According to Yale history professor Timothy Snyder

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According to Yale history professor Timothy Snyder, Republican leaders' motives are likely deeply cynical. Snyder proposes a concept called "sadopopulism," which refers to politicians who purposefully govern in a way that makes life worse for the bulk their supporters. Snyder presents the strategy in a few easy steps:

Identify an "enemy."
Enact policies that create pain in your own constituents.
Blame the ensuing pain on the "enemies."
Present yourself as the strongman who can fight the enemies.

In a nutshell, you can't have a white grievance party if your constituents aren't grieving. Policy that keeps the rank and file in pain keeps them angry, and perversely that can help you at the ballot box by directing their anger at "made-up enemies" who — so the story goes — are powered by Democrats who are out to ruin (cancel) American culture. The formula creates a brutal political incentive to embrace policies that hurt their own constituents.

Snyder explains that this formula is commonly used by modern-day oligarchs and would-be oligarchs. If you're a would-be oligarch — if you want both wealth and power — you have no incentive to give more real power to the people but every incentive to make it look like you are fighting for them publicly.

To get the masses on board, such leaders have to present themselves as strongmen doing battle with the enemies. As Erickson explained, if they do this right, people will remember that the leaders did battle with those who wanted to stop publishing a few Dr. Seuss books, and they'll forget that those same leaders voted to deny them relief from the economic stress caused by the pandemic.

It's a neat trick worthy of a magician. Meanwhile, data suggest that the Republican Party may be shrinking. Perhaps this is because more and more voters are seeing behind the curtain.

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/covid-s...cna1260549

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