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Jeet Heer Profile picture
@HeerJeet
Aug 8, 2019 • 9 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X
1. A brief riff: the American intellectual right was very anti-democratic before mid-1970s (see National Review on Franco) & very anti-democratic since (Thiel being prime example). What was exception was brief window (1970s-2008) when right was relatively pro-democratic
2. The brief pro-democratic interlude on right was largely a result of foreign policy: After Vietnam debacle USA needed new rationale for global hegemony. Cold War liberals who migrated to right (neo-cons) provided that: democracy promotion & human rights.
3. In early cold war, it was almost exclusively liberals who talked about democracy promotion & human rights as arguments against communism. Rightwingers were happy to support Franco & based anti-communism on religion (Godless communism) & culture ("Western Civ")
4. Vietnam debacle and also crude Nixon/Kissinger realpolitic created a crisis on right, which led them to try to revive anti-communist consensus by foregrounding previously liberal arguments. It's only in 1970s that the right started talking about democracy promotion.
5. The rightwing embrace of democracy promotion (and new argument that free markets & democracy went hand in hand) was very useful during Cold War & also post-1991 as tool for legitimizing American global hegemony. It was ideological underpinning of Iraq War.
6. Right-wing democracy promotion was ultimately undermined by Iraq debacle (which discredited neo-conservatism on right) but also of Arab Spring (which showed that actual Middle Eastern democracy would threaten many longtime USA allies).
7. And Obama's two electoral victories (the first time a Democratic presidential candidate won 50%+ of the popular vote twice in a row since FDR) scared conservatives, as did popular support of marriage equality. This was background for right's renewed anti-democratic push.
8. Ultimately, the synthesis Yglesias calls for ("the virtues of free markets were fused with the virtues of political democracy to create humane, sustainable mixed economies") is incompatible with conservatism: any really robust democracy will trend towards social democracy.
9. Really believing in democracy means being willing to give up what you love if it goes against the popular will. Part of the greatness of Tocqueville & JS Mill is that they accepted democracy meant giving up aristocratic high culture & laissez-faire economics.

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More from @HeerJeet

Jeet Heer Profile picture
Jun 27
1. Worth revisiting the debate between @ezraklein and Ta-Nehisi Coates about Israel/Palestine because there's a specific factual point that Klein got very wrong which he should apologize for. Klein insisted that unlike Hamas, Netanyahu was not "specifically targeting killing civilians."Image
2. TNC responded to Klein with a very eloquent "hm" which I think was a polite way of saying "what are you talking about?" Klein's statement was absurd on the face of it since both in current Gaza onslaught in last seven decades, Israeli government's have killed many many civilians, at a rate that is truly startling.
3. But of course apologists like Klein have always had a way out dealing with the very high civilian death count that he Israeli government has inflected on Palestinians: intentionality. Those deaths were all regrettable collateral damage from fog of war. Lots of civilians died but Netanyahu wasn't "specifically targeting killing civilians."
Read 10 tweets
Jeet Heer Profile picture
Jun 18
1. Stan Lee -- father of the Marvel universe or one of the biggest cultural frauds of recent history? A terrific piece that helps advance a longstanding question about Stan Lee's alleged authorship (or non-authorship) of 1960s Marvel comics. This deeply researched article -- which also serves as a profile of a fascinating writer -- has found some evidence that is major addition to this debate. Let me unfold a tale.Image
2. Stan Lee presented himself as the creator of the Marvel universe, the visionary who came up with the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the Hulk, Black Panther etc. And that's the way he was usually presented in the press & by Marvel/Disney hype machine. It was always nonsense.
3. In truth, Lee was the junior collaborator of the artists he worked for, notably Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko. Kirby & Ditko came up with most of the characters & plots as well as the preliminary dialogue, which Lee then polished. But there's reason to think he didn't even always do the polishing.
Read 8 tweets
Jeet Heer Profile picture
Jun 2
1. So I have a few thoughts on Elon Musk, ketamine, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, opium, Hitler's meth habit, William F. Buckley and the most pathetic acid trip in history, W. H. Auden, cocaine, Aldous Huxley, the CIA, and Silicon Valley, as well as other related matters.
2. Thanks to some excellent reporting from the Wall Street Journal & The New York Times -- as well as the evidence of our own eyes -- we know Musk is an epic consumer of Ketamine (enough to damage his bladder) and also partakes of LSD, ecstasy, cocaine, mushrooms & who knows what else.
3. It's important to contextualize Musk's drug use not as a personal quirk (good or bad) but as part of the larger drug culture on the right. The first Trump administration was awash in speed and Xanax & there's a two century history of mind-altering substances fuelling activities of the right.
Read 11 tweets
Jeet Heer Profile picture
Apr 7
1. Wall Street keeps hoping Trump will change his mind, realize Tariff Wars are stupid, and pull back. That's why so many fell for that stupid Walter Bloomberg tweet this morning & market had a brief rebound. But change-of-heart not happening. Trump is in YOLO mode. Only path forward is congress.
2. 2. Thinking Trump will change his mind isn't unreasonable: in 1st term he was reined in by moderate GOP. But reality is Trump is in 2nd term, most likely can't run again, this is his last shot to achieve goals: YOLO. And he's had stupid trade deficit fixation since 1980s.
3. Only path forward is congress, which in fact has constitutional power to set tariffs. That was foolishly delegated to president but can be taken back. To do this you'd need 20 GOP senators: so far 7 are on board: so 13 more.
Read 6 tweets
Jeet Heer Profile picture
Apr 7
1. Politically, the key thing to understand is tariff crisis is above all else a constitutional crisis. Under USA constitution, power of tariffs belongs to congress, not president.
2. Now, congress has a right to delegate its tariff power to president, which it has done over last few decades. This parallels the shifting of war making power from congress to president and was also done on so-called national security grounds.
3. The argument for delegating tariff power to president -- like broader argument for imperial presidency -- was idea that POTUS was more responsible & security minded (concerned for whole nation's interest) than congress, which represented narrow regional interests.
Read 6 tweets
Jeet Heer Profile picture
Feb 5
1. Trump's goal of taking over Gaza (after Palestinians have been ethnically cleansed) is evil and deranged. It's also not going to happen, along with many other similarly crackpot, criminal goals: annexing Canada, Greenland, Panama Canal etc. These absurd goals are evidence of imperial decline
2. Feature of all of Trump's recent trade wars is that he uses hyperbolic threats (annexing Canada, 25% tariffs etc), then reaches an agreement whereby other country concedes little or nothing. Pattern has been seen in Canada, Mexico, Panama, Colombia. Declare war, do nothing, declare victory,Image
3. Trump's a product of the world of professional wrestling where kayfabe (fake feuds, fake fights) are the norm. He's brought that narrative technique to politics and foreign affairs. Important to both condemn his goals as evil but also at the same time debunk them as kayfabe. Image
Read 4 tweets

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