👇🏼Via @emptywheel:

The Republican Party has become a criminal protection racket, and only Asa Hutchinson (and a wishy washy Chris Christie who helped it GET where it is) wants to take it back.

Folks: We actually don't KNOW whether the GOP is a dying party or a rising single party of an authoritarian state.

Unless and until the traditional press presents those as the stakes, it is very much unclear which it'll end up being. #media #fascism #Republicans

@GottaLaff @emptywheel I think it can't really die – or, at least, it seems structurally there are always 2 major parties that will seek balance. (One or both parties may shift dramatically, as we've seen, but I think not die.)

Both parties certainly have their authoritarian elements, so keeping the rise of authoritarianism in check is important.

@ech @GottaLaff @emptywheel Dude. No. Name an authoritarian Democrat. Are the Democrats banning books, denying voting rights, forcing their religious beliefs on people through state violence, seizing control of people’s own bodies, firing Republican prosecutors, investigating the parents for raising their kid Christian, refusing to consider Republican SCOTUS nominees, punishing businesses for political stances, ending the peaceful transition of power, attempting coups, swearing fealty?

@morecowbell @GottaLaff @emptywheel OK yeah the swearing fealty thing is weird, I'll give you that. No D's are doing that publicly that I know of. 😂

A lot of those questions are meaningless political rhetoric, but one of them reminds me of Jose Medina's (D-CA) AB 2756 requiring fire alarm inspections for schools, which would have made homeschooling harder. This was probably in reaction to the Turpin/Perris incident – you see, we can't trust you to take care of your kids without constant supervision, better to let us experts do it; let the state raise your kids. (Nevermind that they didn't do anything to prevent this problem when the Turpins went to public schools either, this patronizing philosophy is incredibly stupid.)

Again, though, as I replied to someone else, maybe this isn't what is meant by authoritarian? If not pardon me: yes, Ds are less likely to support R policies, and if you define those arbitrarily as "authoritarian" then right: Ds are a lot less likely to be "authoritarian". But even so, there are pro-life democrats and so on.

@ech @GottaLaff @emptywheel “Which would’ve made homeschooling harder”.

??? How??? Are you saying the CA is some how inherently against homeschooling?

Have you remodeled your house lately? Is the state against remodeling too because it requires hardwired fire detectors now?

Governments exist to write regulation. Period. Regulation is not authoritarianism, it is civilization.

Building codes are why CA won’t suffer the same fate as Turkey in the next earthquake.

@morecowbell @GottaLaff @emptywheel does the fire department come inspect your smoke alarms in a residence regularly? Do you have to pay for that? Not in California.

@ech @GottaLaff @emptywheel Do you ever wonder why you make really paranoid and weird connections between requiring fire alarms and an “authoritarian” government not letting raise your own children?

Do wonder why you support a government imposing the religious beliefs of a minority to the point where they will use violence on a woman who does the “wrong” thing with HER OWN body?

@morecowbell @GottaLaff @emptywheel no, I don't wonder why I made that connection, because the person proposing the law made it very clear what the connection was. No need to wonder. (Do you wrestle with this cognitive dissonance now that you know that?)

@ech @GottaLaff @emptywheel Why don’t you look up “authoritarianism”. It’s an English word that has a meaning. Just like the word “fascism”.

Both words were coined to describe actual historical political phenomena. Those phenomena don’t include fire inspections or visits by social workers to make sure children are safe.

No matter what drama queens like you believe.

@morecowbell @GottaLaff @emptywheel I guess that's a "no" about the cognitive dissonance?

Yeah like I said above maybe I'm using a different definition. Just looked it up in a dictionary, which perhaps isn't the best place for this conversation, and yeah, making it more difficult to choose the non-state-approved solution for educating your kids would certainly count.

I mean look, I'm not necessarily against building inspections and things like that, but I think home inspections to check up on your parenting is a bit too far?