Illiberalism
Gilead
Fig. 1. The emblem of the Republic of Gilead. Icewizie, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
I’ve been viewing the Speaker of the House drama as a short term phenomenon. Ishaan Tharoor, however, argues that Europeans are taking a longer, more worrying view, seeing this drama as a symptom rather than the disease.[1] I can’t tell you they’re wrong and, really, what the Europeans are saying isn’t so very different from what I’ve been saying about illiberalism and the Gilead project.
Usually, only usually, the worst doesn’t happen. But Tharoor does not miss that this occurs in a context where our system of social organization is failing to address even existential problems. Europeans see this as undermining that system’s legitimacy.[2] If they’re right, violence almost certainly lies ahead.
Ishaan Tharoor, “Chaos in Congress points to failures in the U.S. system,” Washington Post, October 6, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/06/us-congress-global-europe-analysts-failure-dysfunction/
Speaker of the House of Representatives, 2023
Fig. 1. Photograph credited to Office of Congressman Kevin McCarthy, date inconsistent with title but given as November 9, 2022, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Adela Suliman, “Trump endorses Jim Jordan for House speaker after Kevin McCarthy ouster,” Washington Post, October 6, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/10/06/donald-trump-endorses-jim-jordan-house-speaker/
Ishaan Tharoor, “Chaos in Congress points to failures in the U.S. system,” Washington Post, October 6, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/06/us-congress-global-europe-analysts-failure-dysfunction/
- [1]Ishaan Tharoor, “Chaos in Congress points to failures in the U.S. system,” Washington Post, October 6, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/06/us-congress-global-europe-analysts-failure-dysfunction/↩
- [2]Ishaan Tharoor, “Chaos in Congress points to failures in the U.S. system,” Washington Post, October 6, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/06/us-congress-global-europe-analysts-failure-dysfunction/↩