Profile picture
Teri Kanefield @Teri_Kanefield
, 14 tweets, 4 min read Read on Twitter
(Thread) Our current Constitutional Crisis

The problem isn’t (just) Trump

Tony Schwartz says the president has too much power.


This is only true because the GOP members of Congress are not acting as a check on presidential power.
2/ The GOP is obeying Trump as if he is an autocrat.

Example: The House and Senate pass (overwhelmingly) a piece of legislation.

Trump doesn’t like it because he wants a wall, so he exercises his veto power under Art. I, sec. 7.
history.com/topics/us-gove…
3/ Instead of overriding the veto, as it has the power to do, the GOP folds.

(Aside: this is why impeaching and removing Trump won’t solve the nation’s problems)

More and more Americans are waking up to the fact that Trump was installed in the WH by a hostile government.
4/ The drafters of the Constitution considered the possibility that a president might be elected who was beholden to foreign interests.

That’s why they included a remedy: Congress acts as a check on presidential power.
5/ At the first sign of corruption, fraud, or a foreign influence in the election, Congress SHOULD have stopped everything and conducted a meaningful investigation.

Instead, members of the Congressional GOP attempted to obstruct and delegitimize any investigations.
6/ By the way, the only reason we’re even talking about whether a sitting president can be indicted is because Congress failed in its job.

Had the president been removed when his involvement with Russia was uncovered, he wouldn’t be a sitting president at indictment time.
7/ The GOP didn’t become authoritarian overnight.

Over its 165 year history, the Republican party has gradually morphed from the anti-slavery party championing the values of liberal democracy to an authoritarian party.
More here👇
8/ Profs. Levitsky and Ziblatt in their book👇 explain what we’re seeing.

From the beginning Trump exhibited warning signs of an autocrat. He:
💠rejected democratic norms
💠denied the legitimacy of opponents (i.e. says they are criminals)
💠tolerated and encouraged violence. . .
9/ and he was willing to curtail civil liberties, i.e. free press.

We now know, of course, that Trump has gone much farther. He has spent his lifetime breaking laws👇👇


Levitsky and Ziblatt explain that Trump's rise follows the usual pattern.
10/ In the 2016 primaries, many conservatives made the classic mistakes when confronted by an authoritarian leader grabbing power: they believed they could contain him & they believed he would further their own political aims.

The true conservatives see their error.
11/ For the difference between conservatives and authoritarians, see 👇


The rise of a strongman increases polarization, which creates discord, which plays into the strongman’s hands.

Chaos is the would-be autocrat’s friend.
12/ Trump's method is simple: manufacture a crisis. Then blame his “enemies.”

Simple, but effective, particularly when the autocrat floods the zone with lies. Lots of people really do get confused. They wonder if the autocrat's enemies ARE partly to blame.

So what can we do?
13/ We’ve done the important part: Elect a House that will check Trump's power.

It seems to me helping people understand is most important.

Also: Make your opinion known, organize for 2020, and don’t wear yourself out with the constant crisis and spectacle.
All of my threads are now blog posts. You can view this one here: terikanefield-blog.com/our-current-co…
If you haven't stopped by, please come poke around my blog. All of my threads are now categorized.
Missing some Tweet in this thread?
You can try to force a refresh.

Like this thread? Get email updates or save it to PDF!

Subscribe to Teri Kanefield
Profile picture

Get real-time email alerts when new unrolls are available from this author!

This content may be removed anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime, convert it as a PDF, save and print for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video

1) Follow Thread Reader App on Twitter so you can easily mention us!

2) Go to a Twitter thread (series of Tweets by the same owner) and mention us with a keyword "unroll" @threadreaderapp unroll

You can practice here first or read more on our help page!

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just three indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member and get exclusive features!

Premium member ($3.00/month or $30.00/year)

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!