Meacham: While Republicans Are Destroying Themselves, They Could ‘Bring Down the Constitution’

Historian and author Jon Meacham said Tuesday on CNN’s “Don Lemon Tonight” that he worried while Republicans are destroying themselves, they “could also bring down the Constitution.”

Meacham said, “We’re at an inflection point, a dangerous one. You know, the Confederate Army never got as far as the insurrectionists did on January 6. There was talk about disrupting the electoral count in 1861 when Lincoln became that president, and they never got that far. They never got that far during the war when Washington was under siege, and yet what did we see? We saw a Confederate flag carried through the United States Capitol.”

He continued, “What we’re seeing now for the first time since Reconstruction is a huge chunk of the enfranchised country opting out of a reality-based world and pursuing their own vision, their own wilderness of mirrors in a way that is almost entirely about the wielding of power. It’s not about prosperity. It’s not about common purpose. It’s not the preservation of democracy. It’s about the marshaling and maintenance of an individual’s party power and place in a system that they themselves are, in fact, undermining.

Meacham added, “President Biden talks about autocracy in terms of China and the Russian oligarchs. It’s also about Mar-a-Lago. The Republican Party, which is functional as constituted and run at the moment, has become an autocratic vehicle for a single person.”

He concluded, “I understand the Democratic Party broadly is following the adage which is never get in the way of an enemy when they are destroying themselves. The problem is they may destroy themselves, but it could also bring down the Constitution…By the way, five years ago, even three years ago, hell, maybe a year ago, I’m not sure I would have said that.”

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