👇🏼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.

@morecowbell @GottaLaff @emptywheel Medina made it clear that cracking down on homeschool was the goal. Some fire inspectors weren't too thrilled with being used to keep tabs on parenting techniques: “You are putting the fire inspectors out to look for social problems. That is not our role.”—Fresno Deputy Fire Chief Ted Semonious