Jake M. Grumbach Profile picture
Sep 20, 2020 4 tweets 1 min read Read on X
This is a difficult discussion, and I want to be graceful about all mourning.

But the American liberal proverb "powerful political individual X doesn't owe you anything" must be destroyed. They're means to ends on behalf of millions of ordinary people, and nothing more.
For example: is descriptive representation a means or an end? The answer should be clear. It is, again, merely a means to an end via empowerment and increased participation of people with shared identities. It's not an end in an of itself.
Is the kid touching Obama's hair photo an end? Maybe to some extent. But more important is that it represents the inspiration and empowerment of young Black people, who will then participate and run for office and...ya know...implement policies that help regular Black people!
Is criticism like this disproportionately leveled when women are the political actors whose strategy is in question? Surely. We have to understand that, as well as the original point.

• • •

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

Keep Current with Jake M. Grumbach

Jake M. Grumbach 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 @JakeMGrumbach

Oct 2, 2023
Here's my new working paper w/ @robmickey & @dziblatt.

tl;dr influxes of Black people during the Great Migration led Northern towns & cities to remove directly elected mayors & replace them with appointed city managers

ungated:

1/n dropbox.com/scl/fi/r54lw8s…
Image
The 20th century saw the US democratize. Black people moved out of Jim Crow to states where they had voting rights. Eventually the South democratized with the Voting Rights Act.

But US democracy is decentralized. As I show in other work, state govts can constrain democracy.

2/n Image
In this paper, we show how *local governments* can also counteract national democracy trends. Northern local governments reduced democracy in response to expanding numbers of Black voters.

They did this by (among other changes) switching to city manager systems.

3/n
Read 13 tweets
Sep 4, 2023
Labor Day thread on my new working paper with @pfrymer and @hill_charlotte

tl;dr it's really hard to study but state level right-to-work (RTW) laws weaken organized labor, and by extension, weaken democratic institutions

ungated:

1/n dropbox.com/scl/fi/1hze2p1…
Image
Labor unions are mostly thought of as just about wages/benefits. But unions give workers political socialization, class identity, & racial solidarity. Historically, labor backed the Voting Rights Act. In recent years they've organized & spent to support democracy reforms.

2/n

Image
Image
Image
RTW laws reduce labor funds by increasing free riding on union dues.

As a consequence, they reduce union membership & funds (pic #1)

As @jamesfeigenbaum, @awh, & @V_Williamson show, right-to-work laws increased Republican voting (pic #2)

3/n
Image
Image
Read 9 tweets
Mar 11, 2023
His last statement in this clip should be disqualifying for participation in public life. He could do 1000 "twitterfiles" things and it wouldn't come close to this. One of the most disturbing video clips I've ever seen. Let that sink in.
Disturbingly accurate
Ironic to make comedy legal on twitter only to kill it
Read 4 tweets
Jan 28, 2023
Where we’re at with policing is that BLM protests increased voting for Democrats.

But they also caused a police wildcat strike, and real policy change in blue states & cities (like Memphis) was minimal. And even the successful reforms mostly went unenforced.

Police still rule.
Two blue states sort of reformed qualified immunity. Two more passed delicensing reforms that haven’t really been used in practice. Many blue cities passed reforms that they didn’t enforce, like chokehold bans. Blue cities couldn’t even get their police to obey COVID orders.
Local governments lack the capacity to hold their LEAs accountable. By contrast, the military has serious problems but soldiers are paid less than police yet obey their commanders in chief more. States & feds should probably take over these unaccountable local LEAs
Read 4 tweets
Dec 22, 2022
this has normie libs feeling like they just got done watching Hamilton
I tease but this is good
People taking my shitpost very seriously, Twitter is back baby!
Read 4 tweets
Nov 18, 2022
The contemporary American pseudopopulist right is people with extremely expensive educations telling people with medium expensive educations that people they assume have no education support the labor exploitation of people with medium expensive educations because they're too gay
"It's insulting to ask a guy with a beard and no glasses have solidarity with a guy who looks like a nerd"
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!

:(