In a vital piece for The Atlantic, the conservative-leaning Jonathan Rauch and Benjamin Wittes make a point that cannot be emphasized enough: We have both spent our professional careers strenuously avoiding partisanship in our writing and thinking... This, then, is the article we thought we would never write: a frank statement that a certain form of partisanship is now a moral necessity. The Republican Party, as an institution, has become a danger to the rule of law and the integrity of our democracy. The problem is not just Donald Trump; it’s the larger political apparatus that made a conscious decision to enable him. In a two-party system, nonpartisanship works only if both parties are consistent democratic actors. If one of them is not predictably so, the space for nonpartisans evaporates. We’re thus driven to believe that the best hope of defending the country from Trump’s Republican enablers, and of saving the Republican Party from itself, is to... vote mindlessly and mechanically against Republicans at every opportunity, until the party either rights itself or implodes (very preferably the former).
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When Boycotting a Political Party Becomes a…
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In a vital piece for The Atlantic, the conservative-leaning Jonathan Rauch and Benjamin Wittes make a point that cannot be emphasized enough: We have both spent our professional careers strenuously avoiding partisanship in our writing and thinking... This, then, is the article we thought we would never write: a frank statement that a certain form of partisanship is now a moral necessity. The Republican Party, as an institution, has become a danger to the rule of law and the integrity of our democracy. The problem is not just Donald Trump; it’s the larger political apparatus that made a conscious decision to enable him. In a two-party system, nonpartisanship works only if both parties are consistent democratic actors. If one of them is not predictably so, the space for nonpartisans evaporates. We’re thus driven to believe that the best hope of defending the country from Trump’s Republican enablers, and of saving the Republican Party from itself, is to... vote mindlessly and mechanically against Republicans at every opportunity, until the party either rights itself or implodes (very preferably the former).