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30 Oct, 4 tweets, 2 min read
I wrote the two pieces that appeared today at different times. (Placement was up to the editors, and unlike Glenn Greenwald, I like my editors and I count on them to protect me from myself.) So I'm sorry to impose. /1
This is my closing argument for Joe Biden. I have a written a lot of things about a lot of subjects for @USATODAY - Indian food! - but thanks @JillDLawrence for insisting my election stuff stay sane (or as sane as anyone with my TDS can be in 2020):

usatoday.com/story/opinion/…

/2
And this is my look back at being #NeverTrump: How it started, what it means, where we're going after whatever happens on Tuesday. Thanks @whitdangerfield for keeping me on track, although I still think I should have used that word we didn't use :D

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

/3
I'm not going anywhere and you'll all have to put up with me more on everything from nukes to why Boston is better than Zep. But thanks for reading all this stuff, gang. /4x

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More from @RadioFreeTom

Tom Nichols Profile picture
31 Oct
If the 1-in-10 shot happens on Tuesday and Trump legitimately wins - and it is possible - taking to the streets that day will be dumb. Save that for when all court challenges and the second impeachment fails, and Trump is making his real run at the Constitution. I'll join you. /1
I say this because if he wins, it will be because - again - not enough people took seriously the threat of authoritarianism. And protesting in 2016 was part of how people got conditioned to ignore that threat. When everything is a protest, the public gets worn out. /2
The math says it is unlikely. But if it happens, we will all need more courage and more perseverance - and an army of dedicated lawyers and legislators - more than we've needed them at any time in our modern history. THAT will be a test of courage. But hold a good thought. /3
Read 6 tweets
Tom Nichols Profile picture
28 Oct
I have had this convo with Trump supporters a hundred times over the past 4 years, and it always ends with confused cognitive dissonance, or just anger.
Makes them even more confused when I say I'm a conservative, but I just them to be *consistent* in what they say they want. /1
They'll say: "You used to agree with me," or "But you want what I want!" And I say: Sometimes. But I've changed my mind on the ACA: people depend on it and it's here to stay - just like Medicaid. It helps people like *you* and your family, right?
/2
Eventually, they'll concede that they are mostly getting what they want, and they mostly just want other people not to have what they have, and then they say: "Yeah, you make some good points, but... things have to change. You just don't get it."
And I say: Okay, explain it. /3
Read 7 tweets
Tom Nichols Profile picture
27 Oct
So, this is a small story about #RhodeIsland politics, and my position about voting out the GOP down to the grass roots - and how local actions have consequences for national parties. /1
A few years back, some folks on here thought I was pretty hard-assed for voting against a local GOP candidate for RI House. She should have been my ideal pick: A PhD in poli sci (I knew her work back in the day. It was good stuff.) Pro-choice, pro-business. /2
But she was a Trump delegate to the GOP convention - even though she said she wrote in Carly Fiorina. (Whatever.) I told her directly that I believed in starving the GOP for support until it cleaned house on Trumpism. A year later, she runs for GOP state chair. /3
Read 7 tweets
Tom Nichols Profile picture
25 Oct
I think for anyone open to reason, @Timodc offers a fine list of reasons to come to their senses. But I am more pessimistic than he is: I don't believe the people who are now still leaning to Trump are accessible to reason.
There is only one appeal to make, imo. /1
It is the appeal to your own innate moral sense. To ask yourself if you really believe that everyone else - Biden?! - is so evil that you must support Donald Trump. To examine your own heart and to ask yourself if you really are the kind of person who believes such a thing. /2
Of course, if you are the kind of person capable of even this much introspection, you've probably already decided and you long ago realized that your own moral sense gave you the answer about why you cannot support Trump, even if you're reluctant to actively fight him. /3
Read 6 tweets
Tom Nichols Profile picture
24 Oct
Believe it or not, I don't disagree that strongly with @JayCaruso or @DavidAFrench about the right to vote for whomever you choose, or not vote at all. I just reject any notion that such an act can be divorced from its obvious consequences as some sort of higher principle. /1
If you are a person who says, and genuinely believes, that Joe Biden and Donald Trump are completely interchangeable or equivalently evil, well, okay. Don't pick either of them. I think these are morally obtuse positions, but okay, it's your right. /2
But to say "I do so because my vote must completely represent me and my values" is childish in a system *designed* to force you to aggregate your interests with others in a "close enough" solution. It's not just parties that do this; that's by constitutional design as well. /3
Read 8 tweets
Tom Nichols Profile picture
23 Oct
I haven't written up why I think so, but I am a dissenter on this.
Main reason: Cults of personality don't transfer well.
Also: The antics driven by Trump's emotional illnesses were crucial to his appeal to a base that demographically gets smaller every year.
/1
The GOP will get smaller and harder-edged and will move further right. They might still cobble together Electoral College wins (even now!) But "Trumpism" didn't mean anything but "Trump's TV show." You can't always just replace Darren with a new Darren. /2
And one more thing: Trump being a "kingmaker" means Trump accepting that he is not a king. His personality is not the type to step aside and start supporting someone younger and more accomplished. It's not how he's built. In fact...
/3
Read 5 tweets

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