THE MANLY WARRIORS OF THE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT HAVE SOMEHOW KEPT DEMOCRATS FROM SEIZING TENNESSEE

The Tennessee Holler has published leaked audio of strategy sessions conducted by Republican members of the Tennessee House around the time they expelled two Black Democrats, and nearly expelled a white Democrat, for their involvement in an anti-gun protest on the House floor. Charlie Pierce has provided a partial transcript of the audio. Please note that these Republicans believe the entire country is on the brink of being overrun by dangerous radical Democrats. One GOP legislator, Jason Zachary, says of Democrats:

They are not our friends. They destroy the Republic and the foundation of who we are, or we preserve it.

Another, Scott Cepicky, goes on at length about the Democratic juggernaut (a phrase I can't believe I just typed):

I think the problem I have is that if we don't stick together — If you don't believe we're at war for our Republic — with all love and respect for you, you need a different job. The left want Tennessee so bad. Because, if they get us, the Southeast falls and it's game over for the Republic. This is not a neighborhood social gathering. We are fighting for the Republic of our country right now. And the world is staring at us. Are we gonna stand our ground? I've gotten phone calls from other reps, going 'We sure hope you guys stand up. Because maybe it will give us the courage to stand up and push back against what's going to destroy our republic....

I'm sorry for getting angry here. My father was D-Day Plus-4 and he fought for this freaking country and many of his friends died. You gotta do what's right even if you think it might be wrong. And you gotta protect this freaking republic here in Tennessee or, you know what, let's all go the hell home.

I'm about to quote to quote David French here. You might not like him -- I've certainly written some nasty things about him -- but he sees what's going on clearly, although I think what he describes is larger than mere "Trumpism." French lives in a deep-red part of Tennessee, and this is what he hears from his fellow conservatives:

While Trumpism is a complex phenomenon, there are three ideas or principles that are consistently present: First, that before Trump the G.O.P. was a political doormat, helplessly walked over by Democrats time and again. Second, that we live in a state of cultural emergency where the right has lost everywhere and must turn to politics to reverse this cultural momentum. And third, that in this state of emergency, all conservatives must rally together. There can be no enemies to the right.

Add these three ideas together, and you have a near-perfect formula for extremism and authoritarianism.

As French correctly notes, this is nuts.

Many Democrats find the idea that Republicans were doormats before Trump to be utterly mystifying.... before the 2016 elections, Republicans controlled 68 state legislative chambers, while Democrats controlled only 30. Moreover, at the national level, Republicans had performed exactly as well as you’d expect in a closely divided country. Congressional control flipped back and forth, and so did control over the White House.

Moreover, Republicans in power were hardly impotent. As I wrote in 2019, the G.O.P. was quite successful in passing economic and social legislation in red states (including hundreds of anti-abortion laws), and its presidents were no more and no less effective at passing federal laws than their Democratic counterparts.

And Republicans are passing extraordinarily punitive laws right now, even with Donald Trump out of the White House -- restricting abortion, terrorizing trans people, expanding gun rights, and limiting self-governance in blue cities.

In 2022, I wrote about a Twitter conversation I'd had with Tyler Bowyer of Turning Point PAC, who'd imagined what might happen to American politics if certain election reforms became the norm nationwide:

This is what we will have if you let Ranked Choice Voting and Independent Redistricting Commissions into your state. pic.twitter.com/ZppwaELgM5

— Tyler Bowyer (@tylerbowyer) August 30, 2022

I said:

My dude, I'd really love more detail on how exactly you determined that Tennessee and Idaho would turn blue.

— Steve M. (nomoremister at mstdn.social) (@nomoremister) August 30, 2022

Bowyer replied:

ID & UT have been overtaken by CA politics. SLC & Boise already have lost to leftists. RCV will eliminate conservatives, trad Republican areas will be moderated, weak and dem areas will hand keys over to progressive radicals. Because of pop size, they won’t be able to stop it.

— Tyler Bowyer (@tylerbowyer) August 30, 2022

This is lunacy. In 2020, Donald Trump won Utah by 20 points. He won Tennessee by 23. He won Idaho by 31. But they're all blue on Bowyer's map.

The map doesn't even make sense. Redistricting doesn't affect presidential voting, and ranked-choice isn't used in presidential primaries, even in California. But this is how Republicans catastrophize. (Hey, I thought only liberals did that.)

French is right: If Republicans think like this, of course they'll treat Democrats as the enemy, expelling them from legislatures, voting to reduce their powers in the states after they've been elected, shrinking the number of party elected officials through redistricting. It's not illegal to be a Democrat yet, but in much of America, it's effectively illegal to be a Democratic elected official with power.

Another thought: on the question of why conservatives are reported to be happier than liberals, which I've probably been thinking about too much recently, here's a partial explanation: When you tell your followers that Democrats are on the verge of taking politcal politcal control of Tennessee or Idaho, maybe they're stupid enough to think they've won a great victory against long odds when it doesn't happen. BOO-YAH! We kept GOP control of our state, where no Democrat has won a presidential race since the previous century! We must be the modern equivalent of the Minutemen! If you think like that, maybe it's no surprise if you have high self-esteem.