Republican have gone completely nuts for Authoritarianism for some reason???
Conservatives have always been authoritarian. The difference between now and before is that decades ago, the political parties were aligned differently with some Southern conservatives being Democrats and some northern progressives being Republicans, so the overall party platforms were more moderate. Also, conservatives back then couldn’t admit to their desires to go full-on “papers, please” because the Soviet Union existed as a geopolitical enemy that they needed to maintain ideological distance from. (In contrast, they’re happy to be buddy-buddy with fascist Russia, since it’s right-wing authoritarian instead of left-wing authoritarian.)
TL;DR: Because coalitions and geopolitics have realigned, conservatives can express the true agenda they’ve always had in a way they couldn’t before.
Conservatives have always been authoritarian. The difference between now and before is that decades ago, the political parties were aligned differently with some Southern conservatives being Democrats and some northern progressives being Republicans, so the overall party platforms were more moderate. Also, conservatives back then couldn’t admit to their desires to go full-on “papers, please” because the Soviet Union existed as a geopolitical enemy that they needed to maintain ideological distance from. (In contrast, they’re happy to be buddy-buddy with fascist Russia, since it’s right-wing authoritarian instead of left-wing authoritarian.)
TL;DR: Because coalitions and geopolitics have realigned, conservatives can express the true agenda they’ve always had in a way they couldn’t before.