Is right-wing authoritarianism a threat?

Photo via Contending Modernities.

I do think right-wing authoritarianism is a potential threat to American democracy.  I do not think it is the greatest or most imminent threat, but I do think it is a possible threat.

I define right-wing authoritarianism by example – as what the policies of Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, Greg Abbott of Texas and similar right-wing Republican politicians have in common.

What they have in common is opposition to abortion rights, LGBT advocacy and immigration, and skepticism about climate change and Covid vaccination and the willingness to go to extremes to maintain their power.  

The unifying element is what’s called “Christian nationalism,” a sense that religious believers and native-born Americans are under siege and need to defend themselves.

They are backed by business interests with an interest in low taxes, lenient regulation, limits on spending for public services and opposition to organized labor.

But although nationalism is usually associated with militarism, the right-wing so-called Christian nationalists are not particularly militaristic.

The “America First” slogan means avoiding foreign wars and putting the needs of the American people first.  The main push for war in today’s world comes from self-described globalists and so-called centrists, not nationalists.

Nor are the Christian nationalists white supremacists in the KKK sense, although many of their policies – unqualified support for the police, restrictions on voting, their economic policies – are objectively harmful to black Americans as a group.

Nothing I have written so far proves the politicians I’m describing are anti-democratic.  Any American has a right to be pro-abortion rights or anti-abortion, pro-immigration or anti-immigration, pro-business or anti-business, pro-war or anti-war, and to advocate for their position.  That’s what democracy is.

In fact, I agree with Christian nationalist positions, up to a point.  I do think there have to be limits on immigration.  I do oppose what’s called “gender-affirming care” (surgical castration and double mastectomies) for children under the age of consent.

What makes this political faction undemocratic is the way it tries to gain and hold power by manipulating the election process.  This includes gerrymandering.  It includes limiting voting machines and polling places in districts with a majority of Democratic voters.  It means defining voting eligibility in ways that discourage low-wage workers, especially black voters, from voting.  It means purging eligible voters by illegal means and challenging eligibility of minorities and others deemed likely to vote Democratic.

More ominously, it includes laws authorizing suspension of the results of elections in big cities.  And for state legislatures to choose members of the Electoral College in presidential elections rather than leaving it to the voters.

I don’t think the potential threat to American democracy comes from mobs storming county courthouses, state capitols or even the national capitol.  I think it comes from a certain political faction winning elections and then rigging the election rules so that they never lose.