Thread by @paulbeard

So how is a 4 million vote margin out of 147 million votes a #blowout? Ask @kingjames if a 75-71 score is a blowout in basketball? If we look at the electoral college, is 306-211 a blowout? Would a (rounded) 31-21 football score be a blowout? 1/

Or to round down further, would a 3-2 baseball score be anything remarkable? No. I get that 4 million is a lot but against 147 million? It's 3%. If you left a 3% tip you'd better run out the door. Would you be happy w a 3% raise? 2/

The bigger question is what did those 71 million voters want? Some thoughtful pieces in the weekend papers with @AOC and @tressiemcphd… I don't think many wanted more family separation or a continuation of the current COVID strategy. What we should ask is what they oppose. 3/

What are they afraid of? "Socialism?" How many seniors want to shut down social security and medicare? How many homebuyers oppose FHA lending support? How many farmers reject crop and flood insurance and USDA checkoff programs? 4/

I think they are afraid of a perceived loss of status without being willing to admit the benefits of it. "I worked for everything but you can't allow that guy to have the same opportunity." 2040, when white people are slated to become a minority, is just 20 years away. 5/

It seems to me if you were worried about a post majority society, you would want to ensure all people were treated the same, no matter their origin or attributes. Some years ago, I heard a talk by Bill Gates Sr, arguing for an inheritance tax on wealth, and his explanation… 6/

…was a retelling of John Rawls' veil of ignorance…the idea that if you were able to choose the makeup of the world you were born into but not your own makeup — gender/race/ability — what kind of world would you make? Ideally, it would be fair to all. 7/

If we are simply going to perpetuate a caste system, even as demographics change the makeup of this country, things will only get worse. In a slave or caste society, no one is free, not those at the top or bottom. 8/

Socialism is a stalking horse for equality of opportunity, for the real freedoms that FDR wanted in his second bill of rights. Freedom from stress and worry, freedom to contribute and build in common regardless of where or to whom you were born. 9/

The NYTImes reported a few years back on how many people in the USA benefit from the various aspect of the social safety net and those interviewed were opposed to socialism…but needed those benefits. "Some for me and some for thee but none for that fellow behind that tree…" 10/

Or "when I get it, it's a hand up…when she gets it, it's a handout." That's the divide right there: those who can't accept the ways they benefit and are unwilling to see others of a lower caste receive the same. Do 71M people want to return to a pre-Civil Rights era past? /11

We should ask them. For all this talk of conciliation, we should find out what we're reconciling over, what the differences are. But let's dispense with the #blowout idea and focus on how close it was…and why, after the past 4 years or the past 40. 12/F

threadreaderapp.com/thread/1325614… all in one.