Conservatives don’t want true democracy, and ‘nice’ Republicans are no exception

‘Mitt Romney warned a private fundraiser in mid-March that “preserving liberal democracy is an extraordinary challenge” – yet he helped block legislation that would have introduced much-needed national standards for voting rights.’ Photograph: Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters

It is often said that the US is the world’s oldest democracy. While that is not necessarily incorrect, depending on the definition of “democracy,” it tends to obscure more than it illuminates about the reality of American life. If we start from the assumption that America has been a stable, consolidated democracy for two and a half centuries, the current political conflict seems utterly baffling: where is the anti-democratic radicalization of the Republican party – and so many million Americans – coming from all of a sudden?

Is it really plausible to assume that the people who remain united behind Donald Trump and are now openly embracing authoritarianism were fully on board with liberal democracy until recently, before they were driven rightward by the presidency of a moderately liberal politician whose sole “radicalism” consisted of being Black? That the election of a religious elderly white man who has always been a proud centrist pushed them to finally abandon their supposedly “consolidated” democratic convictions?