Thread by @HeerJeet

1. So according to @CoreyRobin, I'm a believer in "Green Lanternism" -- the idea that a president can " reshape the public, their parties, and the polity...through words alone." I'm puzzled by this since this is the opposite of what I believe. nymag.com/intelligencer/…

2. Here's what I wrote in October 2016, a month before Trump was elected: "As president, Trump—a con man who traffics in dark fantasy—would quickly find himself constrained by the realities of actual government." newrepublic.com/article/137076…

3. me, Oct. 2016: "The Constitution makes it difficult to pull off the kind of Putinesque strong-arming that Trump admires. Instead, he would be forced to try, & ultimately fail, to be what he is not: a capable & measured leader, his power subject to the checks and balances..."

4. I also argued, at length, that Trump should be seen as part of the continuum of the American right, rather than compared to foreign dictators (as folks like Timothy Synder were) newrepublic.com/article/140952…

4. The area of disagreement I have with Corey Robin is not over Trump's power, but over his impact. I believe that even if Trump is ineffectual in policy terms, his position as president still allows him to spread conspiratorial, anti-democratic & racist ideas

5. I happen to think that having a president who routinely mocks the rule of law (by calling for his opponents to be jailed) and civic equality (by using racism to rally his base) is corrosive to democracy. I still don't understand why Corey Robin doesn't think so.

6. And, again: the fact that Trump is weak & ineffectual doesn't mean he isn't also authoritarian: the two feed off each other. Trump's weakness leads to incendiary rhetoric ("enemies of the people" stuff), some of which has a real world effect.

7.
Me (slack-jawed imbecile): Having a president spewing racism all the time is bad.
You (genius tenured professor): Oh, so you believe in Green Lanternism, do you?