Neo-Conservative Movement Openly Rejects Democracy And Embraces Fascism

If there was any doubt that Republicans are fascists working fervently behind the scenes to establish one party rule, an “incendiary” article in an ultra-right wing publication should dispel any misconception that conservatives support America or its increasingly fragile democracy.

The right-wing publication “American Mind” is the product of the Claremont Institute that is described as “an influential conservative think tank.” A more apt description is a fascist organization intent on decimating America’s democracy and replacing it with an ultra-far right political movement.

In fact, the “incendiary essay” mentioned above argues that “America has been destroyed by internal enemies” who “do not believe in, live by, or even like the principles, traditions and ideas that until recently defined America as a nation and as a people.” 

Of course the essay’s author, Glenn Ellmers, is referring to what he labels most people living in America who “are non-Americans who support a party that stands for mob violence, ruthless censorship and racial grievances, not to mention bureaucratic despotism.”

Ellmers is talking about anyone who opposes the GOP’s undemocratic machinations and crusade to establish a fascist one-party rule.

As Zack Beauchamp over at Vox noted:

“Up until recently, the right-wing rebellion against American democracy is often subtle, expressing itself through ‘tricky changes to election law’ without a full-throated acknowledgment of what [GOP] lawmakers are actually doing. But sometimes, the mask slips – and someone in the conservative movement openly tells you what’s really going on.”

The essay in American Mind is openly informing Americans “what’s really going on,” and it is very telling that everything horrible many Americans were warning was in the offing with the rise of Trumpism is absolutely true.

It isn’t that Republicans started doing anything new with Trump’s rise, but everything contrary to maintaining a strong democratic society became part and parcel of the the official GOP movement and its now-flagrant drive towards fascism: particularly the demonization of anything resembling opposition to the radical conservative movement.

According to Ellmers, the conservative brand doesn’t really capture what the new, fascist American right should be about. In his mind “conservatism implies preserving or protecting something already in place,” but he claims that there is next to nothing worth saving.

Echoing Trump, Ellmers writes:

“The US Constitution no longer works. What is actually required now is a recovery, or a refounding, of America as it was long and originally understood but which now exists only in the hearts and minds of a minority of citizens.” (author bold)

Ellmers doesn’t even attempt to conceal the fact that it is a “minority of citizens” who should control  and protect America from “most of America” he claims are “non-Americans or alien Americans.” And it is noteworthy that he did not mean cultural minorities; he meant Americans who support democracy. And if that MAGA minority has to destroy democracy to implement their fascist rule, then so be it. He writes:

“Our norms are now hopelessly corrupt and need to be destroyed. It has been like this for a while—and the MAGA voters knew it.In almost every case, the political practices, institutions, and even rhetoric governing the United States have become hostile to both liberty and virtue.”

This divisive demonization of any American who fails to support the fascism Ellmers is pontificating about is pure Trump, with valuable aid from his fascist supporters in Congress.

They have taken the “them against us” mindset to a dangerous level in claiming “real Americans must recognize the nefarious forces destroying America; the progressive, or woke, or ‘antiracist’ agenda that now corrupts our republic.” 

That is pure fascist rhetoric and while it was always subtle prior to Trump, it is now mainstream.

Prior to sending his seditious insurrectionists to overthrow the legal government on January 6, Trump implied their America’s existence was at stake saying:

“If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

In 2019, Republican Senator Josh Hawley warned real Americans:

“We have come again to one of the great turning points in our national history, when the fate of our republican government is at issue.”

And in 2020, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy stated:

“Democrats want to defund, destroy, and dismantle our country.”

Creating an enemy of the people is a purely fascist machination to garner support for destroying democracy necessary to create a fascist one party rule. Republicans in the states are doing their part by passing voter suppression legislation that has nothing whatsoever to do with election security.  In fact, Georgia’s fascist governor admitted as much on tape saying the Republican legislation disenfranchising democratic voters “has nothing to do with potential fraud, it is dealing with the mechanics of the election.”

He is right, creating an election mechanism that suppresses minority votes is not about fraud; it is ultimately about guaranteeing that one party rule will reach fruition

Many Americans were aware that the rise of Trump was a serious threat to democracy. And they knew that coupled with Republican attempts to suppress votes that did not support Trump’s aspirations to be a fascist dictator represented an existential threat to democracy.

However, until now they most likely never expected any Republican or conservative organization to openly reject democracy leading one to wonder if “most Americans” will comprehend that there really is such an existential threat to the nation’s fragile democracy that Republican fascism is no longer a conspiratorial threat because it is already here.