I am struck by how forcefully two very different strategies for defending democracy have been advocated this past week.

First, Ian Bassin on The Bulwark podcast emphasized (and I’m paraphrasing here) that the advice he heard from Europeans combatting rising authoritarianism in places like Hungary and Poland is not to let a pro-democracy coalition of center-right, center-left, and even farther-left forces fracture, because then it can’t work together to oppose far-right authoritarianism. (Bassin’s podcast comments draw upon a piece he wrote for The Bulwark.)

Second, Marc Elias on CNN’s Reliable Sources broadcast went out of his way to label Adam Kinzinger “extreme” in his opposition to voting rights, arguing that Kinzinger’s role on the January 6 select committee does not justify treating him as pro-democracy moderate.

Elias, it’s worth noting, was referring to Kinzinger’s response to a question from Jake Tapper on CNN’s State of the Union earlier broadcast. What I heard in Kinzinger’s response, which Elias did not mention, was Kinzinger’s willingness to work with Democrats to craft a voting rights bill that he could support. 

Elias’s approach, which he has also advocated in a recent essay, is to lump all Republicans together, including Kinzinger (and any other pro-democracy Republicans, like Liz Cheney or Senators Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski, and others), as the opposition to the Democratic Party’s efforts to save democracy all by itself. This approach would seem to be the exact opposite of what Bassin (as well as the Europeans with experience fighting incipient authoritarianism) urges. 

History, Elias says, will judge how this generation fights the current anti-democracy forces here in the United States. True.  But history might teach that it was a mistake to purge center-right defenders of democracy, like Kinzinger, from the anti-authoritarian coalition that America needs right now—instead of figuring out a way to work with Kinzinger (and others) to build a broader pro-democracy coalition capable of withstanding the present authoritarian threat.