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Sean Casten Profile picture
@SeanCasten
Sep 24, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X
The party that couldn't find the courage to stand up to Gingrich's anti-intellectual nihilism got captured by the Tea Party.
The party that couldn't find the courage to stand up to the Tea Party's anti-intellectual populism got captured by Trump.
The party that lacks the courage to stand up to Trump's anti-intellectual racism is on track to get captured by QAnon.
Do not look to them for courage. Do not look to them for leadership. This is the result of a 30 year process that has selected for anti-intellectual obedience. They are who they are.
The American people are better. Thats why the @GOP can't win democratic elections. Their power comes only from those institutions that do not reflect the popular will. (Senate, Electoral College, and if they get their way, SCOTUS)
So don't lose faith in America. But we must bring to account every single @GOP official who contributed to this moment. Our 244 year experiment is on the ballot this election, because defending democracy has become partisan.

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More from @SeanCasten

Sean Casten Profile picture
Dec 19
Brief thread on how we got here: Since the GOP won control of the House 2 years ago they have not passed a single appropriations package into law. Government has operated at funding levels set by Dems 2 years ago via continuing resolutions every few months. This is not normal.
1. For comparison, when the Ds controlled the House in the 116th (with Rs in control of the Senate and WH) and in the 117th (D control of Senate and WH) we negotiated and passed full appropriations bills. So it’s not a divided gov’t issue. It’s just @HouseGOP incompetence.
@HouseGOP 2. To be clear, they have brought partial appropriations bills to the floor. Some passed the House. All were DOA in the Senate because they were so loaded with culture war nonsense & meanness. Those bills came about in part because of deep animosity within the House GOP caucus.
Read 17 tweets
Sean Casten Profile picture
Dec 13
Put this on Bluesky last week, throwing here now for your holiday shopping: the 10 best books I read in 2024...
1. The Field of Blood - Joanne Freeman. A Congressional history that's old-fashioned (honor codes, etc.) but also fully contemporary where one party realized that the simple threat of maximalist politics can force acquiescence… until the other side gets tired of being bullied. Image
2. Common Sense, Rights of Man and other Essential Writings - Thomas Paine. Douglass and Baldwin have always been the two most American writers to me - they got what makes us great, and our flaws and our potential. I'm adding Paine to that Mt. Rushmore pantheon along with... Image
Read 12 tweets
Sean Casten Profile picture
Nov 17
Trump's nominee to be DOE secretary may be ignorant or intentionally wrong. But this video (which you should watch all of) consistently confuses upstream and downstream energy in an effort to suggest that climate change isn't a concern.
1. You would get laughed out of a room if you said that access to transportation depends on iron ore production, or nutrition depends on annual grain harvests. People understand that deweighting cars, reducing waste in the food distribution system is a net positive. And yet...
2. Wright would have you believe that access to heat, light and power (a net positive) = natural gas production. As a fracker, he has a $ interest in confusing those two things. But the world is richer, not poorer if we can deliver more useful energy with less fossil input.
Read 7 tweets
Sean Casten Profile picture
Nov 11
My primary thought on the election, after a week to reflect: We have to face up to some hard, uncomfortable truths about who we are. But we also have the opportunity to run headlong towards the nobility that accrues to to those who commit themselves to making us better. Thread:
1. I was speaking to a group earlier this week and noted that my Mt. Rushmore of writers about America is de Tocqueville, Baldwin, Paine and Douglass. It is not coincidental that all of them were outsiders. They understand America's unique defects AND it's unique potential.
2. I'm thinking specifically today of de Tocqueville's observation that "the greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults." The time has come for us to be great.
Read 19 tweets
Sean Casten Profile picture
Oct 14
A quick thread on Trump's Project 2025 thing that's been on my mind. It's not just Trump's agenda. It's the agenda of the entire @GOP. A small deep dive:
1. I want to focus very narrowly on the Financial regulation section because I've served on the committee of jurisdiction for 6 years. So much of the P2025 plan has already been introduced by @HouseGOP members. It's what they'd do if they controlled all 3 branches.
@HouseGOP 2. For example, P2025 says we should eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Board (you know, so that businesses can abuse consumers more easily.) Image
Read 13 tweets
Sean Casten Profile picture
Oct 1
Let's talk US immigration policy. As JD Vance admits to lying so he can gin up the xenophobes and the @HouseGOP keeps bringing bills to the floor that claim to solve imaginary problems, we've got to understand the real data, and real issues. Thread:
1. First, the idea that immigrants are prone to criminality has ALWAYS been used to argue against immigration and has never been true. Immigrants - especially undocumented ones - are consistently vastly more law-abiding than the general population. nij.ojp.gov/topics/article…

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2. This makes intuitive sense. Whatever drove one to leave their home, their social network, their culture, their language and start a new life in the United States, the more precarious you are in that new life the less likely you are to do something that could send you back.
Read 21 tweets

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