Here (slightly edited) is the text of my January 2 Albany Library talk, reviewing Mark Levin’s book, The Democrat Party Hates America.

Back in September, I wrote a blog post titled “Democrats Will Destroy America.” In quotes, because I was discussing something that had become a staple of Republican rhetoric. Not merely saying Democrats’ policies are bad, but that they hate America and want to destroy it.

Then I saw on the Times‘ bestseller list this book by Mark Levin, a prominent right-wing polemicist. With, according to Politico, “a penchant for hysteria.”

I confess to being a Democrat. However, for 53 years I was an active Republican. I left the Party in 2017 when it became clear that it had lost its mind, its morality, and every principle I thought it stood for.

During all my Republican decades, I certainly found much to criticize in Democrats. And still do. But here’s the thing. I always regarded those as just sincere, honest disagreements, about what’s best for the country. Never did I hate Democrats or think them bad people. And that was not unusual, such an attitude was the bipartisan norm. Together with a general civic understanding that a diverse society requires respecting the right of other people to disagree, to participate legitimately in politics, and to share in governance.

Now the word is polarization, with the two parties hating and fearing each other. However, it is not symmetrical. Republicans hate Democrats based on lies. Democrats hate Republicans based on reality. Emblematic of it is January 6, a violent attempt to overturn a legitimate election. About which Republicans try to gaslight us. They believe the election was stolen. It was not. And now this crazy rhetoric about Democrats wanting to destroy America. All this justifiably scares the pants off Democrats like me.

And Republicans are hell-bent on nominating for president the criminal culpable for January 6. At one of their debates, when asked if they’d support the party’s nominee even if he’s convicted of a felony, six of the eight candidates raised their hands. What the hell has happened to these people? And they think it’s Democrats who are a threat to America?

Turning to Mark Levin’s book, I’ll start by quoting his actual words, recapping his indictment: “America is unraveling. Our founding and history are being degraded. Individualism has been substituted for groupism. [I think he meant that the other way round] Color blindness is now racist. Capitalism and prosperity are being devoured by economic socialism and climate-change fanaticism. Classrooms have become indoctrination mills for racism, segregation. bigotry, and sexual perversion. Free speech and academic freedom are shrinking, and the police state is growing. Crime is out of control. Our borders are wide open, as drug and criminal cartels ship killer drugs into our country. The Democrat party is responsible. It seeks to permanently control our governmental institutions. To delegitimize and eviscerate the Constitution — including the Bill of Rights, the Electoral College, the Supreme Court, separation of powers, etc. — which obstructs its ideological designs. It abuses the rule of law by targeting its political opponents for harassment, investigation, and prosecution. Has a horrifying history of supporting the most contemptible causes, including slavery, segregation, the Ku Klux Klan, eugenics, and even lynching. Biden rules as an autocrat.”

And what is it Democrats really aim for? To impose Marxism. “Marxism, Marxism, Marxism.” That’s his constant refrain. Now, he doesn’t say “Communism.” Maybe because that would strain credulity. So he says “Marxism.” But what does he mean by “Marxism?” Well, on page 24, he defines it, more or less: “centralization of power . . . control over the individual; conformity and obedience; uniformity of ideas and thought; a far-reaching police state to enforce its rule.” None of which Karl Marx ever advocated. Levin is describing the Soviet Union, whose tyranny would actually have horrified Marx. Nevertheless, Levin says, “This also describes the nature and character of the Democrat party.”

Now, some Democrats do romanticize “socialism” (without necessarily understanding it). Yet the party decisively rejected that in the 2020 primaries, going instead for the most moderate, centrist choice. This is not a party of socialists. Let alone Marxists. Let alone idolizing the former Soviet Union. Levin’s Marxism fixation makes the whole book ridiculous.

And it is thoroughly dishonest. So much of his indictment of Democrats could apply better to today’s Republican party.

One small example. He says Democrats want to pack the Supreme Court. Well, they haven’t done it. But Republicans have. Indeed, stealing a Supreme Court seat in 2016 by blocking a vote on the Merrick Garland nomination. That was arguably the moment when our civic, constitutional system truly became broken. Levin never mentions it.

Similarly, he accuses Democrats of trying to game the voting system and undermine its fairness and integrity. But this idea of widespread voter fraud is itself a big fraud. Voter fraud in America is almost nonexistent. What Democrats want is to enable more citizens to legitimately vote. Republicans work to keep voter participation as low as possible. Because they don’t believe they can win otherwise, as Trump once said with uncharacteristic candor.

And here’s a bigger example of Levin’s dishonesty. An organization named Freedom House has long monitored the state of democracy in the world. Levin quotes them at great length, on the rise of authoritarianism, carefully edited to make it sound as though it’s all an indictment of Democrats. While in fact Freedom House has been much concerned about Trump and the Republican party. It was during Trump’s presidency that Freedom House lowered America’s democracy rating.

Now, perhaps Levin could have made an argument that Freedom House’s words could also apply to Democrats. But that’s not what he did. He simply misrepresented them as though they were aimed at Democrats in the first place.

On page 5 he talks about a certain political figure’s “blatant lies,” his “lack of character, cringeworthy outbursts.” Trump? No, it’s Biden Levin is talking about. Calling him a doddering incompetent senile old fool. Yet at the same time a cynically manipulative Marxist mastermind. Go figure.

Levin quotes with alarm a Biden speech talking about America having great possibilities. What’s wrong with that? Don’t you see it?! “Possibilities” — for changing the country, of course, into a Marxist dystopia!

In psychology, it’s called “projection” when you accuse others of your own faults. Something Trump and Republicans do endlessly. I’ve mentioned the Ku Klux Klan stuff. Levin actually has a whole chapter smearing Democrats as the party of the Klan, Jim Crow, segregation, lynching, and slavery itself. We hear this a lot from Trumpers, based on white Southern Democrats having long ago been racist like that. Ignoring that they almost all became Republicans.

Most observers think that was in reaction to Democrats supporting civil rights, something Republicans exploited to attract racist whites. But Levin says it was really the exact opposite. I’ll quote his words: “southerners who defected from the Democratic Party in the 1960s and thereafter did so to join a Republican Party that was far more enlightened on racial issues than were the Democrats.” He deems phony the Democrats’ civil rights talk, hoodwinking Blacks into forgetting their historic allegiance to the party of Lincoln.

Is your head spinning?

But then comes a whole chapter on how Democrats have now gone from anti-Black racism to anti-white racism. Here again, yes, on the extreme “woke” left demonizing whiteness is a thing. But for the whole Democratic party? Seriously?

He also accuses Democrats of anti-semitism because some see Palestinians as human beings suffering injustice. Meantime, I seem to recall guys marching with torches in Charlottesville chanting “Jews will not replace us.” Marchers Trump called “very fine people.” Levin simply denies that Trump endorsed those neo-Nazis.

The next chapter is “Language Control and Thought Control.” Levin ironically starts off here citing a book titled Delusion and Mass Delusion. Well, the hard left does have a problem with freedom of expression. But here again, that’s only a small fringe of the Democratic party. Whereas mass delusion afflicts almost the whole Republican party. Like the stolen election lie. With their own cancel culture, banishing from the party anyone, like Liz Cheney, who prefers truth. Yet Levin waxes eloquent about freedom of thought.

Another chapter is titled “War on the American citizen.” Sturdy, virtuous, patriotic American freedom-lovers versus elites who hate the country, favoring “denationalization,” with some kind of globalist mentality. That’s why Democrats are “moving full speed ahead with open border policies” — Levin says their aim is to destroy America, diluting that yeoman citizenry with immigrants from what Trump called shit-hole countries. Vermin poisoning our blood, he now says. More susceptible to Marxist indoctrination, Levin says. This has been called “Great Replacement Theory.” Terminology Levin mocks even while spouting its substance. And even while screaming “Open borders!” he details how the Biden administration treats migrants horribly. Which is true. Biden, beset by border chaos and spooked by widespread xenophobia, now has immigration policies hardly differing from Trump’s.

Next, “War on the Nuclear Family.” Because Marxism entails supplanting the family by government. Schoolchildren are indoctrinated into the Marxist control agenda, separating them from their parents. Levin spouts about “Critical Race Theory,” supposedly telling kids that America has always been a cesspool of white racial oppression. And Marxist Democrats are also trying to destroy the family by encouraging transgenderism.

Then Levin blames rising crime rates on Democrats’ so-called “soft on crime” policies like bail reform and “defunding the police.” But there’s been no defunding. In fact, police budgets have risen, and while crime ticked up a bit during Covid, it’s since been falling, and it’s way down from its peak a few decades ago. Meantime, a huge element in crime is America flooded with guns. For that, it’s Republicans responsible; so they’re really the ones soft on crime. While moreover many of them now justify politically-motivated violence. All while still prattling “law and order.”

Another thing Levin bashes Democrats for is opposing school choice, which could help the disadvantaged minority families they claim to champion. I agree with Levin about this. Well, nobody can be wrong about everything.

Next, “war on the Constitution” — no mention here of January 6. Or Trump’s talk of terminating the Constitution. He’s also now said he’ll act as a dictator, but only on Day One, if you can believe him. But it’s Democrats Levin accuses of trashing the Constitution, because it’s condemned as racist by some extreme lefties.

And of course he hammers on the right-wing complaint that their free speech is being violated, calling it “police state censorship.” And “deplatforming.” Citing Tucker Carlson being deplatformed by — um — Fox News, actually. He quotes AOC chuckling over that, calling hers a “totalitarian view.”

Meantime he points to a media watchdog organization that listed the ten worst disinformation purveyors. “All skew to the right,” he complains. As if this reflects some biased censorship effort. Rather than the reality of pervasive dishonesty on the right, compared with mainstream media.

Then there’s the so-called war on religious liberty. While the Supreme Court has been assiduously smashing down the wall of separation between church and state.

But Levin does see Democrats warring against the judiciary. Something he traces back to one of his key villains: Woodrow Wilson. A quote: “Wilson argued for a judicial oligarchy that would engineer the culture along the lines of Marxist orthodoxy.” Yes, Woodrow Wilson, pre-Soviet Marxist.

The final chapter is titled, “Stalin Would Be Proud.” About what? “The Democrat Party’s scorched earth, unscrupulous, and unconscionable political and criminal prosecution of Donald Trump is totalitarian in every respect.” Such hyperbole continues. Previously Trump and his administration were almost nonexistent in this book. But now here we go: Trump a completely innocent victim of a partisan witch-hunt. The Mueller investigation was illegitimate from the get-go, and exonerated Trump. Both impeachments illegitimate abuses. All the current prosecutions baseless and improper. He was totally entitled to take those documents. Levin’s only mention of January 6 says it was merely citizens exercising their right to challenge an election. Nothing about Trump knowingly lying to overthrow that election and attempting to unlawfully retain power — replete with false electors! And now openly promising to abuse the presidency for retribution against his political detractors.

Stalin would be proud indeed. War on the Constitution indeed. And talk about baseless partisan witch-hunts: Levin wrote before every single House Republican voted to impeach Biden on zero evidence.

But he does finally condemn Republicans. For what? Failing to adequately defend America from the Marxist Democrats. He calls most Republicans a bunch of weenies, even quislings. Yes — not even today’s Republican party is right-wing enough for this guy.

Okay. Let’s step back. Once more, Levin’s obsession is Marxism. But Marxism is not what most Republicans really fear about Democrats. Rather it’s the loss of white societal dominance. They see Democrats as the party not of Marxism — but of non-whites.

That’s what makes them crazy. They were okay with non-whites advancing, until a Black president signaled a social revolution. Now they believe anything — anything — is justified to stop Democrats, and keep whites on top. Including violence, like January 6. And many of these people love guns. It was actually surprising there weren’t way more guns on January 6. Wait till next time.

Guys like Levin constantly spout about America’s traditional values, ideals, principles being under assault. Well, they are: by Levin himself, the Republican party, and their God (whose name is not Jehovah). And how they fetishize the word “freedom!” All this talk of Democrats taking it away, to regiment everybody in a Marxist dictatorship. When in fact, it’s Republicans, wherever they have power, restricting people’s freedom to live as they please. Like women’s freedom to get medical care. People’s love lives. Even trying to regulate what bathrooms they can use! “Freedom” my ass.

And they’re the ones who really hate America. Hate America as it truly is. What they love is a fantasy America that does not exist and never really did. As embodied in the flag they love — the Confederate flag, a flag standing for rebellion against America’s true ideals. The America I love is the very antithesis of the homogenized, exclusionary, repressive enclave of white Christian nationalism they fantasize. Their sick perversion of patriotism.

And they are dishonest to the core. Epitomized by Mark Levin. Can this guy really believe all this crap? I mean, really and truly?

Well, the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit proved that other Fox talking heads knew they were broadcasting lies about the 2020 election. Which they felt their Trumpy audience wanted to hear. Most Republican politicians likewise cynically know they’re lying, according to recent books by Liz Cheney and about Mitt Romney. But how about all those true believers they’re lying to?

What does it really mean to believe something? Not at all a simple question. Part of what neuroscience calls the hard problem of consciousness and the self.

A lot of beliefs are shaped by objective rational observation, obviously necessary for our everyday functioning. But political beliefs are different. They’re “freebies,” without real life consequences. Seemingly, at least. And here, what carries a great deal of weight is what you want to believe, what feels comfortable to you.

“Confirmation bias” is the term for embracing information you like and dismissing anything contrary. Smarter people are often particularly prone to this. Being better at coming up with rationales to support preferred beliefs. This book shows how a smart person can spin 300 pages of argument completely at odds with reality.

Psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s book, The Righteous Mind, used a metaphor of a rider on an elephant. The rider is your conscious mind; the elephant is your unconscious, which is much bigger. The rider thinks they’re directing the elephant. But mostly it’s the elephant going where it wants, while the rider’s job is to create rationales for that. Political beliefs originate with the elephant.

I also keep coming back to religion, where of course belief is central. Religion is like a gateway drug, scrambling the brain, making it receptive to all sorts of counter-factual beliefs. If you can believe that everything is controlled by a being in the sky, and you’ll go to Heaven after death, then it’s easy to believe the 2020 election was stolen, and Democrats hate America and want to destroy it.

It is no coincidence that the most religious Americans, and the most ardent Trump supporters, are mostly the same people.

But again, the concept of belief can be tricky. Many do believe they’re going to Heaven. Yet are in no hurry to depart. How do you square that? What do they truly believe, in the deepest parts of their psyches? What do their elephants believe?

To connect religion and Trumpism is not a stretch. What we have here is not normal politics, normal civic debate, as we used to be accustomed to. This is something different: a cult, that hijacks the rational parts of one’s brain. Where being part of the group is powerful motivation. Trump rallies are really cult jamborees; like religious revival meetings, in the collective emotions participants feel.

Evolution wired us for tribalism; accentuated by segregating ourselves politically, into tribes sealed off from contact with one another. Thus tribal feelings become part of one’s personal identity, and inexorably intensify. It’s a psychology of group dynamics described in a recent book, The Identity Trap, by Yascha Mounk. Studies have shown that viewpoints within groups gravitate toward those of the most extreme members. Mounk says this is compounded when the group feels under threat —something central to Trumpism. The perceived threat from cultural diversity.

Look, they may actually have legitimate grievances. I get that. Yet it doesn’t justify supporting a vile con man who’s manipulating them and will do no good for them.

A key factor is the information environment. Reality doesn’t reach a lot of people who are marooned on another planet. The stolen election lie was so obviously concocted by a huge liar because his messed-up psyche couldn’t face losing. It would be laughable if it weren’t messing up our whole country. But Trumpers believe he must have won because — who would vote against him?

The very first time I blogged about Trumpism, back in July 2015, I said it’s fundamentally hoisting a big middle finger; and that’s still true. People feeling beleaguered want the most badass guy possible, to stick it to their enemies. And, like moths to a flame, they’re attracted to the appearance of strength. The strongman syndrome. With no clue what strongman rule really would be like. It never works out well. We never learn.

Polls show belief in democracy declining globally. Our democracy was not ordained perpetual by God. Many countries, through one election mistake, have fallen into dictatorship. Too few Americans understand any more what democracy means, understand this country’s true values and ideals. Fools are throwing them in the toilet.

I am a Democrat who loves America, and what’s happening tears my heart out. But I will end by quoting Jesus: Lord forgive them, for they know not what they do.