Eric Levitz: “Trump’s refusal to keep his assaults on democracy constrained within limits (and/or shrouded in pretense) has scandalized a significant minority of Republican elites. But his high crimes and misdemeanors have made little impression on the party faithful. None of the president’s affronts to liberal democracy — not his praise for ‘very fine’ white vigilantes or his proposed postponement of November’s election — have shaken his grip on a little over 40 percent of the electorate. One explanation for GOP indifference to such deeds is that Republicans aren’t aware of them: Fox News’s programming and Facebook’s algorithm have simply kept red America blissfully ignorant of the commander-in-chief’s most tyrannical moods.”

“But a new paper from Vanderbilt University political scientist Larry Bartels suggests an alternative hypothesis: Many Republican voters value ‘keeping America great’ more than they value democracy — and, by ‘keeping America great,’ such voters typically mean ‘keeping America’s power structure white.’ In a January 2020 survey fielded by YouGov, a slim majority of GOP voters agreed with the statement ‘The traditional American way of life is disappearing so fast that we may have to use force to save it.’ Nearly three-fourths agreed with ‘It is hard to trust the results of elections when so many people will vote for anyone who offers a handout.’ More than 40 percent agreed that ‘a time will come when patriotic Americans have to take the law into their own hands.'”