The GOP is continuing to project its own extremist impulses and absolutist end game. The latest tactic is the manufactured threat of Critical Race Theory.

First, it’s important to understand how this particular strategy works. Much has already been written about Donald Trump’s pathological projection, but it bears reminding that projection is an unconscious self-defense mechanism in which people attribute their worst motives and inclinations to others. It allows the person to avoid responsibility, as well as feelings of guilt and wrongdoing. It’s also a more sophisticated form of “I know you are, but what am I?”

The GOP can justify its most anti-democratic actions to its base by suggesting that anyone opposed to its dangerous right-wing agenda is the real enemy—an urgent, totalitarian threat committed to “replacing” their power, freedoms and values. Nearly 28 percent of Republicans agree that “because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country” from the rest of us, who are allegedly all woke, liberal, gay, Satan-worshipping pedophiles who pray to Mecca and are working for the deep state.