1. A brief riff: the American intellectual right was very anti-democratic before mid-1970s (see National Review on Franco) & very anti-democratic since (Thiel being prime example). What was exception was brief window (1970s-2008) when right was relatively pro-democratic https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1159495342204887040 …
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4. Vietnam debacle and also crude Nixon/Kissinger realpolitic created a crisis on right, which led them to try to revive anti-communist consensus by foregrounding previously liberal arguments. It's only in 1970s that the right started talking about democracy promotion.
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5. The rightwing embrace of democracy promotion (and new argument that free markets & democracy went hand in hand) was very useful during Cold War & also post-1991 as tool for legitimizing American global hegemony. It was ideological underpinning of Iraq War.
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6. Right-wing democracy promotion was ultimately undermined by Iraq debacle (which discredited neo-conservatism on right) but also of Arab Spring (which showed that actual Middle Eastern democracy would threaten many longtime USA allies).
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7. And Obama's two electoral victories (the first time a Democratic presidential candidate won 50%+ of the popular vote twice in a row since FDR) scared conservatives, as did popular support of marriage equality. This was background for right's renewed anti-democratic push.
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8. Ultimately, the synthesis Yglesias calls for ("the virtues of free markets were fused with the virtues of political democracy to create humane, sustainable mixed economies") is incompatible with conservatism: any really robust democracy will trend towards social democracy.
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9. Really believing in democracy means being willing to give up what you love if it goes against the popular will. Part of the greatness of Tocqueville & JS Mill is that they accepted democracy meant giving up aristocratic high culture & laissez-faire economics.
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Going unsaid: Communism is as much a product of western civilization as anything else.
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"Western Civ" champions tend to discount everything after the Reformation...
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An early point of cognitive dissonance for me was, as a teenager, seeing my parents champion the fight against the USSR while at the same time sneer at orgs like Amnesty International as tools of the communists...
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