Governor Brian Kemp signs the much-criticized Election Integrity Act of 2021. Photograph: Governor Brian Kemp’S Twitter Fe/Reuters
The law (SB202) passed in Georgia on March 25, 2021, restricts voting in several different ways. The 96- page bill allows the state legislature to seize the power of county election boards. As a result, the state legislature—usually heavily slanted toward rural areas—can disqualify Democratic voters in more urban areas.
This law also allows any Georgia citizen to challenge the eligibility of an unlimited number of voters. Although citizens could challenge voters' eligibility, they were limited in the number of challenges they could make. Thus, large groups of voters could not be challenged and therefore intimidated. More importantly, if Republicans challenge large groups of voters in a county, and the state legislature seizes the election board, Republicans can systematically disenfranchise Democratic-leaning voters.
Another provision of this bill eliminates signature matching for identification in absentee voting in favor of requiring copies of documents such as bank statement, current utility bills, or other state documentation. Obtaining copies of these documents, if a prospective voter has them, may be a barrier for the elderly or poor.
Taken together, the provisions in this bill slants the Georgia election process toward single party rule. And single party rule is authoritarianism or fascism.
This law also allows any Georgia citizen to challenge the eligibility of an unlimited number of voters. Although citizens could challenge voters' eligibility, they were limited in the number of challenges they could make. Thus, large groups of voters could not be challenged and therefore intimidated. More importantly, if Republicans challenge large groups of voters in a county, and the state legislature seizes the election board, Republicans can systematically disenfranchise Democratic-leaning voters.
Another provision of this bill eliminates signature matching for identification in absentee voting in favor of requiring copies of documents such as bank statement, current utility bills, or other state documentation. Obtaining copies of these documents, if a prospective voter has them, may be a barrier for the elderly or poor.
Taken together, the provisions in this bill slants the Georgia election process toward single party rule. And single party rule is authoritarianism or fascism.
| The actions of the Georgia Republicans update the long story of Republicans working against American democracy. Below is my article from further describing this very worrisome goal. posted earlier this month. |
Republicans Have Rejected Democracy
March 15, 2021
Some Democrats and others refuse to recognize that Republicans signal they intend to sabotage our democracy. Centrist Democrats and others hope each Republican statement or act that undermines our government will be the last before Republicans return to normalcy. But for a variety of reasons, Republicans no longer have the same goals as Democrats. Too many Republicans have become radicalized against our democracy. They have stopped acknowledging the legitimacy of the institutions and procedures that underlie our democracy. And now they refuse to collaborate in governing with Democrats. They even reject the reality that a Democrat won the Presidency. These Republicans believe our democracy robs them of their God-given benefits. They want to return to a democracy that they believe will restore their advantages.
The most extreme Republicans do not believe that they can restore a democracy that benefits them through conventional means. They think they must resort to the extraordinary means of obstruction, obfuscation, and violence. Despite contradictory evidence, centrists continue to believe, "the fever will break." Centrists seem to underestimate the extent to which Republicans have become disaffected from our form of democracy. These centrists seem to think that if they admit extremist Republicans intend to destroy our democracy, it will force them to counter the insurrection equally forcefully. Centrists are not comfortable considering the use of extreme actions, even to break the fever.
The most extreme Republicans do not believe that they can restore a democracy that benefits them through conventional means. They think they must resort to the extraordinary means of obstruction, obfuscation, and violence. Despite contradictory evidence, centrists continue to believe, "the fever will break." Centrists seem to underestimate the extent to which Republicans have become disaffected from our form of democracy. These centrists seem to think that if they admit extremist Republicans intend to destroy our democracy, it will force them to counter the insurrection equally forcefully. Centrists are not comfortable considering the use of extreme actions, even to break the fever.
Republicans Have Rejected Our Democracy
Republicans' denying the legitimacy of our institutions and procedures undermine our democracy. Some extremist Republicans endorse or commit violence against the government, such as the January 6 insurrection. These extremist Republicans include some who are extraordinarily wealthy and believe that they can shape a different type of democracy that would guarantee them relief from their fair share of taxes and regulations that benefit everyone. Other extremist Republicans refuse to accept the U.S.'s development as a multicultural society and want a type of democracy based on white ethnic identity. Still, other extremist Republicans want a different democracy to reverse their perceived social status loss due to globalization, immigration, and economic dislocation. Even though these Republicans reject our form of representative democracy, they see a new constitution as a remedy for it. To achieve the cure they want, they are willing to accept an authoritarian or fascist government.
The ecstasy with which Republicans greeted fascist Donald Trump as candidate, nominee, and then President marks how extreme Republicans had become. When Trump illegally asked a foreign government, Ukraine, to interfere in the U.S. 2020 election, Republicans ignored it. Democrats in the House of Representatives impeached him, but no Republican joined the Democrats in voting to impeach Trump. When the House submitted the impeachment to the Senate for trial, only one Republican joined with the Democrats to convict Trump. The House of Representatives impeached Trump for a second time for inciting an insurrection against the U.S. Once again, Republicans showed the extent of their radicalization against democracy. The majority-Republican Senate failed to convict former President Donald Trump for a second time. Although a bipartisan group of 57 senators voted to convict Trump, 43 Republican senators voted for acquittal on procedural grounds. Later, several Republicans who did not vote to convict him admitted Trump was guilty.
.
The mainstream media have emphasized two explanations for why only seven Republican senators voted for conviction. One reason is that Republican senators fear retaliation from their Trump-supporting constituencies. But retiring Republican officeholders' behavior contradicts this explanation by failing to disagree with or criticize Trump. More recently, some observers suggest that Republican officials fear crossing Trump because of the threat of violence against them or their families from his supporters. There is a third, even more disturbing explanation: some senators may have voted for Trump's acquittal because they support his anti-democratic and white supremacist ideology.
Republicans Are Against Democracy in Three Ways
Republicans' radicalization against democracy includes suppressing nonwhite voting, elevating the use of anti-majoritarian institutions and procedures, and pursuing single-party rule. Voter suppression is a strategy of using laws, administrative rules, intimidation, or disinformation to prevent specific groups of people, such as blacks, students, and Latinos, from voting. Voter suppression is the most Draconian anti-majoritarian practice available to undermine democracy. The most recent wave of voter suppression began in the 2000 election and subsequent Bush v. Gore Supreme Court case that propelled George Bush into the Presidency. In the lead-up to the election, the Republican Governor and Secretary of State of Florida wrongly identified 12,000 eligible voters, mostly Black and Latino, as convicted felons and purged them from the voter rolls. This purge, along with a favorable Supreme Court ruling that stopped a vote recount, allowed Bush to "win" by 537 votes. This purge's success marked the beginning of a recent wave of voter suppression activities by Republicans that included other purges and disinformation.
Republicans use anti-majoritarian rules and practices to establish policies that benefit minority Americans without persuading most Americans to pay for those policies. For example, the Supreme Court is anti-majoritarian. The nine justices exercise a tremendous amount of power; they can abolish any law or part of a law Congress and the President pass. Also, Republican Presidents who did not receive most of the popular vote appointed five of nine of the current Supreme Court justices (i.e., Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito Jr. by George Bush; Justice Neil Gorsuch, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and Justice Amy Coney Barrett). Republicans have turned the Supreme Court into a tool for anti-majoritarian rule. Republican Presidents appointed justices who shared a similar background and were vetted by a handful of extremist Republican organizations that agreed with one legal perspective. And majority-Republican Senate confirmed them for a lifetime on the Supreme Court. The nine justices who sit on the court are neither representative of the U.S. population nor open to liberal interpretations of the U.S. Constitution.
There are other examples of Republicans turning neutral rules into anti-majoritarian practices because their policies are not popular. For example, southern senators initially recognized the Senate filibuster to ensure that Congress could pass no anti-slavery legislation. As heinous as slavery was, the Senate kept the filibuster after the Civil War, and Lincoln ended slavery. Southern Senators, however, re-purposed the filibuster to stop any legislation to end the discriminatory laws and customs that became prevalent in the south after the Civil War. Until the early 1970s, southern senators used the filibuster primarily to prevent the passage of civil rights legislation. Between 1970 and 2000, there was an average of about 17 filibusters per year. From 2000 to 2018, there was an average of about 53 filibusters per year. This increase in the filibuster's use, in part, reflects Republicans' adaptation of a neutral or neglected procedure into an anti-majoritarian practice. The filibuster allowed Republicans to prevent the majority from advancing legislation they did not support, even when Republicans were in the minority.
With single-party rule, all governing functions are carried out by the ruling party, usually in the name of national unity. Because single-party rule constrains majoritarianism, it is anti-democratic. Republicans in southern states, like their forefathers from the beginning of the nation, have sought single-party rule. Southerners chose the Democratic-Republicans as their party when this country was founded and rejected the Federalist Party. Except for transition periods, when support for one party was waning as another party was gaining favor, the south effectively adopted a one-party rule. Of course, southerners favored the one-party most accommodating slavery, Jim Crow, or the most recent form of Black oppression. Now Republicans do not view the election of any Democrat as legitimate. Republicans view nonwhite voters as illegitimate, and thus, because Democrats garner more nonwhite voters than Republicans, the election of Democrats is considered illegitimate as Republicans try to establish one-party rule. In effect, Republicans have ignored the Civil War and seem to want the old-fashioned type of democracy that predated the Civil War.
People Do Not Accept Republican Anti-democratic Attitudes
After considering Republicans' voter suppression, anti-majoritarian rules and practices, and single-party rule inclinations, it should be no surprise that Republicans have anti-democratic attitudes. Too many people still do not accept the extent to which some Republicans are working against our representative democracy. When Democrats hold the Presidency, the House, or the Senate, Republicans have used non-cooperation with Democrats as a tactic to undermine Democratic leadership. On the night Barack Obama was inaugurated as President, top Republican lawmakers met to pledge their refusal to cooperate with the new administration. Republicans' purpose in withholding support was to make the Democratic administration fail. Thus, when the Obama Administration proposed a stimulus package to offset a significant recession (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009), the bill passed with only three Republican senators. All 177 Republicans in the House voted against it.
Similarly, the Affordable Care Act of 2011, a bill to provide Americans' health insurance, passed without a single Republican vote. In August 2011, Standard and Poor reduced the U.S. credit rating because Republicans refused President Obama's calls to reduce the deficit. The credit rating firm cited the U.S. government's instability and ineffectiveness because of Republican stubbornness. Although there were bi-partisan bills, they were relatively unimportant. An exception was criminal justice reform. Democrats find it difficult to sign on to Republican bills because they tend to be so extreme, and Republicans are unwilling to make meaningful compromises.
Moreover, Republicans often use procedural barriers to prevent Democrats from amending Republican bills. An example was the Republican Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 that had such Draconian tax cuts no Democrats voted for it. Some Democrats, for example, expressed support for tax cuts, but not to the extent that Republicans insisted on.
Republicans Are Willing to Use Violence Against Our Democracy
The extent to which Republicans have gone to wreck our democratic government pales compared to the violence they committed on January 6. Trump preceded his right-wing extremists' January 6 violent attempt to overturn the presidential election by spouting baseless allegations of election fraud. Not only did 60 courts reject Trump's claims that the election was rigged, but Trump's lawyers muted claims of fraud when presenting their cases to avoid being sanctioned for making unsupported charges. Republican lawmakers and Trump's "true believers" echoed these false charges, spreading disinformation claiming the 2020 election was rigged. Some mainstream media (MSM) contended that the purpose of this massive disinformation dump was for Trump to save face if he lost the election. These lies were part of a larger scheme.
The larger plan was for Republican legislatures in crucial states to withhold the results' certification if Biden won. The Republican legislatures could then certify electors who supported Trump. In effect, these Republican lawmakers wanted to disregard voters, primarily nonwhite, and select the President. The resolution of the disputed results would have to be settled in the U.S. House of Representatives. Although most Representatives were Democrats, the vote to resolve the dispute would be by state delegation, where the Republicans held the edge. The key to triggering this scheme was the expectation that they could discredit state results due to narrow margins of victory for Biden or chaos at the polls. But the plan failed in state legislatures because the margin was too large and the elections were orderly. Trump turned to his backup plan.
As the state legislature scheme failed, Trump turned to his backup plan. Trump called for right-wing extremists, white supremacists, and QAnon conspiracy theorists to descend on the Capitol in Washington, D.C. These Trump loyalists and Republican lawmakers intended to stop Biden's Congressional confirmation. When the Republican lawmakers and vice-president Pence could not prevent Biden from being confirmed, the right-wing extremists swung into action. They assaulted the Capitol and the lawmakers inside of it. As more information about the Capitol attack planning is revealed, it is becoming more apparent that the assault was carefully coordinated between several right-wing and white supremacist groups.
Even after all these actions, centrists, Democrats, and others do not accept the extent to which extremist Republicans reject our democratic government. Their reluctance to understand that Republicans are undermining our democracy may be because of ambivalence about what they do need to counter insurrection. The most important way to counter Republican requires forceful and unconventional responses. For example, some moderate Senators are reluctant to change the Senate filibuster rules because they believe in tradition. But many state legislatures are enacting voter suppression laws that will prevent voting by Democrats. To avoid voter suppression at the state level, the Senate must change its filibuster rules. If we are to keep our democracy, the Senate must take forceful action.
What We Can Expect
The latest campaign against democracy has been going on since the 1970s. Of course, the fight for an American democracy goes back to the founding of this country. And while the Civil War was a significant milestone in that fight, there have been setbacks. The Civil War did not dissuade white supremacists, although their enthusiasm ebbed and flowed. White supremacists continued to yearn for the counterfeit democracy that had predated it. Trump contributed a toxic and violent strain of white supremacist extremism to the Republican Party. But the anti-democratic poison in the Republican Party has been growing for a long time.
The political environment that the Republican party will produce is likely to become even more toxic for two reasons. First, studies show that among the Republican rank-and-file, anti-democratic attitudes are widespread and closely related to antagonism toward nonwhites. Second, among some extremist Republicans, the view is growing that U.S. democracy fails because politicians either do not want to or cannot improve their constituents' lives. The extreme right-wing is likely to continue to see violence as the only alternative to current conditions. White supremacist groups have attempted to recruit disillusioned Q-anon and other conspiracy theorists. Above all, Republican politicians will continue to exploit these attitudes with disinformation. The result of these growing anti-democratic attitudes coupled with the effort of Republican politicians and white supremacists will almost certainly lead to more violence.
Republicans' denying the legitimacy of our institutions and procedures undermine our democracy. Some extremist Republicans endorse or commit violence against the government, such as the January 6 insurrection. These extremist Republicans include some who are extraordinarily wealthy and believe that they can shape a different type of democracy that would guarantee them relief from their fair share of taxes and regulations that benefit everyone. Other extremist Republicans refuse to accept the U.S.'s development as a multicultural society and want a type of democracy based on white ethnic identity. Still, other extremist Republicans want a different democracy to reverse their perceived social status loss due to globalization, immigration, and economic dislocation. Even though these Republicans reject our form of representative democracy, they see a new constitution as a remedy for it. To achieve the cure they want, they are willing to accept an authoritarian or fascist government.
The ecstasy with which Republicans greeted fascist Donald Trump as candidate, nominee, and then President marks how extreme Republicans had become. When Trump illegally asked a foreign government, Ukraine, to interfere in the U.S. 2020 election, Republicans ignored it. Democrats in the House of Representatives impeached him, but no Republican joined the Democrats in voting to impeach Trump. When the House submitted the impeachment to the Senate for trial, only one Republican joined with the Democrats to convict Trump. The House of Representatives impeached Trump for a second time for inciting an insurrection against the U.S. Once again, Republicans showed the extent of their radicalization against democracy. The majority-Republican Senate failed to convict former President Donald Trump for a second time. Although a bipartisan group of 57 senators voted to convict Trump, 43 Republican senators voted for acquittal on procedural grounds. Later, several Republicans who did not vote to convict him admitted Trump was guilty.
.
The mainstream media have emphasized two explanations for why only seven Republican senators voted for conviction. One reason is that Republican senators fear retaliation from their Trump-supporting constituencies. But retiring Republican officeholders' behavior contradicts this explanation by failing to disagree with or criticize Trump. More recently, some observers suggest that Republican officials fear crossing Trump because of the threat of violence against them or their families from his supporters. There is a third, even more disturbing explanation: some senators may have voted for Trump's acquittal because they support his anti-democratic and white supremacist ideology.
Republicans Are Against Democracy in Three Ways
Republicans' radicalization against democracy includes suppressing nonwhite voting, elevating the use of anti-majoritarian institutions and procedures, and pursuing single-party rule. Voter suppression is a strategy of using laws, administrative rules, intimidation, or disinformation to prevent specific groups of people, such as blacks, students, and Latinos, from voting. Voter suppression is the most Draconian anti-majoritarian practice available to undermine democracy. The most recent wave of voter suppression began in the 2000 election and subsequent Bush v. Gore Supreme Court case that propelled George Bush into the Presidency. In the lead-up to the election, the Republican Governor and Secretary of State of Florida wrongly identified 12,000 eligible voters, mostly Black and Latino, as convicted felons and purged them from the voter rolls. This purge, along with a favorable Supreme Court ruling that stopped a vote recount, allowed Bush to "win" by 537 votes. This purge's success marked the beginning of a recent wave of voter suppression activities by Republicans that included other purges and disinformation.
Republicans use anti-majoritarian rules and practices to establish policies that benefit minority Americans without persuading most Americans to pay for those policies. For example, the Supreme Court is anti-majoritarian. The nine justices exercise a tremendous amount of power; they can abolish any law or part of a law Congress and the President pass. Also, Republican Presidents who did not receive most of the popular vote appointed five of nine of the current Supreme Court justices (i.e., Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito Jr. by George Bush; Justice Neil Gorsuch, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and Justice Amy Coney Barrett). Republicans have turned the Supreme Court into a tool for anti-majoritarian rule. Republican Presidents appointed justices who shared a similar background and were vetted by a handful of extremist Republican organizations that agreed with one legal perspective. And majority-Republican Senate confirmed them for a lifetime on the Supreme Court. The nine justices who sit on the court are neither representative of the U.S. population nor open to liberal interpretations of the U.S. Constitution.
There are other examples of Republicans turning neutral rules into anti-majoritarian practices because their policies are not popular. For example, southern senators initially recognized the Senate filibuster to ensure that Congress could pass no anti-slavery legislation. As heinous as slavery was, the Senate kept the filibuster after the Civil War, and Lincoln ended slavery. Southern Senators, however, re-purposed the filibuster to stop any legislation to end the discriminatory laws and customs that became prevalent in the south after the Civil War. Until the early 1970s, southern senators used the filibuster primarily to prevent the passage of civil rights legislation. Between 1970 and 2000, there was an average of about 17 filibusters per year. From 2000 to 2018, there was an average of about 53 filibusters per year. This increase in the filibuster's use, in part, reflects Republicans' adaptation of a neutral or neglected procedure into an anti-majoritarian practice. The filibuster allowed Republicans to prevent the majority from advancing legislation they did not support, even when Republicans were in the minority.
With single-party rule, all governing functions are carried out by the ruling party, usually in the name of national unity. Because single-party rule constrains majoritarianism, it is anti-democratic. Republicans in southern states, like their forefathers from the beginning of the nation, have sought single-party rule. Southerners chose the Democratic-Republicans as their party when this country was founded and rejected the Federalist Party. Except for transition periods, when support for one party was waning as another party was gaining favor, the south effectively adopted a one-party rule. Of course, southerners favored the one-party most accommodating slavery, Jim Crow, or the most recent form of Black oppression. Now Republicans do not view the election of any Democrat as legitimate. Republicans view nonwhite voters as illegitimate, and thus, because Democrats garner more nonwhite voters than Republicans, the election of Democrats is considered illegitimate as Republicans try to establish one-party rule. In effect, Republicans have ignored the Civil War and seem to want the old-fashioned type of democracy that predated the Civil War.
People Do Not Accept Republican Anti-democratic Attitudes
After considering Republicans' voter suppression, anti-majoritarian rules and practices, and single-party rule inclinations, it should be no surprise that Republicans have anti-democratic attitudes. Too many people still do not accept the extent to which some Republicans are working against our representative democracy. When Democrats hold the Presidency, the House, or the Senate, Republicans have used non-cooperation with Democrats as a tactic to undermine Democratic leadership. On the night Barack Obama was inaugurated as President, top Republican lawmakers met to pledge their refusal to cooperate with the new administration. Republicans' purpose in withholding support was to make the Democratic administration fail. Thus, when the Obama Administration proposed a stimulus package to offset a significant recession (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009), the bill passed with only three Republican senators. All 177 Republicans in the House voted against it.
Similarly, the Affordable Care Act of 2011, a bill to provide Americans' health insurance, passed without a single Republican vote. In August 2011, Standard and Poor reduced the U.S. credit rating because Republicans refused President Obama's calls to reduce the deficit. The credit rating firm cited the U.S. government's instability and ineffectiveness because of Republican stubbornness. Although there were bi-partisan bills, they were relatively unimportant. An exception was criminal justice reform. Democrats find it difficult to sign on to Republican bills because they tend to be so extreme, and Republicans are unwilling to make meaningful compromises.
Moreover, Republicans often use procedural barriers to prevent Democrats from amending Republican bills. An example was the Republican Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 that had such Draconian tax cuts no Democrats voted for it. Some Democrats, for example, expressed support for tax cuts, but not to the extent that Republicans insisted on.
Republicans Are Willing to Use Violence Against Our Democracy
The extent to which Republicans have gone to wreck our democratic government pales compared to the violence they committed on January 6. Trump preceded his right-wing extremists' January 6 violent attempt to overturn the presidential election by spouting baseless allegations of election fraud. Not only did 60 courts reject Trump's claims that the election was rigged, but Trump's lawyers muted claims of fraud when presenting their cases to avoid being sanctioned for making unsupported charges. Republican lawmakers and Trump's "true believers" echoed these false charges, spreading disinformation claiming the 2020 election was rigged. Some mainstream media (MSM) contended that the purpose of this massive disinformation dump was for Trump to save face if he lost the election. These lies were part of a larger scheme.
The larger plan was for Republican legislatures in crucial states to withhold the results' certification if Biden won. The Republican legislatures could then certify electors who supported Trump. In effect, these Republican lawmakers wanted to disregard voters, primarily nonwhite, and select the President. The resolution of the disputed results would have to be settled in the U.S. House of Representatives. Although most Representatives were Democrats, the vote to resolve the dispute would be by state delegation, where the Republicans held the edge. The key to triggering this scheme was the expectation that they could discredit state results due to narrow margins of victory for Biden or chaos at the polls. But the plan failed in state legislatures because the margin was too large and the elections were orderly. Trump turned to his backup plan.
As the state legislature scheme failed, Trump turned to his backup plan. Trump called for right-wing extremists, white supremacists, and QAnon conspiracy theorists to descend on the Capitol in Washington, D.C. These Trump loyalists and Republican lawmakers intended to stop Biden's Congressional confirmation. When the Republican lawmakers and vice-president Pence could not prevent Biden from being confirmed, the right-wing extremists swung into action. They assaulted the Capitol and the lawmakers inside of it. As more information about the Capitol attack planning is revealed, it is becoming more apparent that the assault was carefully coordinated between several right-wing and white supremacist groups.
Even after all these actions, centrists, Democrats, and others do not accept the extent to which extremist Republicans reject our democratic government. Their reluctance to understand that Republicans are undermining our democracy may be because of ambivalence about what they do need to counter insurrection. The most important way to counter Republican requires forceful and unconventional responses. For example, some moderate Senators are reluctant to change the Senate filibuster rules because they believe in tradition. But many state legislatures are enacting voter suppression laws that will prevent voting by Democrats. To avoid voter suppression at the state level, the Senate must change its filibuster rules. If we are to keep our democracy, the Senate must take forceful action.
What We Can Expect
The latest campaign against democracy has been going on since the 1970s. Of course, the fight for an American democracy goes back to the founding of this country. And while the Civil War was a significant milestone in that fight, there have been setbacks. The Civil War did not dissuade white supremacists, although their enthusiasm ebbed and flowed. White supremacists continued to yearn for the counterfeit democracy that had predated it. Trump contributed a toxic and violent strain of white supremacist extremism to the Republican Party. But the anti-democratic poison in the Republican Party has been growing for a long time.
The political environment that the Republican party will produce is likely to become even more toxic for two reasons. First, studies show that among the Republican rank-and-file, anti-democratic attitudes are widespread and closely related to antagonism toward nonwhites. Second, among some extremist Republicans, the view is growing that U.S. democracy fails because politicians either do not want to or cannot improve their constituents' lives. The extreme right-wing is likely to continue to see violence as the only alternative to current conditions. White supremacist groups have attempted to recruit disillusioned Q-anon and other conspiracy theorists. Above all, Republican politicians will continue to exploit these attitudes with disinformation. The result of these growing anti-democratic attitudes coupled with the effort of Republican politicians and white supremacists will almost certainly lead to more violence.