Thread by @PaulHRosenberg, Once upon a time, GOP actually *believed* in "law & order": as [...]

Once upon a time, GOP actually *believed* in "law & order": as Nixon's crimes exposed, support dropped. But no longer!
Why? Asymmetric polarization. What's that mean? How did it happen? Funny you should ask: 1/14 https://www.salon.com/2019/11/24/republicans-a-history-how-did-the-party-of-law-and-order-become-the-party-of-crooks-and-crime/

How the party of "law and order" became a criminal scheme

Fundamentalism and authoritarianism pushed the Republicans from low-grade mendacity into a threat to democracy

https://www.salon.com/2019/11/24/republicans-a-history-how-did-the-party-of-law-and-order-become-the-party-of-crooks-and-crime/

First, to show how parties have changed, see @jenmercieca on party's impeachment hearing framing: Dems with "law & order" frame, GOP with "conspiracy" frame: 2/14
https://theconversation.com/law-and-order-or-conspiracy-how-political-parties-frame-the-impeachment-battle-will-help-decide-trumps-fate-126454

Conspiracism can work for Trump/GOP, fending off the accumulation of evidence, due to the asymmetric polarization US has seen since Watergate: 3/14

Polarization is best understood in terms of @Peter_Turchin's structural demographic theory, whose book, "Ages of Discord" https://www.amazon.com/Ages-Discord-Peter-Turchin/dp/0996139540/
I wrote about in October 2016. http://www.salon.com/2016/10/01/breaking-point-america-approaching-a-period-of-disintegration-argues-anthropologist-peter-turchin/
Key points noted here: 4/14

The asymmetry can be understood in terms of @karen_stenner's "The Authoritarian Dynamic".
https://www.amazon.com/Authoritarian-Dynamic-Cambridge-Political-Psychology/dp/052153478X
Authoritarians respond more dramatically to deteriorating conditions described by SDT: 5/14

And, in fact, "The Long Southern Strategy": https://www.amazon.com/Long-Southern-Strategy-American-Politics-ebook/dp/B07RWP3D3V
Salon interview: https://www.salon.com/2019/07/01/the-long-southern-strategy-how-southern-white-women-drove-the-gop-to-donald-trum/
describes how that was directed & accelerated by the GOP here in the US. Co-author @AngieMaxwell1 comments: 6/14

And conservative legal activism has played a significant role in this process as well: 7/14

Originalism is a mythic faith symbol, as @espinsegall has argued: https://amzn.to/2ReS8e3
and its meaning flipped as the GOP gained judicial, but its mythic identity function--key to mobilizing authoritarian support--stayed constant: 8/14

And the key to how THAT worked was the unification of evangelicals with GOP over abortion: 9/14

In a similar vein, @AngieMaxwell1 offers a broader more nuanced view: 10/14

But there's no doubting the key symbolic role *Roe* came to play over time--based partly on the originalists' lie that it just invented a right out of nothing: 11/14

That's the essence of the arc I describe in my story. But there's a lot more, in addition, including this @espinsegall observation re Trump's pardoning of war criminals: 12/14

Which is supported by historical examples, described by @disorderedworld in his book,
“Disordered Minds: How Dangerous Personalities Are Destroying Democracy.”
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H44BMM6/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
He added a supporting comment: 13/14

I conclude by quoting Woodie Guthrie's "Pretty Boy Floyd The Outlaw":
“As through this world I travel
I meet lots of funny men.
Some will rob you with a six gun,
and some with a fountain pen."
Read the whole story here: https://www.salon.com/2019/11/24/republicans-a-history-how-did-the-party-of-law-and-order-become-the-party-of-crooks-and-crime/
14/14

How the party of "law and order" became a criminal scheme

Fundamentalism and authoritarianism pushed the Republicans from low-grade mendacity into a threat to democracy

https://www.salon.com/2019/11/24/republicans-a-history-how-did-the-party-of-law-and-order-become-the-party-of-crooks-and-crime/

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