Authoritarian lawmakers would dismantle rights even without crisis or war

Evidence

It was precisely because of the danger such lawmakers would pose to democracy that the Bill of Rights was added to the U.S. Constitution in 1791, two hundred years before this study was done. While they would undoubtedly deny it to others, and perhaps to themselves, many of the right-wing authoritarian politicians who today claim the American government has taken away people’s rights would destroy those rights if they had the chance. They care not a farthing about equality, and stand ready to undermine our hard-won freedoms. Without losing a world war, or enduring economic catastrophe, or suffering crippling internal strife, these High RWAs have forsaken democracy. — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 3640

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the thesis that democratic backsliding can happen peacefully from within — connects to contemporary political science on autocratization from below.
• QUESTION: How much of the High RWA indifference to rights reflects sincere belief versus motivated claiming for political identity? Altemeyer doesn’t fully unpack the mechanism here.