Thread by @JoshuaCypess

1/ Now that Biden-Harris has won, I want to make two points before I forget:

#1: Joe Biden is a midwife for spurring the USA transition to a anti-White-Supremacy future

#2: Of the 3 countries in right-wing populist crisis - US, UK, Israel - we've pulled out of the tailspin

2/ First: whether or not Harris succeeds to the presidency, Biden's role in supporting the ticket of our first African American president & leading the ticket for the first woman & women of color, makes him a singular role in history for transferring power to a new majority

3/ Profs. Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt in "How Democracies Die" claim:

"[no] democracy [has] made a transition from one in which a previously dominant majority ethnic group loses its dominance status and remain a democracy. It is unprecedented."

oif.ala.org/oif/?p=18539

4/ We're in the midst of that transition now. If it succeeds, Biden is THE essential figure: an old guard, white Christian male, Senator for 30+ yrs, who was able to 'kasher' (whitewash?) a man with an African name & middle name of a recent enemy (Hussein!) into the presidency

5/ That same man, a legislative tactician & policy expert Robin to Obama's charismatic visionary Batman, played a similar role to 'kasher' our first woman on a winning ticket. A woman of color, to boot!

Could any of this have happened w/o Biden willing to hand the keys over?

6/ Levitsky & Ziblatt's work has been essential reading throughout this terrible period. Here's some references for further research:

npr.org/2018/01/22/579…

penguinrandomhouse.com/books/562246/h…

nytimes.com/2020/10/23/opi…

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Democ…

7/ My second point is about three countries I know most about who have been under the grips of right wing minoritarian rule. That the US has emerged from this crisis - first by winning the House in 2018 - shows a strength of our non-parliamentary system. Federalism, baby

8/ The Electoral College's obsolescence notwithstanding, the Federalist system has shown it's robust resilience to total breakdown, even in the pandemic crisis. While I want to help people in SD, my own state was able to handle it better b/c we're semi-sovereign.

9/ One reason I've balked at making aliyah has been my opposition to the political system in Israel. No joke. Parliaments are almost always minority rule and when in power a coalition has no checks & balances

The US has escape valves for avoiding small & large scale tyranny.

10/ Israel & the US are going through frightening political crises but I haven't seen any reasonable way for Israel to emerge from their gridlock, while the US has had many ways forward.

OTOH, the UK is a better case for a parliament's vulnerability to Russian dirty tricks

11/ That their recent election was between two parties that were both compromised by the Russians, with the left wing party stupefyingly more intolerant than an already bizarre Tory head Boris Johnson shows why it's still more stable in America (and better for my people).

12/ Shabbas is coming, so I will need to end all of these threads.

@threadreaderapp please unroll.

@threader_app please compile.