OK, kids; herewith, the easiest question of the day:
What do Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Recep Erdogan, Jair Bolsonaro, and Kim Jong Un have in common with Sean Hannity, Kevin McCarthy, and Mitch McConnell?
You got it: They’ve all refused to recognize that Joe Biden is the president-elect.
The silence of those five heads of autocratic (or worse) states stands in sharp contrast to the response from the leaders of such democracies as France, Germany, the U.K., Japan, India, Italy, South Korea, and many more, who have recognized Biden’s victory.
The almost down-the-line concordance of Republicans with the world’s autocracies is just the latest and most blatant example of their party’s fundamental realignment of both foreign policy and animating vision under the sway of Donald Trump. Their preference is for illiberal regimes, both at home and abroad. Their base is rural, as it is for Europe’s right-wing populist parties (two of which, in Poland and Hungary, are governing parties); their enemies, as they are for Europe’s right, are diverse, tolerant, and socially liberal cities. They have relegated democratic norms to a secondary (if that) status; in their place, they have elevated illiberal anti-modernity, and in so doing have made common cause with
a host of either wannabe or actual tyrants.
If Republicans were to fully own up to the implications of their new worldview, and if they were to go in for this year’s dethroning of public monuments, they’d attack the World War II Memorial on the National Mall. Those Americans honored there gave their lives for a cause in which today’s Republicans appear not to believe, and against enemies all too many of whose values today’s Republicans share.
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