History is repeating itself, and not in a good way

 I recently read biographies of Marx, Mao and Lenin, and am currently reading a biography of Trotsky. As a result, I have a much better understanding of the Boshevik project, which at its core was a reaction to Tsarism and monarchism, but sought to replace it with a different sort of dictatorship. With the benefit of historical hindsight, it is obvious how the embrace of the single-party state led by a small cadre of educated elitists who pretended to speak on behalf of the workers led to Stalinism and Maoism and government by terror.

This Vanity Fair piece paints a picture of a new-right movement that seeks a single-party state to purge liberals and others who don't conform to their utopian vision. These quotes are from one of their new darlings, J.D. Vance:

"I tend to think that we should seize the institutions of the left,” he said. “And turn them against the left. We need like a de-Baathification program, a de-woke-ification program.”

“I think Trump is going to run again in 2024,” he said. “I think that what Trump should do, if I was giving him one piece of advice: Fire every single midlevel bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, replace them with our people.”

“And when the courts stop you,” he went on, “stand before the country, and say—” he quoted Andrew Jackson, giving a challenge to the entire constitutional order—“the chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.”

This is a description, essentially, of a coup."

Read the whole thing. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/04/inside-the-new-right-where-peter-thiel-is-placing-his-biggest-bets