Mystal: Republican Voters Everywhere ‘Complicit in This Authoritarianism’

The Nation’s senior justice correspondent Elie Mystal said Thursday on MSNBC’s “The Beat” that Republican voters everywhere were complicit in authoritarianism while discussing Tennessee Republicans voting to expel two state representatives for leading a protest from the House floor calling for gun laws.

Mystal said, “As we hear during High Holy days, I’m remembering my Romans that sometimes creating a martyr won’t work out the way you think when you are the authoritarian government, right? That might be something for Republicans to stick in the memory banks as they go about their day during this festive season.”

He continued, “But to speak of Rome, it is important that people remember that authoritarianism is always made legal by the authoritarians, right? Apartheid in white South Africa was legal. Slavery in America was legal. Jim Crow in America was legal. All these things are legal until they are not, and at a time when they are no longer legal is a time when the people rise up and say they have had enough, and they kick the authoritarians out. That is the only way it has ever happened. That is the only way it ever works.”

Mystal added, “So, if you are a Republican voter anywhere, for any candidate, I don’t care if you’re voting for Republican on Staten Island or a Republican in San Francisco, if you are Republican voter anywhere, you are complicit in this authoritarianism. You have to take responsibility for that and the rest of us have to defeat you. We have to defeat you and we have to put our country back on the track toward democracy and away from the Republican authoritarian regimes.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN