The Growing Authoritarianism Of Some Of Today's Republicans

What seems to be counterintuitive to those who listen to Republicans while they denounce centralized power and a strong Federal government is the notion that Republicans tend to favor authoritarianism. Why is that the case? It has to do with their conservatism and its defense of tradition. An unbridled approach to defending traditions leads to authoritarian personality types (click here for a description). And noting the 'blind allegiance to convention,' the showing of hostility and aggression to those challenge tradition, and the belief in very 'strong leadership' exhibited by those who suffer from such a personality type, it seems natural that such people would embrace authoritarianism (click here for signs of authoritarianism) to either maintain a favored status quo or call for a new preferred one. But we should also note that political conservatives have no monopoly on either people with authoritarian personality types or authoritarianism.

There are at least three examples of current Republican leaders who show that a penchant for authoritarianism is growing among today's Republicans. Here we could note how jokes made about Devin Nunes, a Republican Representative from California, and some of his colleagues from The Late Show's host, Stephen Colbert has prompted Nunes to call those jokes a 'danger' to our nation (click here for source). In his statement, Nunes feels that the "left" has been criticizing those, presumably his fellow Republicans, 'who are trying to get to the truth.' Calling Colbert's jokes a danger and demonizing the left provides the motivation and personal justification for calls for more power for people like Nunes and his Republican colleagues.

Georgia's Lieutenant Governor, Casey Cagle, has threatened to punish Delta Airlines after the airlines withdrew a special discount for NRA members. Cagle threatened to oppose a fuel tax break for the airlines that has been in the pipeline for  a while. Other Republican lawmakers followed Cagle's lead and at least the dispute between those lawmakers and Delta has been criticized by the Governor of Georgia (click here and there). Here we should note that despite Cagle's words and actions, the job of government is not to threaten political retribution for political stands taken by private citizens or businesses; it is the responsibility of government to protect the right of individuals or businesses to take political stands.

Finally, we come to Donald Trump. Not only do we have his past admiration and friendliness for authoritarian leaders like Putin, Erodogan, and Duterte, he recently stated fondly that some day the US could follow China's lead in allowing its leader to become President for life. Of course, other signs of authoritarianism demonstrated by President Trump can be found by checking his words and actions with traits from previously linked article on authoritarianism. Some of those traits as literally described in the article include:

• efforts to intimidate the media
• using state power to reward corporate backers
• fearmongering
• demonizing the opposition

Also consider the actions of the Florida State House following the latest mass shooting that took place in a public high school. After tabling a motion to discuss gun control, instead the House passed a resolution declaring that 'porn was dangerous' (click here for the source). At this point, we should remember the last listed sign of the authoritarian personality type: 'A preoccupation with violence and sex.'