Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

You can paste full URL like: https://x.com/threadreaderapp/status/1644127596119195649
or just the ID like: 1644127596119195649

How to get URL link on X (Twitter) App

  1. On the Twitter thread, click on or icon on the bottom
  2. Click again on or Share Via icon
  3. Click on Copy Link to Tweet
  4. Paste it above and click "Unroll Thread"!
  5. More info at Twitter Help
Rick Perlstein Profile picture
@rickperlstein
May 21, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X
2Day's REAGANLAND tidbit(s) is a visual tribute to the #MrsAmerica "Houston" episode. Mazel tov, @DahviWaller! (1) Bella and Betty barrelling down the avenue in the last leg of the torch relay... Image
(2) "We Shall Overcome...": this followed passage of the minority affairs plank, after Gloria Steinem helped negotiate an impasse, just as the show depicted. This, I learned, was the origin of the phrase "women of color." Image
(3) Celebrating passage of the gay rights plank, following Betty Friedan's conversion to the cause. The show was kind enough to NOT spoil the bit in my book where...well: I won't spoil it either. It stars Andrea Dworkin. Image
(4) The counter-rally, which popularized the slogan "God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve," and black state legislator Clay Smothers brought down the house: "I have enough civil rights to choke a hungry goat...Let's do something about these misfits and perverts!" Image

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Rick Perlstein

Rick Perlstein Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @rickperlstein

Rick Perlstein Profile picture
Mar 31
I said no more, but I think it might be a useful contribution to expand upon a criticism I've had on @coreyrobin's classic everyone has to read, The Reactionary Mind, since it became such a powerful influence on me upon first reading. It ends making the argument that...
...the American reactionary tradition has reached the end of the line because no one in American politics any longer pursues "revolution" (one of the book's keywords). At the time, my beef was that it doesn't matter whether you and I think revolution is being pursued...
...it's what the REACTIONARIES think; an ethnographic approach here is imperative. The same problem carries over to Corey's argument that reaction cannot have tipped over into something worse called "fascism," because fascism must definitionally be a reaction to socialism...
Read 16 tweets
Rick Perlstein Profile picture
Aug 3, 2023
It will be a horrifying fascination to see how much further one of America's political parties has to advance into fascist territory before agenda-setting elite political journalists start to report that one of America's political parties is advancing into fascist territory.
Over/under? Maybe when they start getting shot. Staggering how corrupted American journalism has become from own reason for existing. Facilitating citizenship is literally why they came up with the "free press" part of the First Amendment in the first place.
The elite media analysis of black and white evidence of a coup attempt is almost exclusively "how will this play in the swing states" or "who's winning the messaging war" diarrhea. This is how republics die. I can't begin to express my shame.
Read 4 tweets
Rick Perlstein Profile picture
May 1, 2023
Thread on what May Day is really all about. A little while back I scripted a short interlude on the history of strikes for a doc on a famous one. The doc will be coming out eventually, and will be wonderful, but the interlude didn't work out in the end, so I'm prewenting it here.
It's about the simple, blunt fact that before the National Labor Relations ("Wagner") Act made joining unions and striking a right protected by the federal government, those attempted to do so were MURDERED ALL THE TIME--by the state, by vigilantes, by private police.
The main sources I relied on to begin assembling the story are "Labor's Untold Story" by Richard Boyer, a book commissioned by the militant United Electrical Workers for distribution to members and originally published in 1955... archive.org/details/labors…
Read 29 tweets
Rick Perlstein Profile picture
Mar 11, 2023
The most famous Dem economic advisor says rich speculators who had the poor judgement to deposit in an untrustworthy bank have to be made whole. Nothing about the moral hazard this presents, nor the message to the proles who only get $250K in protection. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Only the little people should suffer when there's a "risk to the financial system."
Saving banks while the peasants get stuck with cliches about "moral hazard" was the ideological position Barack Obama CHOSE as the face of the party with his policies on the subprime crisis and financial collapse.
Read 12 tweets
Rick Perlstein Profile picture
Dec 12, 2022
I'm coming down on this shit in my book. I used to be able to point out that there was nothing like the kind of grift I wrote about on the right with the Dems, but this stuff is created using A/B algorithms to tickle people's pleasure centers with no political content whatsoever.
...The policy-based come-ons have no connection to what anyone powerful in the party's actual agenda, so "CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT MEDICARE FOR ALL!" just creates alienation in the long as has people become disillusioned with these things not happening even if Dems achieve control.
It's shameful that the Democrats have this MASSIVE aperture with which to communicate with voters and merely use it to squeeze money out of them, with money largely going to consultants, and the rest paying for terrible TV-based strategies that do nothing to build power. Corrupt.
Read 6 tweets
Rick Perlstein Profile picture
Dec 8, 2022
If the Supreme Court backs the Independent State Legislature Theory, it's over. America will no longer be able to pretend it's a legitimate democracy.
Context: npr.org/2022/12/07/114…
You must pay attention to this. If even a few justices sign on to it, the day that decision is handed down could be remembered by posterity as a banner day in the death of the republican form of government in these United States.
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

Send Email!

:(