(New York) There was a time when American politicians, like those in many other countries, never missed an opportunity to have their picture taken with a baby. Today, many of them prefer to strike a pose wielding an assault rifle.
There was also a time when American politicians, like those in many other countries, never missed a chance to vote for the construction of a new road or a new bridge in their constituency. Today, such a vote can earn them death threats.
All of this is taking place within the Republican Party, where “a truly authoritarian political culture” is taking hold and effecting a change that threatens American democracy, according to Ruth Ben-Ghiat, specialist in Italian fascism and autocrats. .
“It is very difficult for people in the United States and also in places like Canada, which have a long democratic history, to imagine that something like this could happen here,” says the history professor at the New York University.
When we talk about authoritarianism, when we talk about coups d’etat, we have the impression of coming from the moon, of saying something weird. And yet, this is our reality, so there is a bridge that we have to mentally cross.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, professor of history at New York University
Ruth Ben-Ghiat speaks at the end of a week when the authoritarian drift of Donald Trump’s party seemed to be accentuating. With two exceptions, Republican elected officials in the House of Representatives refused to criticize or sanction one of their own, Paul Gosar (Arizona), for an animated video in which he is seen beheading Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York) and attack Joe Biden.
PHOTO ELIZABETH FRANTZ, REUTERS ARCHIVES
Paul Gosar, Arizona Representative
On the day and the day before Kyle Rittenhouse’s acquittal, this young white man accused of having killed two people with an AR-15, at least two Republican representatives, Matt Gaetz (Florida) and Madison Cawthorn (North Carolina), have also mentioned the possibility or intention of offering an internship to the one who has become a hero of the Trumpist right.
“When can we use the weapons?” ”
Cawthorn is one of those Republican politicians who likes to show off with assault rifles. These include a growing number of women, including the new Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, Winsome Sears, Representative Lauren Boebert (Colorado) and her colleague from Georgia Marjorie Taylor Greene.
“I’m going to blow up the Democrats’ socialist agenda,” Taylor Greene said in a recent video before opening fire with a massive assault rifle on a Toyota Prius emblazoned with the word “socialism”.
PHOTO ELIZABETH FRANTZ, REUTERS ARCHIVES
Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Representative
(The same representative tweeted the phone numbers of 12 of her 13 fellow Republicans who recently voted in favor of a $ 1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. One of them, Fred Upton[Michigan)revealedtohavebeeninundatedasaresultofdeaththreats)[Michigan)arévéléavoirétéinondéparlasuitedemenacesdemort)
Of course, Democratic candidates have also run ads showing them with guns in the past. In 2010, for example, future West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin targeted the text of a climate bill with a shotgun.
But there’s something else going on with Republicans these days. When they display an assault rifle in public or in a pub, elected officials or candidates of the Grand Old Party are not only defending the right to own it for shooting or hunting. They speak more and more often of the need to use it to defend against an oppressive government.
“What’s the first thing the Taliban did when Joe Biden gave them Afghanistan?” Asks Blake Masters, who is running for a seat in the United States Senate in Arizona, in a recent commercial where he wields a semi-automatic rifle. “They confiscated people’s weapons. This is how it works. ”
These messages are interpreted in a sometimes disturbing way by some conservatives. At a recent rally in Idaho, one of them walked up to the microphone to ask when he might start killing Democrats.
“When can we use the weapons?” », He insisted to the applause of the crowd. “How many elections are they going to fly before we kill these people?” ”
Violence as a moral duty
Ruth Ben-Ghiat believes that the triumph of authoritarian political culture and the abandonment of the rule of law would represent the culmination of “a very broad campaign” led by Fox News, the Republican Party and their allies “to change the way people see violence, ”including the assault on Capitol Hill, which she sees as an attempted coup.
“In order to have an authoritarian state in XXI Americae century, you have to have people ready to come on board for events like January 6, ”says the author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, a book published last year.
You have to convince them that violence, far from being a negative thing, is in fact a moral duty, a patriotic gesture.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, professor of history at New York University
According to the historian, it is in this context that we must understand the refusal of the Republican leaders to condemn Paul Gosar.
“By installing this political culture, we not only change ideas about politics, we also change ideas about behavior,” she says. It’s progressive. It’s scalable. January 6 broke a lot of taboos. The Capitol was attacked. Lawmakers went into hiding. It was really a shocking event. So showing someone being killed in a video is just one more step. ”
Paul Gosar, Madison Cawthorn, Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert could be ignored as marginal, vulgar or clownish elected officials. But that would be a mistake, according to Ruth Ben-Ghiat.
“What we are seeing, and it has happened at other times in history, from fascism to other times, is that these people who seem marginal come to be the mainstream. In fact, they sit in Congress. They are part of the mainstream. They are legislators. It is therefore not a waste of time to report on them. ”
Especially since they have an excellent chance of being part of the majority of the House after the midterm elections.