The Authoritarian Moment

by Ben Shapiro

  2.Paul Krugman, “This Putsch Was Decades in the Making,” NYTimes.com, January 11, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/opinion/republicans-democracy.html.

  3.Greg Sargent, “Trump’s GOP has an ugly authoritarian core. A new poll exposes it,” WashingtonPost.com, January 15, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/15/new-poll-trump-gop-approval-authoritarian/.

  4.Lisa McGirr, “Trump Is the Republican Party’s Past and Its Future,” NYTimes.com, January 13, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/opinion/gop-trump.html.

  5.CNN, January 14, 2021, https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1349672644455575554.

  6.Charles M. Blow, “Trump’s Lackeys Must Also Be Punished,” NYTimes.com, January 10, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/10/opinion/trump-republicans.html.

  7.Joseph Wulfsohn, “MSNBC’s Joy Reid suggests GOP needs a ‘de-Baathification’ to rid support for Trump,” FoxNews.com, January 15, 2021, https://www.foxnews.com/media/msnbcs-joy-reid-suggests-gop-needs-a-de-baathification-to-rid-support-for-trump.

  8.1 Samuel 8:7–20.

  9.James Madison, Federalist No. 10 (November 22, 1787).

  10.John Adams, The Political Writings of John Adams (Washington, DC: Regnery, 2000), 13.

  11.Theodor Adorno, Else Frenkel-Brenswik, Daniel J. Levinson, and R. Nevitt Sanford, The Authoritarian Personality (London: Verso, 2019).

  12.Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996), 13–15.

  13.Ibid., 216.

  14.Ibid., 220–21.

  15.Ronald Bailey, “Tracking Down the Elusive Left-Wing Authoritarian,” Reason.com, March 8, 2018, https://reason.com/2018/03/08/tracking-down-the-elusive-leftwing-autho/.

  16.Thomas H. Costello, Shauna M. Bowes, Sean T. Stevens, Irwin D. Waldman, Arber Tasimi, and Scott O. Lilienfeld, “Clarifying the Structure and Nature of Left-Wing Authoritarianism,” ResearchGate, May 11, 2020, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341306723_Clarifying_the_Structure_and_Nature_of_Left-Wing_Authoritarianism.

  17.Herbert Marcuse, “Repressive Tolerance” (1965), https://www.marcuse.org/herbert/pubs/60spubs/65repressivetolerance.htm.

  18.Theodor Adorno and Herbert Marcuse, Correspondence on the German Student Movement, February 14, 1969, to August 6, 1969, https://hutnyk.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/adornomarcuse_germannewleft.pdf.

  19.https://twitter.com/Mike_Pence/status/1346879811151605762.

  20.Elliott C. McLaughlin, “Violence at Capitol and beyond reignites a debate over America’s long-held defense of extremist speech,” CNN.com, January 19, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/19/us/capitol-riots-speech-hate-extremist-first-amendment/index.html?utm_content=2021-01-19T14%3A35%3A03&utm_source=twCNN&utm_term=link&utm_medium=social.

  21.https://twitter.com/nhannahjones/status/1348382948005982208.

  22.Max Boot, “Trump couldn’t have incited sedition without the help of Fox News,” WashingtonPost.com, January 18, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/18/trump-couldnt-have-incited-sedition-without-help-fox-news/.

  23.Judd Legum and Tesnim Zekeria, “Major corporations say they will stop donating to members of Congress who tried to overturn the election,” Popular.info, January 10, 2021, https://popular.info/p/three-major-corporations-say-they.

  24.Elizabeth A. Harris and Alexandra Alter, “Simon & Schuster Cancels Plans for Senator Hawley’s Book,” NYTimes.com, January 7, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/07/books/simon-schuster-josh-hawley-book.html.

  25.Jazz Shaw, “The Cancel Culture Comes for Elise Stefanik,” HotAir.com, January 13, 2021, https://hotair.com/archives/jazz-shaw/2021/01/13/cancel-culture-comes-elise-stefanik/.

  26.Jordan Davidson, “The Biggest Gun Forum on the Planet Was Just Kicked Off the Internet Without Explanation,” TheFederalist.com, January 12, 2021, https://thefederalist.com/2021/01/12/the-biggest-gun-forum-on-the-planet-was-just-kicked-off-the-internet-without-explanation/.

  27.Brian Fung, “Parler has now been booted by Amazon, Apple and Google,” CNN.com, January 11, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/09/tech/parler-suspended-apple-app-store/index.html.

  28.https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1351140855478947844.

  29.Robby Soave, “No, AOC, It’s Not the Government’s Job to ‘Rein in Our Media,’” Reason.com, January 14, 2021, https://reason.com/2021/01/14/aoc-rein-in-our-media-literacy-trump-capitol-rots/.

  30.https://twitter.com/coribush/status/1346985140912844805.

  31.Senator Ron Wyden, “The Capitol riots prove we need to strengthen our democracy. That begins with voting rights,” NBCNews.com, January 11, 2021, https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/capitol-riots-prove-we-need-strengthen-our-democracy-begins-voting-ncna1253642.

  32.Eric Lutz, “Clyburn compares GOP bowing to Trump to Nazi Germany,” VanityFair.com, March 13, 2020, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/03/clyburn-compares-gop-bowing-to-trump-to-nazi-nazi-germany.

  33.“Representative Clyburn: Biden Should Use Executive Authority if the Other Side Refuses to Cooperate,” Grabien.com, January 18, 2021, https://grabien.com/story.php?id=321515.

  34.Emily Ekins, “Poll: 62% of Americans Say They Have Political Views They’re Afraid to Share,” CATO.org, July 22, 2020, https://www.cato.org/publications/survey-reports/poll-62-americans-say-they-have-political-views-theyre-afraid-share.

  35.https://twitter.com/MarkDuplass/status/1019946917176881152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1019946917176881152%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fpolicy-and-politics%2F2018%2F7%2F19%2F17593174%2Fmark-duplass-ben-shapiro-apology.

  36.Zack Beauchamp, “Actor Mark Duplass apologizes for praising conservative pundit Ben Shapiro,” Vox.com, July 19, 2018, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/7/19/17593174/mark-duplass-ben-shapiro-apology.

  37.Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 244–45, trans. Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba Winthrop.

  38.Jim VandeHei, “Our new reality: Three Americas,” Axios.com, January 10, 2021, https://www.axios.com/capitol-siege-misinformation-trump-d9c9738b-0852-408d-a24f-81c95938b41b.html?stream=top.

  CHAPTER 1: HOW TO SILENCE A MAJORITY

  1.Eric Kaufman, “Who are the real Shy Trumpers?,” Unherd.com, November 6, 2020, https://unherd.com/2020/11/meet-the-shy-trumpers/.

  2.Thomas Piketty, “Thomas Piketty on Trump: ‘The main lesson for Europe and the world is clear,’” BusinessInsider.com, November 16, 2016, https://www.businessinsider.com/thomas-piketty-on-trump-the-main-lesson-for-europe-and-the-world-is-clear-2016-11.

  3.Nate Cohn, “The Election’s Big Twist: The Racial Gap Is Shrinking,” NYTimes.com, October 28, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/28/upshot/election-polling-racial-gap.html.

  4.Russell Kirk, “Ten Conservative Principles,” KirkCenter.org, https://kirkcenter.org/conservatism/ten-conservative-principles/.

  5.Leviticus 19:17.

  6.Roger Scruton, The West and the Rest: Globalization and the Terrorist Threat (Newburyport, MA: Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2014).

  7.Joel Feinberg, Offense to Others: The Moral Limits of the Criminal Law (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985).

  8.https://twitter.com/marcatracy/status/1357804321421881348.

  9.Nassem Nicholas Taleb, Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life (New York: Random House, 2018), 75–77.

  10.Rachel Brazil, “The physics of public opinion,” Physicsworld.com, January 14, 2020, https://physicsworld.com/a/the-physics-of-public-opinion/.

  11.Christina Zhao, “Coca-Cola, Facing Backlash, Says ‘Be Less White’ Learning Plan Was About Workplace Inclusion,” Newsweek.com, February 21, 2021, https://www.newsweek.com/coca-cola-facing-backlash-says-less-white-learning-plan-was-about-workplace-inclusion-1570875.

  12.“ACLU Case Selection Guidelines: Conflicts Between Competing Values or Priorities,” WSJ.com, June 21, 2018, http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/20180621ACLU.pdf?mod=article_inline.<
br />
  13.“A Letter on Justice and Open Debate,” Harper’s Weekly, July 7, 2020, https://harpers.org/a-letter-on-justice-and-open-debate/.

  14.Conor Friedersdorf, “Why Matthew Yglesias Left Vox,” TheAtlantic.com, November 13, 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/substack-and-medias-groupthink-problem/617102/.

  15.“Read Joe Biden’s President-Elect Acceptance Speech: Full Transcript,” NYTimes.com, November 9, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/article/biden-speech-transcript.html.

  16.Ryan Saavedra, “Michelle Obama Demonizes 70 Million Americans Who Voted for Trump: Support ‘Hate, Chaos, Division,’” DailyWire.com, November 7, 2020, https://www.dailywire.com/news/michelle-obama-demonizes-70-million-americans-who-voted-for-trump-support-hate-chaos-division.

  17.Editorial Board, “Canceling Trump Alumni,” WSJ.com, November 9, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/canceling-trump-alumni-11604962923.

  18.Harriet Alexander, “Lincoln Project urges 2.7m followers to bombard law first trying to overturn Pennsylvania election result,” Independent.co.uk, November 10, 2020, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/lincoln-project-election-pennsylvania-law-firm-linkedin-b1720710.html.

  19.Laura Barron-Lopez and Holly Otterbein, “Tlaib lashes out at centrist Dems over election debacle: ‘I can’t be silent,’” Politico.com, November 10, 2020, https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/11/rashida-tlaib-progressives-election-435877.

  20.Memo from New Deal Srategies, Justice Democrats, Sunrise Movement, Data for Progress re: What Went Wrong for Congressional Democrats in 2020, November 10, 2020, https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000175-b4b4-dc7f-a3fd-bdf660490000.

  CHAPTER 2: HOW THE AUTHORITARIAN LEFT RENORMALIZED AMERICA

  1.Josh Bivens, “Inadequate GDP growth continues in the third quarter,” Economic Policy Institute, October 26, 2012, https://www.epi.org/publication/gdp-growth-picture-october-2012/.

  2.“President Exit Polls,” New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/elections/2012/results/president/exit-polls.html.

  3.Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope (New York: Crown, 2006), 11.

  4.Ronald J. Pestritto, ed., Woodrow Wilson: The Essential Political Writings (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005), 77–78.

  5.John R. Shook and James A. Good, John Dewey’s Philosophy of Spirit, with the 1897 Lecture on Hegel (New York: Fordham University Press, 2010), 29.

  6.Erick Trickey, “When America’s Most Prominent Socialist Was Jailed for Speaking Out Against World War I,” Smithsonianmag.com, June 15, 2018, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/fiery-socialist-challenged-nations-role-wwi-180969386/.

  7.Buck v. Bell (1927), 274 US 200.

  8.Margaret Sanger, “My Way to Peace,” January 17, 1932, https://www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/webedition/app/documents/show.php?sangerDoc=12 9037.xml.

  9.Calvin Coolidge, “Speech on the 150th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence,” July 5, 1926, https://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/speech-on-the-occasion-of-the-one-hundred-and-fiftieth-anniversary-of-the-declaration-of-independence/.

  10.Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Campaign Address,” October 14, 1936, https://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/campaign-address/.

  11.Franklin D. Roosevelt, “State of the Union Message to Congress,” January 11, 1944, http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/archives/address_text.html.

  12.Jonah Goldberg, Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, from Mussolini to the Politics of Change (New York: Broadway Books, 2007), 158–59.

  13.Samuel Staley, “FDR Policies Doubled the Length of the Great Depression,” Reason.org, November 21, 2008, https://reason.org/commentary/fdr-policies-doubled-the-lengt/.

  14.Amity Shlaes, Great Society: A New History (New York: Harper Perennial, 2019).

  15.Alan Greenspan and Adrian Woolridge, Capitalism in America: A History (New York: Penguin, 2018), 306.

  16.Alex J. Pollock, “Seven decades of inflation-adjusted Dow Jones industrial average,” RStreet.org, April 18, 2018, https://www.rstreet.org/2018/04/18/seven-decades-of-the-inflation-adjusted-dow-jones-industrial-average/.

  17.Jimmy Carter, “Energy and the National Goals,” July 15, 1979, https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jimmycartercrisisofconfidence.htm.

  18.First Inaugural Address of Ronald Reagan, January 20, 1981, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/reagan1.asp.

  19.President William Jefferson Clinton, State of the Union Address, January 23, 1996, https://clintonwhitehouse4.archives.gov/WH/New/other/sotu.html.

  20.George W. Bush, “Full Text of Bush’s Acceptance Speech,” NYTimes.com, August 4, 2000, https://movies2.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/080400wh-bush-speech.html.

  21.“Barack Obama’s Remarks to the Democratic National Convention,” July 24, 2004, https://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/27/politics/campaign/barack-obamas-remarks-to-the-democratic-national.html.

  22.Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History, Theories, and Political Significance (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995), 135.

  23.Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom (New York: Henry Holt, 1941), 240.

  24.Herbert Marcuse, “Repressive Tolerance” (1965), https://www.marcuse.org/herbert/pubs/60spubs/65repressivetolerance.htm.

  25.Stokely Carmichael, “Toward Black Liberation,” Massachusetts Review, Autumn 1966, http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai3/segregation/text8/carmichael.pdf.

  26.Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, Critical Race Theory: An Introduction (New York: New York University Press, 2012), 7–8.

  27.Derrick A. Bell Jr., “Racial Realism,” in George Wright and Maria Stalzer Wyant Cuzzo, eds., The Legal Studies Reader (New York: Peter Lang, 2004), 247.

  28.Fred A. Bernstein, “Derrick Bell, Law Professor and Rights Advocate, Dies at 80,” New York Times, October 6, 2011, https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/06/us/derrick-bell-pioneering-harvard-law-professor-dies-at-80.html.

  29.Christopher Caldwell, The Age of Entitlement (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2020), 6–7.

  30.Ibid., 10.

  31.Ibid., 34.

  32.David Mills, “Sister Souljah’s Call to Arms: The rapper says the riots were payback. Are you paying attention?,” Washington Post, May 13, 1992, https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/31/AR2010033101709.html.

  33.Thomas B. Edsall, “Clinton Stuns Rainbow Coalition,” Washington Post, July 14, 1992, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/06/14/clinton-stuns-rainbow-coalition/02d7564f-5472-4081-b6b2-2fe5b849fa60/.

  34.Rashawn Ray and William A. Galston, “Did the 1994 crime bill cause mass incarceration?,” Brookings Institution, August 28, 2020, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2020/08/28/did-the-1994-crime-bill-cause-mass-incarceration/.

  35.“Barack Obama’s Remarks to the Democratic National Convention,” July 24, 2004, https://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/27/politics/campaign/barack-obamas-remarks-to-the-democratic-national.html.

  36.Jonathan V. Last, “Michelle’s America,” Weekly Standard, February 18, 2008, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/weekly-standard/michelles-america.

  37.Victor Davis Hanson, “Obama: Transforming America,” RealClearPolitics.com, October 1, 2013, https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/10/01/obama_transforming_america_120170.html.

  38.Ed Pilkington, “Obama angers midwest voters with guns and religion remark,” TheGuardian.com, April 14, 2008, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/apr/14/barackobama.uselections2008.

  39.Mark Preston and Dana Bash, “McCain defends charge that Obama playing race card,” CNN.com, July 31, 2008, https://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/31/campaign.wrap/index.html.

  40.Dan Merica, Kevin Liptak, Jeff Zeleny, David Wright, and Rebecca Buck, “Obama memoir confronts role his presidency played in Republican obstructionism and Trump’s rise,” CNN.com, November 15, 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/12/politics/obama-memoir-promised-land/index.html.

  41.Saul D. Alinsky, Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Re
volution (New York: Vintage Books, 1989), 184–86.

  42.Kimberle Crenshaw, “Why intersectionality can’t wait,” Washington Post, September 24, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/wp/2015/09/24/why-intersectionality-cant-wait/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.179ecf062277.

  43.Josh Earnest, “President Obama Supports Same-Sex Marriage,” ObamaWhiteHouse.Archives.gov, May 10, 2012, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2012/05/10/obama-supports-same-sex-marriage.

  44.Julia Preston and John H. Cushman Jr., “Obama to Permit Young Migrants to Remain in US,” NYTimes.com, June 15, 2012, https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/16/us/us-to-stop-deporting-some-illegal-immigrants.html.

  45.Shannon Travis, “Is Obama taking black vote for granted?,” CNN.com, July 13, 2012, https://www.cnn.com/2012/07/12/politics/obama-black-voters/index.html.

  46.Rodney Hawkins, “Biden tells African-American audience GOP ticket would put them ‘back in chains,’” CBSNews.com, August 14, 2012, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-tells-african-american-audience-gop-ticket-would-put-them-back-in-chains/.

  47.Ewen MacAskill, “Obama steps up criticism of Romney in battle for women voters,” TheGuardian.com, October 17, 2012, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-tells-african-american-audience-gop-ticket-would-put-them-back-in-chains/.

  48.Dan Balz, “Obama’s coalition, campaign deliver a second term,” WashingtonPost.com, November 7, 2012, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/obamas-coalition-campaign-deliver-a-second-term/2012/11/07/fb156970-2926-11e2-96b6-8e6a7524553f_story.html.

  49.Ruy Texiera and John Hapin, “The Return of the Obama Coalition,” Center for American Progress, November 8, 2012, https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/democracy/news/2012/11/08/44348/the-return-of-the-obama-coalition/.

  50.Yoni Appelbaum, “How America Ends,” Atlantic, December 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/12/how-america-ends/600757/.

  51.Domenico Montanaro, “How the Browning of America Is Upending Both Political Parties,” NPR.org, October 12, 2016, https://www.npr.org/2016/10/12/497529936/how-the-browning-of-america-is-upending-both-political-parties.