Claire Berlinski:

As I look at the United States right now, two things—above all—strike me as stunning.

First, the Republican Party decided that this year, they simply wouldn’t publish a Party platform. The GOP has no written platform at all this year.

…One of the United States’ two great, major political parties has replaced its great quadrennial exercise in democratic decision making with a statement of the Führerprinzip.

…Not only does this represent a rejection of democratic procedures, norms, and principles, it represents a rejection of something else: the written word.

…Is critical theory truly responsible for this? How does critical theory or “cultural Marxism,” whatever that is, figure in all this? Now, I am not sure that it does at all. I see the influence of old-school fascism in the ideas surrounding him.

Totally not fascism

Andrew Sullivan:

But here’s one thing I have absolutely no conflict about. Rioting and lawlessness is evil. And any civil authority that permits, condones or dismisses violence, looting and mayhem in the streets disqualifies itself from any legitimacy. This comes first. If one party supports everything I believe in but doesn’t believe in maintaining law and order all the time and everywhere, I’ll back a party that does. In that sense, I’m a one-issue voter, because without order, there is no room for any other issue. Disorder always and everywhere begets more disorder; the minute the authorities appear to permit such violence, it is destined to grow. And if liberals do not defend order, fascists will.