Autocrats and Democrats

The cynical response to Biden’s speech on democracy.

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Joe Biden during his speech Wednesday night. (Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu Agency /Getty Images.)

What’s a president to do when his party faces an imminent electoral wipeout driven by high inflation, high crime, and the near-certainty of a recession?

Clearly, he should deliver a primetime address to the nation that … doesn’t touch on any of that.

This week Joe Biden gave his second speech in two months on the subject of democracy, a topic unlikely to move any vote that wasn’t already firmly committed to the Democratic Party. With the polls turning dark down the stretch, Biden’s decision to revisit an argument that didn’t help his candidates the first time he made it seemed baffling, almost a non sequitur.

And not just to conservatives. Ahead of the speech a well-known progressive operative all but rolled his eyes at the news that Biden would be yammering about democracy again on television.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    Have to say, Nick, you’re sounding more and more like the Bulwark. Are the Republicans all fascists, or Caesarists, or populists, or post-liberals, or authoritarians, or autocratic populists, or what? These words aren’t synonyms. I think you should talk to Jonah about fascism and “Politics and the English Language” and the meanings of words.

    “ Never forget: Republicans, especially moderate Republicans, bear ultimate responsibility for letting post-liberal candidates in their party come to power, not Democrats.”

    Name a single post-liberal candidate. An actual post-liberal. None of the candidates for office even know what that word means.

    “ As cynical and repulsive as their strategy was, it recognized that the choice in most GOP primaries isn’t between Joe Q. Insurrectionist and a Peter Meijer or Liz Cheney.”

    Except when it actually is. Especially when one of the candidates the Democrats funded was running against (checks notes)… Peter Meijer.

    Also, if Paul Pelosi was attacked by an actual “apolitical nut,” I fail to see how that isn’t relevant. Seriously, how does pointing that out make someone no better than a MAGA-type claiming it was a gay tryst?

    If you’re going to punch right, that’s fine. Just get your words right and the facts correct.

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  2. Avatar photo
    Christophertingey

    Dread Pirate Roberts:[Roberts takes both goblets and turns away from Vizzini so he can not see to which cup he adds the poison] All right. Where is the poison? The battle of wits has begun. It ends when you decide and we both drink, and find out who is right...and who is dead.

    Vizzini: But it's so simple. All I have to do is divine from what I know of you: are you the sort of man who would put the poison into his own goblet or his enemy's? Now, a clever man would put the poison into his own goblet, because he would know that only a great fool would reach for what he was given. I am not a great fool, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you. But you must have known I was not a great fool, you would have counted on it, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me.

    Dread Pirate Roberts: You've made your decision then?

    Vizzini: Not remotely. Because iocane comes from Australia, as everyone knows, and Australia is entirely peopled with criminals, and criminals are used to having people not trust them, as you are not trusted by me, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you.

    Dread Pirate Roberts: Truly, you have a dizzying intellect.

    Vizzini: WAIT TILL I GET GOING! Where was I?

    Dread Pirate Roberts: Australia.

    Vizzini: Yes, Australia. And you must have suspected I would have known the powder's origin, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me.

    Dread Pirate Roberts: You're just stalling now.

    Vizzini: You'd like to think that, wouldn't you? You've beaten my giant, which means you're exceptionally strong, so you could've put the poison in your own goblet, trusting on your strength to save you, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you. But, you've also bested my Spaniard, which means you must have studied, and in studying you must have learned that man is mortal, so you would have put the poison as far from yourself as possible, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me.

    Dread Pirate Roberts: You're trying to trick me into giving away something. It won't work.

    Vizzini: IT HAS WORKED! You've given everything away! I KNOW WHERE THE POISON IS!

    Dread Pirate Roberts: Then make your choice.

    Vizzini: I will, and I choose... What in the world can that be? [Vizzini gestures up and away from the table. Roberts turns to look, and Vizzini switches the position of the goblets]

    Dread Pirate Roberts: What? Where? I don't see anything.

    Vizzini: Well, I, I could have sworn I saw something. No matter. [Vizzini smirks]

    Dread Pirate Roberts: What's so funny?

    Vizzini: I'll tell you in a minute. First, let's drink. Me from my glass, and you from yours.

    Dread Pirate Roberts: You guessed wrong.

    Vizzini: You only think I guessed wrong! That's what's so funny! I switched glasses when your back was turned! Ha ha! You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well-known is this: never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!! Ha ha ha... [Vizzini stops suddenly, and drops dead to the right]

    Buttercup: Who are you?

    Dread Pirate Roberts: I'm no one to be trifled with. That is all you ever need know.

    Buttercup: And to think, all that time it was your cup that was poisoned.

    Dread Pirate Roberts: They were both poisoned. I spent the last few years building up an immunity to iocane powder.

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  3. Tom Doniphon

    There's nothing mysterious about the Democrats' motives in funding the crazier elements among the GOP. They'd rather face crazies than actual conservatives on the ballot, because they know that what they have to sell is so unpopular that they have no alternative except to panic people into voting for them.

    I mean, the Democratic Party really IS peddling the idea that some women have testicles, that kids must be allowed to choose their gender and parents should be compelled to go along with it, that there is no individual right to bear arms, court packing, a federal takeover of elections...of course they don't want to have to run on that stuff. They want to be able to run on "your alternatives are voting for us or be put into concentration camps by the GOP."

    And of course the worst elements of the GOP are doing the same thing; peddling the idea that we're better off with the government using tariffs to suppress individual purchasing choices and suppress international trade, retreat from involvement with the rest of the world, backing down from foreign tyrants, election denialism...but they'd much rather run on "look, either you vote us into office or you get put into a gulag by the Democrats."

    Because both groups are empty. Both groups have nothing to offer. Both are corrupt. Both are demagogues dependent upon inducing bile, strife, and spite in voters to get them to vote for them. They either want you to be angry enough to be stupid, or panicked enough to be blind.

    My rules on who to vote for are fairly simple:

    1. I don't vote for Democrats to avoid strengthening the Democratic Party.
    2. I don't vote for anyone in either party supporting abortion (compromise is fine) gun control, weakening our support for Ukraine or Taiwan, backing down from tyrants like Putin or Xi, or election denialism.

    All of those are deal-breakers. The first rule is only about 99% firm - it's technically possible I could find a sufficiently conservative Democrat that I could vote for him against a truly awful Republican, but it's extremely unlikely. The second rule is ironclad; all those things are deal breakers.

    So...yes, I know full well why the Democrats have chosen the path they've chosen. They aren't offering anything to normies because they view crazy GOP candidates as an opportunity to gain room to pander to their left wing; the normies they don't intend to offer anything to, because they intend to try to panic them into voting Democrat. "We aren't Republicans; that should be enough for you to give us your vote."

    And the GOP is taking the opposite approach, pandering to the Trump-besotted radicals, because they view Democratic madness about transgenderism and inflation as an opportunity to gain room to pander to the nuts; the normies they don't intend to offer anything to, because they intend to try to panic them into voting Republican. "We aren't Democrats; that should be enough for you to give us your vote."

    It's "binary choice", "Flight 93 election" BS from both parties, all the way down. Those who refrain seem to be a minority.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Ed P

      Look its a Russian troll or useful idiot.

      Either way he forges his own chains.

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        Ben Connelly

        So anyone who posts a comment you don’t like is a Russian troll, Ed?

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        1. Avatar photo
          Ed P

          No. This one is tho.

          Not my first rodeo. These comments here are designed to incite

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          1. Avatar photo
            Ben Connelly

            Somehow I doubt the Russians are worried about the comments sections on sites like The Dispatch.

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  4. Avatar photo
    Christopher Hall

    Great article, Nick.

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    Jon.T.Holmlund

    I think this post is substantially correct. We must not accept illiberalism in the name of a different, admittedly better, short-term energy policy. That's the equivalent of soul-selling. But the illiberalism on both left and right, combined with the hyperpartisanship and the dominance of what I call the "electoral-industrial complex"--the machine that has to have Herschel Walker or John Fetterman so it can control a seat and a vote and related political jobs--makes me think that, though I'm 65, I will live to see the end of the American constitutional order. That's not just Jan 6, it's "illegitimacy" of the Supreme Court because of Dobbs or the regulatory decisions, it's the irrelevance of the Congress as a policy-driving body (waiting for all those investigations, and the useless impeachment of Biden!), it's the inability to face the long term fact that China is about to squeeze us like a python, and it's the inability to face facts about the debt and deficit finally coming home to roost. On the latter, with the failure of MMT, we're out of flailing to try,. (Indeed, Milton and the 70's let us predict the failure of MMT.)

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    1. Tom Doniphon

      Why is it a "long term fact that China is about to squeeze us like a python"? The Chinese economy has strong problems.

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  6. Harrison.Smith

    Was hiring Nick the Dispatch's admission that it is a liberal and not a "centrist" publication?

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    1. Avatar photo
      Christopher Hall

      I think hiring Nick cemented their position as a pro-constitution publication.

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    2. Avatar photo
      J.R.

      Is there something specific you object to, or do you just not enjoy someone pointing out the self-admitted and celebrated authoritarian bent of some of the current GOP slate? Or perhaps you'd prefer your publications to silo themselves and spend their ink swaddling you in analysis that reinforces whatever you already believe?

      The day TD and the remaining responsible conservative outlets start embracing illiberalism and MAGA candidates is the day the party of Reagan is truly dead.

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    This comment has been deleted

  8. Avatar photo
    Z.Don.Frier

    I don't think Mr. Catoggio is truly appreciating the information environment that many of those individuals who self-identify as Republican find themselves. It's not just the worries of Fox News distorting people's opinions, it's the world of Lindell TV and Breitbart. They exist in an echo chamber, enhanced by the internet, which makes them think that their candidates are fighting a righteous battle. I see it. I'm a Republican and PCP. I talk with my fellow Republicans and ask them where they get their news from.

    Where do you get your news from? When your barber or a person at the grocery store makes mention of a plot to silence people about voter fraud, do you discount it out of hand? Maybe you do - but a lot of people don't. They ask friends, and if you're in a red district than those ideas get reinforced. If you're in a blue district, than a different narrative gets reinforced.

    Brow-beating people about the fact that their given party is nominating election deniers and authoritarians isn't helping anyone. It's those counties and their Republican parties that are doing the electing, and they live in a bubble informed by the worst kind of people. What we need is _more_ people involved in the process, not more people discouraged from engaging. Articles like this promote the latter, not the former.

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  9. Avatar photo
    Ed P

    “What’s a president to do when his party faces an imminent electoral wipeout driven by high inflation, high crime, and the near-certainty of a recession?“

    This suggestion is a fundamental misunderstanding. Similar to Biden not framing this properly in his speech.

    All of those outcomes are being pushed by Russia, having messed with our political campaigns thoroughly and at least partially co-opting the Republicans in the process. They push on all those buttons to exact the change Russian leadership would like because they feel fundamentally threatened by liberalism and the exportation of more leftwing western values incompatible with their authoritarian rule.

    Even the crime, crazily, is being pushed by our divisions and mass mental illness of our society under constant, covert psychological, information and political warfare, that unfortunately Republicans are interested in, and seem to partner with Russia more and more thoroughly.

    Biden needs to make this case explicitly to the American people. Not one that seems so partisan. He must call on the left flanks of the Democratic Party to moderate in unison with appeals to Republicans.


    Moderate to unify against a common enemy is the proper framing. As elected Republicans merge their cynical lies with the post Soviet state, they aid Russia’s ideological warfare, no matter how conscious of this that they are. It is damaging and radicalizes both parties.

    We cannot let them divide us against ourselves. Meet in the middle

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    1. Tom Doniphon

      No, crime is not being "pushed by our divisions and mass mental illness of our society under constant, covert psychological, information and political warfare, that unfortunately Republicans are interested in, and seem to partner with Russia more and more thoroughly."

      It's being pushed for the same reasons it always has; the problem is that too many are actively working to stop laws being enforced.

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      1. Avatar photo
        Ed P

        Here In philadelphia, I saw first hand the horrid psychological effects of this manipulation on my little brother from the Big Brother Big Sister Program.
        Great kid, with a wonderful Mom but broken family otherwise. At least his Mom cared enough to get him all the help she could, God bless her.

        And he was thriving despite his estranged Dad,
        Up til Covid. He was home alone with an ipad, and hard for us to visit much. But he became radicalized on insane conspiracy theories, it was like a crazy black maga alternative universe of lies about the government and everything else. His very legitimate grievances were being played by trolls on line. He’s a gentle soul, but others who got those same messages I’m sure were not.

        You fucking monsters

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      2. Avatar photo
        Ed P

        Sure thing lol. Like you are not trying to push my buttons.

        I’m sorry i don’t like taking it up the pooper for dictators, Tom. Hard to believe you do to. Yet you still keep typing .

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        1. Tom Doniphon

          What in the world are you talking about? Oh right; I have to support Democrats or dictators. "It's a binary choice."

          Same BS the Trumpkins are peddling. "But it's right when we do it!"

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            Ed P

            You know exactly what I’m talking about you monster.

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  10. Paulkempf

    Among his many sins, Trump gave Republicans permission to talk and act the way Democrats do ("He fights"). And so, they're forsaking their role of counterbalancing the Dems by thinking in terms larger and longer than buying off enough voters to prevail the next election cycle (not that that's not important). The post-Trump party ought to replace the elephant with the honey badger. (ICYMI):
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg&list=PLUTi51nEH-q0s1J9WxPbI1IC9WD0n1BBz

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    1. Avatar photo
      Ed P

      When do Democrats invent cynical lies to exact power grabs?

      That is the core sorting ethos of todays Republican party, having isolated not the ones insufficiently conservative, but the ones too conservative, like Liz Cheney. Mind you conservatism is not a team sport but rather a fundamental impulse to protect existing order and power structures.

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      1. Paulkempf

        I disagree that Republicans are excluded for being too conservative. It's true that Liz Cheney's record as a conservative is impeccable, and forms her basis for her principled opposition to Trump and his Stop the Steal lies. Sadly, political record or philosophy no longer seem to matter. The dominant faction is purely a personality cult, as indifferent to ideology as its leader is. Trump doesn't care about anything but fealty. Kiss the ring, that's all that matters.

        As to Democrats, I suspect we disagree, and to hash over incidents would be tedious. That Harry Reid boasted that his lie about Mitt Romney not paying taxes cost him the election (unlikely as that may be) is, however, suggestive of a certain ethical environment in which a lie is fair play. Not unlike the one created by the 45th president, who boasts that he cheats at golf. Anyway, in case the details have become fuzzy, here's a link to an account of the Harry Reid story:

        https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/harry-reid-is-proud-he-lied-about-mitt-romneys-taxes

        (Yes, it's from the Examiner. In Googling this, I saw that the Washington Post ran the same story. I would've preferred to used that--it would've been more credible coming from a Democratic organ--but unfortunately it's behind a paywall, and this one isn't.)

        Typically, when Dems tell cynical lies, they become part of the narrative ("Bush lied, people died"). Their cynical lies become part of the public debate. Which ultimately hurts them; it's corrupting. They'd have better ideas if they were challenged more. Republicans heretofore have been more fortunate: when they lie, they get fact checked, which, pre-Trump, provided a measure of healthy discipline. Whether that will continue to hold true in today's siloed media environment is in question, since we no longer have common sources of information.

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          Ed P

          And the harry reid story is a cynical lie for sure.

          But it is one thing to tell lies to win elections - a bit of a sin but one still fundamentally within our constitutional system. Thats called being a typical politician in liberal governance

          It is entirely another when your lies justify an extraconstitutional power grab. Again, there’s a name for that - far right cult of personality with authoritarian tendencies. Thats the basis of the dangers of fascism. Its the tyranny of the majority taken to literally insane extremes because no one wants to say the emperor is not wearing any clothes. Welp, Mr Trump is naked. And while his personal personality cult is fading, the Republican party ethos is totally remade in Trump’s image. And the proof is Liz Cheney getting isolated.

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          1. Paulkempf

            To believe that the Republican party ethos is totally remade in Trump's image is certainly reasonable, especially when viewed from a distance, and it well may turn out to be the case. I hope that it won't be; to use a phrase that Trump himself favors, we'll have to see.

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          Ed P

          I think we’re saying very close the same thing, talking past one another a little.

          When the Republicans pushed conservatives out for being too conservative and they’re the right wing party now deeply deluded in a cult of personality…there is a name for that.

          Further right then conservative, irrational cult of personality, increasingly irrational and aggressive behavior. Effecting power grabs and violence through rhetoric. Where oh where in history have we seen this pattern?!?!? It is staring us in the face.

          It is fascism.

          This is the problem.

          The Dems have unacceptable, extreme and violent factions out of touch with the rest of society, for sure. But the adults are still in control of the party, with the moderate factions winning all the leadership positions. Yes, Democrats have not adequately reached across the aisle, but far far far more than Trump and gang have done the past 4 years or really the Republicans have for decades.

          In reaction to the threat of the far right, Democrats have moderated like France did with Macron. Unfortunately, moderate positions are unexciting and uninspiring, and Biden has failed to frame the threat properly to face it properly. But at least directionally, its the right impulses to try to close ranks to moderate and unify in the face of a legit threat of destabilizing polarization.

          The Democratic party has become more conservative than the Republicans.

          The answer to our political woes is to recognize the unacceptable psychological of the Republican party ethos today. It is no longer conservative - it is a cult of personality. And that immunity from the truth, when Trump will say and do anything to advantage himself, including talk up dictators that would help him by dumping kgb spy files on whoever is his campaign opponent - it is just an obviously dangerous situation. We need to register that. Both our sovereignty and freedom are threatened and so many seem so strangely blind to the threat.

          “Bush lied people died” is not a cynical lie. “Mission accomplished” was a cynical lie. The yellow cake and wmd stuff was a lie and people like me were branded “traitor” and “terrorist sympathizer” for daring to question whether the WMD stuff was legitimate in real time. Now we know there was a real intelligence failure driven by politics. There was the whole Valerie Plame affair and associated cover up. “Bush lied people died” is an absolutely genuine belief for people like me - and I didn’t need to hear this metered thru any politician. It was what was obvious to me watching politics closely in real time. Not a cynical lie in the slightest from where I am sitting, rather a very very unfortunate truth that has been very damaging to our nation’s mental health and standing in the world. I’d like to hear why you think it is cynical lie.

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          1. Paulkempf

            Well, at least we agree, more or less, on Trump, who certainly has authoritarian instincts, born in large part of sheer ignorance, shallow thinking, a poverty of imagination, venality, and absence of moral compass. As far as being an actual fascist, I would think a real fascist who was determined to transform America in accordance with his vision would exhibit more personal and ideological discipline. The cocreator of this site, the author of "liberal Fascism," is a student of the subject, unlike me. I have an impression that the association of fascism with the right originated with the Communist Party USA, who used it as an epithet to demonize its rivals ("social fascist") Ah, here's something from Wikipedia (it was the Comintern):

            "...Communists who proposed the theory of social fascism, 'were chiefly concerned with drawing a line of blood between themselves and all others to the "right" of them, including the most "left-wing" of the Social-Democrats.'"

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_fascism

            Given its origin and subsequent history as a polemical trope, I would question whether it's a useful term in the context of American discourse.

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    2. Paulkempf

      prevail in

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