When Hitler’s followers learned he lied, “instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.” Arendt
I reread the first tweet and saw a typing mistake, so this is to remind everyone that all errors in my tweets are the fault of keyboard gremlins.
Now, I think I need more ☕️
Leaning into this 2 weeks before the election shows it's all they've got.
Rudy started working on this in late 2018 as part of Operation Ukraine Shakedown. The scheme was blown open so now it lost all its teeth. (I think I just mixed my metaphors. Need more ☕️)
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Two key lies launched Trump into politics: Birtherism and "I am a successful businessman." It worked! He lied. People repeated the lies. Then enough people believed them.
He literally has no other way to "govern" or campaign.
This is nothing new. It's as old as written history.
In the middle ages, one of the lies was Jewish blood libel.
Want to go farther back? Let's talk about Darius I of Persia (522 BCE to 486 BCE)
I started a new thing on my blog. I added an “Ask Teri” button. Back when I had 200 followers on Twitter, I answered every question. Now I can’t. (I can't even see everything) I’ll see if this works better.
Question #1 ⤵️
1/ A lot is being written about how to strengthen our battered institutions. I plan to devote full blog posts to particular reforms that can help.
But here’s the thing about democracy: At any given time, a majority of voters can decide it’s time to end democracy.
2/ In 2016, Trump ran as a “disruptor" and norm breaker. He promised to dismantle agencies, do away with regulations.
People who voted for him didn't care if he lied and cheated and broke rules. That's what they wanted.
It reminds me of this passage from @stuartpstevens's book, It Was All A Lie⤵️
The passage rings true for me. It's one reason I never believed the "GOP elected officials are conspiring to cheat and throw the election to Trump even if he loses the election" theory.
We can never stop. Democracy means government by the people.
Example: The long term solution to the problem with how elections are conducted in Georgia is to elect people who are competent and care about well-run elections.
Maryland GOP Governor Larry Hogan is not showing courage, leadership, or love of democracy in throwing away a vote.
The kind of courage required by conservatives when confronted with an extremist is described by Levitsky & Ziblatt (How Democracies Die) washingtonpost.com/politics/larry…
Correct. (I forgot to tag @GovLarryHogan in the first tweet.)
Hogan's gesture is not only a cowardly and weak (and pointless), he is also perpetuating a false narrative.
Voter suppression was a problem in California in the 1980s and 1990s. Then California turned blue and elected Democrats to office, and now it's easy to vote here.