> in 2019 to allow even the most <a href="https://c.im/tags/extreme" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>extreme</span></a> and bizarre forms of partisan <a href="https://c.im/tags/gerrymandering" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>gerrymandering</span></a>.</p><p>These organized, richly resourced actors, she wrote,<br>"have figured out how to <a href="https://c.im/tags/rig" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>rig</span></a> the current U.S. <a href="https://c.im/tags/system" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>system</span></a> of <a href="https://c.im/tags/federalism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>federalism</span></a> and <a href="https://c.im/tags/divided" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>divided</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/branches" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>branches</span></a>, given generational and geographic realities on the ground, and the in many ways fluky 2016 presidential election gave them what they needed to put the interlock in place. They are stoking and using the fears and resentments of about half or so of the G.O.P. popular base to <a href="https://c.im/tags/undo" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>undo</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/American" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>American</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/democracy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>democracy</span></a> and <a href="https://c.im/tags/enhance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>enhance</span></a> their own <a href="https://c.im/tags/power" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>power</span></a> and <a href="https://c.im/tags/privileges" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>privileges</span></a>. They are doing it because they can, and they believe in what they are doing. They are America’s G.O.P. Leninists.<br>Skocpol did not pull her punches:</p><p>This situation, locked in place by a <a href="https://c.im/tags/corruptly" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>corruptly</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/installed" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>installed</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Supreme" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Supreme</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Court" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Court</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/majority" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>majority</span></a> and by many <a href="https://c.im/tags/rotten" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>rotten</span></a>-borough <a href="https://c.im/tags/judicial" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>judicial</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/districts" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>districts</span></a> like the one in <a href="https://c.im/tags/Amarillo" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Amarillo</span></a>, means that minority <a href="https://c.im/tags/authoritarians" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>authoritarians</span></a>, behind a bare facade of “<a href="https://c.im/tags/constitutionalism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>constitutionalism</span></a>,” can render majority-elected officials, including the president and many governors, officials in name only. The great thing from the minority authoritarian point of view is that those visible chief executives (and urban mayors and district attorneys) can still be blamed for government nonfunction and societal problems, but they cannot address them with even broadly supported measures (such as simple background checks for having military assault weapons).</p><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/12/opinion/republican-party-intrusive-government.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">nytimes.com/2023/04/12/opinion</span><span class="invisible">/republican-party-intrusive-government.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare</span></a></p>