Thread by @DrPhilGoff

1. A couple thoughts on the Mueller report freakouts on my timeline.

There are two types of folks in my TL presently:
I. Folks freaking out because they'd hoped Mueller was the end of this presidency.
II. Folks freaking out because they believe this presidency is illegitimate.

2. The first group will be sad. They will hold out hope (like the Jill Stein recount). And will then move on. But the second group...there has always been something that bugged me about some portions of this group and today it's revealing itself.

3. This is not to say that I'm all in for the legitimacy of the administration or that no one can have substantive reasons to believe 45 should not be president (procedurally or otherwise). Whether or not the presidency is legitimate is not my point.

4. My point is that, for some, the illegitimacy of 45 is rooted—at least in part—in the conviction that this country couldn't actually be as racist and misogynist as POTUS. And, because it could not be as bad as what we have seen, the system must have malfunctioned.

5. The alternative is existentially terrifying for some: that this is how the system often has, and in many ways was intended to function. For those of us who grew up with that knowledge, today is awful, but not categorically worse than all others. For those without it...

6. Hoping that, after the dust settles on all of this, we are collectively a little better able to grapple with the truth of things, which is that group-based hierarchy is part of the design of American democracy, and that intentional redesigns are necessary to change that.