The GOP and the KKK

       The invaluable Paul Krugman in today's NYT, makes a very apt comparison of the modern day Republican party and the Ku Klux Klan revival in the 1920s.  While the KKK never had the reach and respectability of the GOP, it did control several state legislatures until the Great Depression.  Extremist movements are usually founded and flourish during economic hard times.  Yet the KKK reached the height of its popularity during the Roaring 20s.

     Krugman's take is the modern day GOP resembles and imitates regimes such as Victor Orban's Hungary and Erdogan's Turkey more than they do the center right parties in most of Europe.  Whipping up rural and ethnically white conservatives against immigrants with a combination of ethnic nationalism and anti science rhetoric is the common currency of authoritarians in this country and the aforementioned Orban and Erdogan.

     The KKK fell into irrelevance because it had no policies to deal with the Depression.  Roosevelt rallied most people with a vision of an inclusive and democratic America (if you weren't black or brown skinned) and we narrowly avoided the fascism which overtook Germany in the 1930s.   

     Today's Republican party, especially in the wake of the Dobbs decision by the Supreme Court, cannot be reasoned with, concludes Krugman.   It can only be defeated at the ballot box by the forces of democracy.