Thread by @matthewstoller

1. To take the snark out for a second, if the Democrats in the House do choose to impeach Trump, it will be a major step forward for both the rule of the law and American democracy. It will begin restoring Congress to its rightful place as a co-equal branch of government.

2. The single worst Congress I encountered in my research for my book on monopolies was that of the Democrats elected in 1930. The election happened in the wake of a vicious recession (not yet depression) as a reaction against Hoover. Democrats were adamant about doing nothing.

3. It was a moment of transition. In the 1920s, Americans, and people globally, had lost their faith in democracy. Walter Lippmann thought it was unworkable. 1928, the U.S. Army training manual said democracy resulted in "demogogism, license, agitation, discontent, anarchy."

4. In the 1920s, Democrats had been thoroughly crushed in every way possible. Far more than McGovern's loss or Reagan's wins in the 1980s. Herbert Hoover got the endorsement of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce AND the AFL in 1928.

5. In 1930, Dems didn't quite take the majority in the House. But over the course of a series of special elections, they finally got the majority in 1931. The new speaker was conservative Texan John Nance Garner. His main agenda for the downturn was... a regressive sales tax.

6. It was a creepy as hell, and not just abroad. Columbia University's president Nicholas Murray Butler told his freshmen that dictatorships were putting forward "men of far greater intelligence, far stronger character, and far more courage than the system of elections."

7. All key Congressional leaders of the Democratic party, as well as the Presidential candidates of 1924 and 1928 and the DNC Chair, pledged to work with the reactionary Herbert Hoover. Big business were not sure whether the GOP or Dems were a better bet.

8. The Democrats were torn, because many had left-populist leanings, but lacked the confidence to wield power over private business or to challenge the GOP. The GOP were the party of bankers, of military leaders, of businessmen, of the adults who ran things.

9. Congressman Emanuel Celler put it this way: "Congress began to skip, first in this direction, then in that. There were no leaders. Congress had not yet begun to feel the measure of responsibility and the tragedies that arose from the 1929 crash."

10. Then the protests started, many by World War One vets. The song "Brother Can You Spare a Dime" was about angry vets. The GOP tried to have it banned on the radio. Tentative stabs at political leadership. Blood. Anger. Calls for revolution. Communism. Fascism.

11. Hoover sat in the White House, eating lavish dinners every night in formal garb, for fear that if he didn't he would be illustrating a lack of confidence. Always, always, confidence. He worked 18 hours a day, accomplished nothing, and lied constantly.

12. The change was rapid, with a slow build-up. Much as a dam breaks because of massive pressure over time, and then snaps all at once.

13. It happened via an impeachment, of the Treasury Secretary, Andrew Mellon. The forces of democracy gained their confidence, led by progressive Republican Fiorello La Guardia and rural Democrat Wright Patman.

14. The change was a slow build-up, like unseen pressure building up in front of a seemingly indestructible dam. But then the snap, all at once, as the new order came into being. That is what the transition was like.

15. Rep. Celler described the totally changed atmosphere in Congress after FDR took office. A zip was in the air. "It seemed as if you could hold out your hand and close it over the piece of excited you had ripped away. It was the return of hope... It was contagious."

16. "What before had been black or white sprang alive with color. The messages to Congress, the legislation; even the reports on the legislation took on the briskness of authority."

The recent past seemed distant, almost irrelevant.

17. Italian Antonio Gramsci, sitting in jail, penned this famous phrase. “The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.”

18. That was true globally. But in the U.S., Americans somehow managed to restore their faith in their democracy. Through action, not prayer. Through power, not polling. Congress learned to lead, to wield power.

19. Dem learned to lead because they were forced into it. And the people learned to believe in democracy for the same reason. That is where we are now. We are at a 40 year turning point, where up is down. People don't change their minds quickly. But they do change their minds.

20. That's what I've learned from years of research. If you want the full story of how we learned to love democracy and then to despise it, my book is coming out soon. These stories are our heritage. Now it is time for our generation to fight this battle. simonandschuster.com/books/Goliath/…