It's not inherently a problem in a democratic system to "win" by the rules despite losing the popular vote.
1/x
In a multiparty list system like Germany's or Israel's, it will often happen that the parties that eg finished 2nd and 3d will form a coalition that excludes the party that finished 1st.
2/x
In a Westminster system modelled on that of the UK, it will often happen that one party wins more votes, the other wins more seats. That's what happened in the Canadian federal election of 2019: the Conservatives got more votes; Justin Trudeau's Liberals got more seats. 3x/
In Germany, Israel, Canada, etc. the winner gets to form a government - but they don't get to speak for "the people." Indeed in a Westminster system, there is a formal job of "leader of the opposition" - building into the system constitutional recognition of diverging views. 4/x
The PM heads the government, and only that - not the nation.
The American presidency is different. An American president claims more than a legal mandate. He or she claims charismatic authority resting on "the will of the people." 5/x
This problem is of course compounded when a society confronts a would-be tyrant like Donald Trump. Trump is president only *by* the rules - yet he constantly seeks to *break* the rules based on a claim to represent "will of the people." It *matters* that the claim is false. 6/x
Which is why the Trump presidency is a walking legitimacy crisis - and why a hypothetical 2nd Trump term, almost certainly with an even bigger popular vote deficit than the first - will create an even bigger legitimacy crisis than the first term. 7/x
Trump respects none of the other institutions created by the Constitution, including the oversight power of Congress and the 1st Amendment. He wants to trample every law in the name of his voters, even though his voters are outnumbered by the other voters. 8/x
So yeah, Biden voters are right to worry that a Trump re-election won't be legitimate. Trump wants to rule by lawless power, resting ultimately on the threat of vigilante violence. Constitutional legitimacy will itself be the first casualty of a 2nd Trump term. - END -
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The Benin artifacts previously delivered to Nigeria from UK and Germany have disappeared from public view. They are not on display in any museum. Some or all may have been sold into private markets. (Links in next tweet)
The late PJ O'Rourke had a great line: "Just as some things are too strange for fiction, other things are too true for journalism." The fate of artworks delivered to Nigeria is one of those subjects too true for journalism. Fiction and fantasy are reported as moral imperative.
In 2018, protesters against gasoline tax demonstrated in Paris. A radical few set fires near the Arc de Triomphe, creating scenes of chaos for social media platforms - like the iconic image below. (THREAD)
To the consumer of social media, it must have looked as if France hovered on the brink of revolution in 2018. Paris engulfed in flames! (2/x)
Here's how things looked to Parisians, though. Some agitator poured gasoline on a bike at a distance from the Arc, set it on fire, and then photographed the monument through the black smoke created by burning tires. (3/x)
Here's the decision just won by @IlyaSomin and allies striking down Trump's tariffs as an abuse of presidential emergency authority. It's blinking inspiring. (thread) cit.uscourts.gov/sites/cit/file…
The Trump administration argued that US federal courts must accept presidential claims of "emergency" at face value, no matter how manifestly nonsensical and in bad faith those claims in fact are. The US Court of International Trade said, in effect, "not so fast."
Courteously but forcefully, the Court demonstrated that Trump's actions are only tenuously related to the pretextual emergency Trump proclaimed. Trade is a congressional domain, and Trump abused the constitutionally limited power Congress delegated him.
President Trump and his family are extorting billions of dollars from US companies and foreign nations. In new piece for @TheAtlantic I examine past US corruption - and conclude Trump can't be compared to anything American, only Russia or Africa. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
Today's @TheAtlantic piece linked above is supplement to monologue on the David Frum Show today. Trump's analogues are not Nixon, Harding, or Grant. They are Putin, Mobutu Sese Soko, and the Duvaliers in Haiti.
@TheAtlantic I once owned a dog who avidly chased squirrels, but looked away when he met a deer. My wife explained: "Some things are too big to see." I recall that saying when journalists get excited over "Biden was addled" and ignore "Trump is a Putin- or Mobutu-scale crook."
Donald Trump's approval rating in his first term moved in a narrow band: never above 50%, but also seldom below 40%, and then not much below. 1/x
Even during COVID, Trump's supporters stayed true. Unhappy as they were during COVID, Trump supporters agreed to shift blame for their unhappiness to somebody else: blue-state governors, Dr Fauci, etc. 2/x
But what if the US is struck by a disaster that is undeniably Trump's doing? Financial markets *predict* the disaster, but are not themselves the disaster. Few Americans have yet lost jobs, prices are only beginning to rise, shops are still full of goods to buy. 3/x
First-term Trump was also an economic idiot. He imposed escalating tariffs in first half of 2018, not only on China but on EU and Canada too. Trump bad policy triggered a big stock slump in second half 2018. 1/x
Trump worried that the bad stock market of 2018 might dim his re-election chances. He spent much of 2019 desperately pleading with the Chinese for an exit from the trade war he started the year before. 2/x
Trump's eagerness for a China deal to save his re-election was a reason that he dismissed the gathering warnings of a new pandemic in China. He failed to protect the country because he was trying to protect himself. Here's Trump in January 2020: 3/x