So, my first question comes from the title of one of the chapters of your new book.

Why has the Republican Party abandoned democracy?

It's a great question because, first of all, it's important to state that this is a really

rare phenomenon.

Parties that are 150 years old that have been competing in democratic elections for more

than a century don't usually go off the rails in this way.

It's a very unusual event.

What we argue in the book, in short, is that America changed dramatically in the latter

part of the 20th century and the Republican Party did not.

The America became a much more diverse place and the Republican Party in the late 20th century

found itself a white Christian party.

And that actually worked wonders electorally for a while in the 1980s and 1990s, but as

we entered into the 21st century, two serious problems emerged for the party, presenting

themselves as a white Christian party, could no longer win national popular majorities.

This is why they lost the popular vote in 7 out of 8 presidential elections in the

row.

And the second problem, in addition to becoming increasingly uncompetitive at the national

level, part of the party's base grew increasingly threatened by a transformed America.

There were many, obviously not all, but many Trumpist voters who felt like the country that

they grew up in was being taken away from them.

And so that's a pretty serious sense of existential threat and they radicalized.

That's Stephen Levitsky, co-author of the brand new book, Tyranny of the Minority.

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