It feels like liberal democracy in America is in an endless downward spiral. The reactionary right responds to the Twitter left with state government repression, which provokes another blast of wokeness, which inspires another round of lib owning, and so on. In the meantime, the federal government can’t get anything done as a result of the many undemocratic features of our system. At the present rate, we could be looking at something like the end of the Weimar Republic in ten years: street battles between young woke people and right-wing militias, calls for major constitutional change, and rule by decree in Washington. Is there a way out of this mess?
Yes–an alliance between liberals and genuine conservatives (mostly big business interests) against the extremists on both sides. You could call it the Macron coalition. It works in France–why not here?
It can’t happen unless the moderate right is willing to ditch its reactionary allies, stop asking for more tax cuts, stand up for liberal democratic norms, and propose plausible market-based solutions for problems such as climate change. So far, that isn’t happening.
As I’ve noted before, the Macron approach isn’t ideal, because it drives everyone who dislikes the government into the camps of the extremists. It can buy time, however, until the old angry white reactionaries leave the scene. That’s what we need more than anything else.