Republikanerna och hotet mot den amerikanska demokratin

Abstract

The Republicans and the Threat to American Democracy

The Republican Party is the most successful conservative party in the Western world. Eight of the thirteen presidential elections between 1952 and 2000 were won by Republicans. Even after the turbulent years of Donald Trump, they still control a majority of the state houses and have a clear majority (6–3) on the U.S. Supreme Court. In recent times, however, the party has gone through dramatic changes, both in terms of ideology and political orientation. The arrival of ”Trumpism” has transformed it into a nativist party fearful of foreigners, distrustful of reason and science, scornful of its adversaries and beholden to the whims and wishes of one man. Worse, it has lost faith in democracy and most of its elected officials and supporters have accepted, or at least tolerated, Trump’s ”Big Lie” that the 2020 election was stolen. They are also busy rewriting the history of January 6, 2021, transforming it from a dangerous attack on the democratic process into a laudable patriotic event. The article concludes that the events leading up to the storming of the Capitol Building were a deliberate coup attempt aimed at overturning a fair and legitimate election.