The Democratic Party is Not the Party of Hate
Neither is the Republican party, for what it’s worth
As it happens, I’m reading a book called Inside the Third Reich written by Hitler’s architect Albert Speer about what it looked like inside Hitler’s regime. And, what I think when I read Elon Musk’s tweet is, here we go!
What is happening on the world stage today, is a reorganization of power. Those within spitting distance of being an oligarch, a dictator, or similar are attempting to align themselves with the party that will give them the most power. Despite Musk’s moral objections, his motivations are far more simple — as people’s motivations usually are.
He wants to get his hands on as much power as he possibly can.
Now, everyone within spitting distance of power is going to try to confuse you — they’re going to tell you Democrats are baby killers, and Republicans are mass shooters or whatever — but this is simply an attempt to split the population. As long as the rank and file Democrat and Republicans see each other as the enemy rather than seeing the politicians and the filthy rich their oppressors, the oligarchs will continue to have massive power over the population.
What Musk has seen, is that the Democrats lack the power to get their political will achieved. So, he’s made up an excuse to switch over to the Republican party, because he knows he’ll be rewarded for it with political favor. Everyone thinks the other party is “the party of hate” — but if you say this about anyone, then you are the one spreading hate. You are the one demonizing your enemies, rather than seriously considering their point of view and looking for compromise.
If you study what drove people to tolerate or commit atrocity, it is generally a desire for worldly power and prestige. Elon Musk clearly demonstrates a desire for prestige in spades; he wants to go down in history as the Man who Colonized Mars. He is looking to make legacy. He does not subscribe to the “Star Trek” ideal of space exploration as an expression of the accomplishment of humankind; he wants to take humanities accomplishments for himself the same way he takes credit for inventing things like electric cars (which, are really the accomplishments of all the engineers he employed, not his.)
Ultimately, the deeper solution that we need to begin to develop, is a type of radical equality for all human kind. Even in the simplest of things, we cannot allow bosses to take credit for their underlings work. This is a cultural practice we must stop. We cannot allow those with power and might to claim for themselves the genuine contributions of normal people to humanity’s expansion.
And, most fundamentally, we cannot allow for the concentration of the accomplishments of humanity to be distilled into the ego of one man. This is how Hitler, this is how Putin, this is how Stalin, and this is how Mussolini were made; they witnessed the accomplishments of their entire nation, then took the credit for themselves.
The only saving grace about Elon Musk is that he has not drifted into politics… yet. If he does, I will be very, very afraid — and frankly, I believe the potential for severe atrocity follows, because his ego knows no bounds.
Regardless of if you agree with the Democratic party, it has many legitimate complaints that must be addressed fairly. I actually saw a pro-life Republican outline them fairly well recently (in this piece here.)
The author notes that (and I’m quoting from sections)
Establishing a Supreme Court majority to overturn Roe depended on dishonest violation of many institutional norms and is part of a pattern of minoritarian governance … Adding insult to injury, the conservative nominations that have shaped the current court have come from two presidents — George W. Bush in his first term and Donald J. Trump — who won Electoral College victories while losing the popular vote …
Commitment to President Trump has telegraphed a disdain for democratic norms and lack of concern for women’s dignity …
The pro-life movement’s commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade has enabled the conservative legal movement to pursue a much broader agenda, including attacks on civil rights.
Reasonable Republicans are willing to acknowledge that, while they may still support Republican positions, many of the things that the Republicans have done in recent years violate democratic norms and that it is reasonable that Democrats would be upset about that.
Most especially:
- The continuing election of presidents that lost the popular vote is a straightforward violation of typical democratic norms
- The illegal holding up of government to allow only Republican presidents to assign supreme court justices was a violation of democratic norms
- The illegal gerrymandering that give Republicans an edge in the house was a violation of democratic norms
- The antiquated rules around the senate that give Republicans an advantage to pass unpopular legislation is a violation of democratic norms
To sum it all up: Republicans are able to impose minority will upon the United States, and because of unfair structural power advantages, they do not have to mediate their extreme political opinions. The Democrats do need to mediate their extreme opinions; yes, you may get someone like AOC in a safe district in New York, but the Democratic party as a whole is far more moderate than her.
The Republican party, however, is able to enact the wishes of their most extreme contingents without obstacle and so does not need to compromise. This is the difference. It’s important to note, that Republicans with less structural power would NOT look like Democrats; they would look closer to the center, more like what we see “independents” looking like now. Most Republicans are actually fairly reasonable people, the same way most Democrats are fairly reasonable people.
The way you get reasonable people to behave unreasonably, is you convince them that the other side is evil. Made up of murderers, and PEOPLE FULL OF HATE.
How is it that both sides see the other side as full of hate? This is an important question to be asking.
Anyway; Musk sets up the “gotcha” in his final sentence — “Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold….”
In this way, he hopes to fend off legitimate and honest critique of what he’s doing. Not least of which is, the richest man in the world is attempting to buy one of the biggest social media platforms that exists. This is a power coup; if Twitter really is so important for public discourse it should belong to the people. I’m not sure what Musk’s end goal is here, but he is attempting to control a propaganda apparatus for some kind of purpose. His explicit support of Republicans over Democrats before he’s even purchased it is absolutely cause for concern; and, most especially, the way he’s dismissing legitimate Democratic concerns as “hate-filled” is very worrisome.
Had he said, “The Democrats have many valid concerns, but I will be supporting the Republicans in the next election for X, Y and Z reasons” that would be somewhat less concerning. But, right as the Democrats are poised to lose important civil rights victories due to the decade-long imposition of minority rule from the Republicans, Musk is dismissing them as “The Party of Hate.”
This is very bad, not least of which, dismissing people in this way opens up the avenues for violence against them. It opens up the legitimization of non-democratic suppression because “the Democrat hate needs to be contained.” And, it’s important to remind yourself — as people with abusive partners need to remind themselves — this isn’t really about anything the Democrats have done.
This is about someone seeing the potential for unlimited personal power, and wanting to take it for themselves. Elon Musk needs his power checked in some way; at this point, I’m more afraid of him than any actual politician at the moment.
