Share this page!

Matt Stoller Profile picture
Twitter logo
14 Nov, 5 tweets, 2 min read
I'm increasingly furious at the complete disinterest in governing by supposed political analysts.
Governing matters. Democrats victories in 2006 and 2008 were about the war in Iraq and financial crisis, Trump's victory had a lot more to do with NAFTA and China PNTR than anything else.
Flip it around, Trump entirely defined the agenda in 2016, and he was the challenger. Nate's a smart guy, but he's completely lost because his polls didn't work and he doesn't realize the government exists.
If there had been a single blue area where Democrats governed well around Covid, they might have pointed to that and said 'we'll do that nationally.' There wasn't. Voters know that Dems and Rs can't run the government, because that's what they experienced. Governing matters!
It's arrogant to imagine voters don't know what NAFTA is. Tens of millions of people remember the factory moving away and the town going to shit as Walmarts destroyed local commerce. Many of these people voted for Dems, and are now Trump voters. They know Dems look down on them.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Matt Stoller

Matt Stoller Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @matthewstoller

Matt Stoller Profile picture
14 Nov
1. Unless there's a vaccine very soon, I fear that Joe Biden will not handle the pandemic much better than Trump did. I really hope I'm wrong. It just seems to me that a lot of dealing with the pandemic means convincing people to sacrifice...
2. ... Americans aren't going to sacrifice very important cultural rituals and family time when they see their elites living by a separate set of rules. It just doesn't work that way. They have to see their leaders sacrificing first. Will even that work? I don't know. But...
3. That isn't how Dems think of themselves. One thing that's really clear about the boomer and up elite Dems is they really believe they are beloved and trusted. They don't understand you have to *earn* popular trust, Harvard doesn't grant it to you with your law degree.
Read 8 tweets
Matt Stoller Profile picture
10 Nov
The Joe Biden transition teams are... not bad.
It's a mixed bag. There are some really bad signs. For example, the Commerce transition team's lead is the general counsel at the University of Pittsburgh, which has been hiring union busting consultants to go after faculty and grad student unions.
Bridget Dooling, on Biden's OMB team, is a straight up Koch brothers plant. She wants more cost/benefit analysis across government, your basic deregulatory operative. citizen.org/article/koch-c…
Read 5 tweets
Matt Stoller Profile picture
10 Nov
On the way out the door Trump DOJ antitrust chief Makan Delrahim approves the Uber-Postmates deal, because apparently independent restaurants have it too good these days. I guess that's one way to ask for a private equity job. axios.com/doj-clears-ube…
So @makandelrahim will go down as one of the all time biggest dumbasses to run the antitrust division. A lightweight, generally corrupt, but also recused from the Google case, which is the only interesting thing in the division he ostensibly runs. Embarrassing.
Hey Republicans, Trump's antitrust chief is doing the bidding of little big tech. This is embarrassing. Clean house now that you have the chance out of power to do so.
Read 4 tweets
Matt Stoller Profile picture
8 Nov
1. I'll explain what I mean here. I'm a Biden voter. But it is fundamentally dangerous that Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai are making policy over how we deliberate over political matters. This policy has to be done through the government. But the problem is even deeper.
2. Voting machines are now consolidated and owned by private equity firms, who make policy over electoral infrastructure itself. Media conglomerates organize the political parties. Contractors structure government spending and Blackrock structures Federal Reserve policy.
3. The essence of democracy is twofold, civic and commercial. We need competitive markets and a democratic system of industrial control. Otherwise monopolists will and do make public policy that we the people would otherwise be making.
Read 12 tweets
Matt Stoller Profile picture
6 Nov
In 2017-2018 there was a debate among Dems about what happened, the side saying it was because Trump voters are unredeemable and evil won.

That debate has opened up again.
Trump’s narrow loss despite his massive governance failures show that what happened in 2016 wasn’t really about Hillary Clinton, but a deeper anger and mistrust towards Democrats.
The political problem for Democrats is that the GOP is now plotting to take the entire working class, and Dems kind of want them to take it.
Read 4 tweets
Matt Stoller Profile picture
5 Nov
Democratic donors dramatically over-invest in elections and grassroots organizing and under-invest in actually understanding how to use the massive and complicated government they are about to take over.
It's an unpopular hot take but maybe hiring a few people to think about how to use the Commerce Department with its authority to, oh I don't know, restructure the entire economy, is better than handing Amy McGrath another eleventy zillion dollars.
The Federal government is a $5 trillion behemoth. Maybe it's a good idea to know stuff about how to run it.
Read 5 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get email notifications when new thread is out from this Author!

Check out other threads from this Author!

Read all threads by @matthewstoller