Back to How Democracies Die:
Reducing polarization requires that the Republican Party be reformed, if not refounded outright.
In response to my “good luck with that”:
After 1945, Germany's center-right was refounded on a different basis. The CDU separated itself from extremists and authoritarians—it was founded primarily by conservative figures (such as Konrad Adenauer) with "unassailable" anti-Nazi credentials. The party's founding statements made clear thar it was directly opposed to the prior regime and all it had stood for. CDU leader Andreas Hermes gave a sense of the scale of the rupture, commenting in 1945: "An old world has sunk and we want to build a new one...." The CDU offered a clear vision of a democratic future for Germany: a "Christian" society that rejected dictatorship and embraced freedom and tolerance.
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The rebuilding of German conservatism, of course, followed a major catastrophe. The CDU had no choice but to reinvent itself. The question before Republicans today is whether such reinvention can occur before we plunge into a deeper crisis. Can leaders muster the foresight and political courage to reorient what has become an increasingly dysfunctional political party before further damage is done, or will we need a catastrophe to inspire the change?
You know what I think here. I wish I could think otherwise.
Re: could we reduce polarization by having the Democratic Party drop minorities and favor the White working class, like it did in 1955?
Seeking to diminish minority groups influence in the party-and we cannot emphasize this strongly enough—is the wrong way to reduce polarization.
It would repeat some of our country's most shameful mistakes.
The founding of the American republic left racial domination intact, which eventually led to the Civil War. When Democrats and Republicans finally reconciled in the wake of a failed Re-construction, their conciliation was again based on racial exclusion. The reforms of the 1960s gave Americans a third chance to build a truly multiethnic democracy.
Personally, as a non-White, I am opposed to being treated like a second-class citizen by both parties.
Well, the rest of the chapter, which is the rest, goes on to talk about how the Democrats could also reduce polarization with policies that benefit everyone, like Medicare for all and an high minimum wage. Sure, but how?
Then, there is an exhortation about democracy depending on the citizens. It kind of seems half-hearted after all of their examples in which democracy depended on small groups that had wedged themselves into critical junctions to decide which way things would go.
Still, worth reading if you want detailed historical comparisons to the situation we’re in.