Now, Republicans see the Democrats as something way worse than just rivals
Democracy says that people compete for power but under a strict set of mutually agreeable rules where both parties see each other as rivals, not as blood enemies. But it seems that nowadays in America, hyperpolarization is wrecking a basic democratic premise, and too many Americans (no matter which political side they are on) see the members of the opposing party as existential threats.
However, the rise of negative partisanship is visibly asymmetric. While many Democrats see Republicans in a horrible light, the vast majority see them simply as political rivals, not as enemies. But a solid majority of Republicans see Democrats as blood enemies. And when you see the opposing party as an enemy, you act like it. You suddenly have anti-democratic behavior, and you’re not opposing the idea of violence.
Republicans hate compromise
When our political system was designed by the founding fathers, everything was based on compromise. Whether you noticed it or not, in the last couple of years, Republicans strongly opposed compromise, as they preferred politicians who held dearly to their ideological guns rather than give something up to get things done.
In the same way, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that in the past decade, there was unprecedented Republican obstructionism in Congress.
The Republican Party has become a global outlier, and not in a good way
There’s another interesting survey we need to talk about: the Global Party Survey, which is a 2019 poll of 2,000 experts. The poll focused on political parties from all corners of the world, and the respondents were required to rate a political party on two axes: the extent to which they comply with basic democratic principles and their overall commitment to protect the rights of all ethnic minorities in their country.
The results were interesting: it seems that the GOP is an extreme outlier in comparison to other mainstream conservative parties in foreign countries like Canada or Germany. And the closest to our GOP are radical right and anti-democratic parties in other corners of the world, such as Turkey’s AKP and Poland’s PiS. We can safely say that the Republican Party is clearly one of the most anti-democratic political parties that exist nowadays.
If you feel that you’ve found many interesting insights in this article, then we also want to recommend this one: 4 Ways America Might Be Destroyed by 2050
