Democracies get sick and then die from within. One of the main ways that this occurs is when mainstream conservative political parties and movements begin to form alliances with fascist and other authoritarian leaders and forces because of an incorrect belief that the latter can be controlled and used as a weapon against a common enemy on the so-called left.

In the end, that often does not happen. The right-wing extremists instead take control of the mainstream institutional “conservative” party. This can happen by conquering and coercion or through a marriage of convenience and (mostly) choice.

Why this pattern?

Conservatism, in most contexts, has a deep and inherent tendency towards authoritarianism and hierarchy. This dynamic is especially pronounced in a society that is undergoing changes that challenge the existing order of things, such as demographics or other challenges to “tradition” and the in-group’s perceived power. “We thought we could control them!” has been the epitaph of many democracies and societies that have succumbed to fascism and other forms of authoritarianism and illiberalism. In many ways, this is the story of how Donald Trump and his neofascist MAGA movement came to dominate today’s Republican Party.