1. I'm going to talk about why there's such desperate fear of Buttigieg and Biden, and it's not an 'online left' thing. It's a global autocracy rising thing. In Modi's India we're seeing the genuine fascist article.
2. In China it's Han supremacy, which is the same fascist ideology as that of the early Nazis, except with a different group pushing it and better surveillance technology. amp.businessinsider.com/china-economic…
3. It's nowhere near as bad in the West, but the signs are there. The European project is collapsing, with Boris Johnson taking power in the U.K. and big tech organizing our culture with increasingly autocratic mechanisms. Trump is lazy, but otherwise he could have done it.
4. The cause of this rise in fascism is that democratic leaders have deferred to the rich and powerful. Laws are now suggestions. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are the causal factors of this collapse of faith in any but strongmen, because they showed us democracy can't work.
5. To take a quick example, Obama empowered the fascist leader of India Modi, even though Obama probably knew he was fascist.
"When Modi met Obama, not long after taking office, the two visited the memorial to Martin Luther King, Jr., a man Modi claimed to admire."
"When Modi met Obama, not long after taking office, the two visited the memorial to Martin Luther King, Jr., a man Modi claimed to admire."
6. People all over the world are waiting for U.S. leadership. Maybe they shouldn't but they are. And most of us believe that the Democratic Party is the only vehicle to stand against this tide. But so far, Democratic leaders have done the opposite.
We've been here before.
We've been here before.
7. In 1932, FDR fought with Al Smith for the Dem nomination. Smith was an Obama-like figure, on the payroll of oligarchs and desperate to be an elite. He wanted to run on repealing the antitrust laws and fighting over prohibition, not the economy. He was financed by utility men.
8. FDR had a populist coalition behind him. Cordell Hull said the Democratic Party had a moral mandate to fight the “condition of autocracy that is springing up in South America and throughout Europe, and even in the Orient,” a battle between “despotism and democracies.”
9. One party leader articulated the rage against the corrupt Al Smith, which should resonate today. "The only way the Republican Party can hope for victory is to rely on the lack of leadership in the Democratic Party.”
10. In 2008, we didn't pick an FDR. We picked Al Smith, our own Herbert Hoover. And then as Barack Hoover Obama wrecked our democracy and concentrated wealth and power, we cheered. We cheered his lies and his oil-drenched policy, with occasional pushback. google.com/amp/s/www.nyti…
11. The corruption and weakness of Clinton/Obama was mirrored in the Macron, Trudeau, Merkel, Milliband and center right/left everywhere. Shockingly, as Trump and a wave of strongmen blew up this paradigm, the elites are horrified. Corrupt fools like @Yascha_Mounk blame populism.
@Yascha_Mounk 12. But of course this is the dynamic. Bush, Obama, Clinton are all *aristocrats.* And when in office and out of office they illustrated that the government and laws are rigged for people like them. 
@Yascha_Mounk 13. Today there is insane fear, concentrated among the left though existing on the right as well, about social collapse. Climate change, fascism, and monopolization/corruption. There's a deep sense of urgency. The old leaders don't share it. They think things are basically fine.
@Yascha_Mounk 14. The existing Democratic leadership class thinks that the job is to promise somewhat nice things, signal to power you won't do them, and then in office use corrupt slogans like 'campaign in poetry and govern in prose' or 'make me do it.' That's what Obama did. He lied. A lot.
@Yascha_Mounk 15. Pete Buttigieg is a similar aristocrat, and so is Biden. Everyone knows, both their supporters and their opponents, that they are lying about their policies. They want to sit in crystal wine caves. That's their politics.
@Yascha_Mounk 16. Buttigieg won't do a Medicare Buy-in. We know that. He knows that. And that's what *his supporters want,* someone to soothingly lie that 'it's ok things are fine' as the seas rise up to swallow civilization. They want another Obama.
The lies are the point.
The lies are the point.
@Yascha_Mounk 17. The split is more age/urgency based than identity based. It's an ok boomer politics. The conversation about ostrich politics is happening in every community. There are powerful voices on our central lie, like @dereckapurnell. nytimes.com/2019/02/23/opi…
@Yascha_Mounk @dereckapurnell 18. Some call themselves socialists, like @NathanJRobinson. But the central axis is urgency to address social problems and fear of what happens if we don't. currentaffairs.org/2019/03/all-ab…
@Yascha_Mounk @dereckapurnell @NathanJRobinson 19. Ultimately, aristocracy is the problem. Aristocracy has its strong racist tendencies, but aristocrats are happy to use anti-racist ethnic grievance politics to consolidate power. Of course that sets us up for horrible backlashes.
@Yascha_Mounk @dereckapurnell @NathanJRobinson 20. We need a multi-racial populist coalition to beat the aristocrats. Organized people has to beat organized money. And we need to move towards recognizing that racism lives within institutions and bureaucracies, that it is a concentrated form of oppressive aristocracy.
@Yascha_Mounk @dereckapurnell @NathanJRobinson 21. It isn't a uniquely American problem and it's not about any particular ethnic conflict. It's ideological. If don't believe me, ask the Chinese government. They'll sell you concentration camp technology to oppress whatever ethnic group you want. amp.businessinsider.com/china-economic…
