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Tom Nichols

27 Nov, 10 tweets, 7 min read

@dcherring

@dcherring @CaseyNikoloric Way, way too many of them. Right-populism and the nationalist streak that goes with it is cruel and other-directed, not just in the United States, but the UK, Italy, Poland, Hungary, many other places. /1

@dcherring

@dcherring @CaseyNikoloric In Poland, for example, anti-Muslim feeling is running super-high. But the punch line? There are almost no Muslims in Poland. It's a scapegoating of other people for things Poles worry about. As @AdamSerwer once said of Trumpism: The cruelty is the point. /2

@dcherring

@dcherring @CaseyNikoloric @AdamSerwer Read the new book by @anneapplebaum about democracy being on the ropes. It's not about honest, hard-working people fearing for their way of life. It's a nasty virus that is spreading in places where life isn't really all that bad. /3

@dcherring

@dcherring @CaseyNikoloric I know we want to believe our fellow citizens voted as if they are just making a civic decision about what's best for America. I think that was a legit way to view 2016. I think there is almost no way to view Trump's voters in 2020 that way. /4

@dcherring

@dcherring @CaseyNikoloric I will quickly stipulate here that the left has a brutish authoritarian streak in it, and that there are millions of good people who might have voted for Trump out of foolishness or delusion, and millions who voted for Biden who are horrible citizens and dangerous to America. /5

@dcherring

@dcherring @CaseyNikoloric But the insane Left does not control the Democratic Party, and the totalitarian streak among the liberals is still mostly stupid college kids and their professors, along with hucksters in the HR departments. Joe Biden isn't that. /6

@dcherring

@dcherring @CaseyNikoloric In short, I think it's time to stop trying to see the good in the most loyal Trump voters. The media has been tromping around diners for five years looking for the spark of goodness and civic virtue in them, and it isn't there. We just have to accept that, imo. /7

@dcherring

@dcherring @CaseyNikoloric I also think it's time for the Trump voters to start thinking about understanding the rest of America, instead of it always being this one-way street of understanding and compassion. They're the new minority. They might think harder about *why* others feel about them as we do. /8

@dcherring

@dcherring @CaseyNikoloric I'm not arguing for hating on every Trump voter. But I think over four years, we've run out of excuses for viewing them as somehow anxious or misunderstood or "just plain folks who want a fair deal" and all that shit. Those arguments, imo, are unsustainable. /9x

@dcherring

@dcherring @CaseyNikoloric PS: This is Maureen Dowd's Trumper brother. Read this and tell me that this is not basically just an old white guy who thinks the world doesn't love him enough.
nytimes.com/2020/11/26/opi…

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More from @RadioFreeTom

Tom Nichols

@RadioFreeTom

27 Nov

@dcherring

@dcherring @CaseyNikoloric What I'm telling you is that we *know*. It's not that complicated. And that minority of people better get their asses in gear and start learning about what makes *the rest of us* tick.

@dcherring

@dcherring @CaseyNikoloric Dennis, when you say "it behooves to be deeper in our understanding," you say this as if the Trump cult is some unique tribe that requires our compassion and understanding, and not exactly what they are telling us they are. /1

@dcherring

@dcherring @CaseyNikoloric But more to the point, why is it always a plea for *us* to understand *them*? Why is it always one way? Why is there never a plea - or demand - to people in rural Indiana to say: "Listen, you better start understanding the 100 million Americans who aren't like you."

Read 8 tweets

Tom Nichols

@RadioFreeTom

22 Nov

@bobcesca_go

Now, why am I taking all these images about JFK and recasting them in 2020 terms? It's not because I have any love for JFK, as @bobcesca_go can tell you. Rather, it is to make the point that the terms we use about "forgotten towns" in 2020 are ridiculous. /1

We have taken the great populist yawps of the past ten years and recast them as legitimate gripes from The Oppressed and Forgotten, when in fact this kind of malignant, backwards thinking has always been around; books were written on back in the day that we now ignore. /2

Now, as then, we conveniently forget that the *truly* The Oppressed and Forgotten are not part of those movements at all. Most Trumpers (and Lega, and Brexit voters) are middle class. Yes, Appalachia loves Trump. But that's not how populism has grown. That's not who they are. /3

Read 9 tweets

Tom Nichols

@RadioFreeTom

22 Nov

To provide some context: I have no idea why Trump's guys flew some bombers over the Middle East earlier today. But the mission is over, and "deter aggression and reassure U.S. partners and allies" is what U.S. administrations do when they don't really have anything else. /1

This is mostly a Cold War hangover, where "sending up some nuclear-armed bombers" had actual meaning. Since the B-52 is no longer part of the nuclear bombing mission, it's a showy way to say "We see you." It's not unique to Trump. But it does raise some questions. /2

Mostly, the question of who thought this was needed. I wouldn't be surprised if someone in DoD did this to placate President Angry Pants so that he could feel like he ordered something. Another question is whether something happened off the radar that the US didn't like. /3

Read 4 tweets

Tom Nichols

@RadioFreeTom

18 Nov

So, here's a thread on missile defense, since the U.S. is trumpeting shooting down an ICBM from an AEGIS. This is about why I was okay with SDI in the 80s and think missile defense is now a gigantic waste of money and that "We have a defense!" announcements are a bad idea. /1

When I was working as a consultant on SDI stuff in the 80s, I recall two major assumptions: One is that it would freak the Soviets out. The other is that if it were ever built, it would be stationed above our ICBM fields as a point defense to complicate Soviet strike planning. /2

You can argue about whether "freaking the Soviets out" was a good idea. It almost backfired because it convinced at least some Soviet leaders that we were looking to start WWIII. But it did convince the Soviets that we were determined to win a qualitative competition. /3

Read 15 tweets

Tom Nichols

@RadioFreeTom

14 Nov

For the people who think I only started to wrestle with this "experts in a democracy" problem just a few years ago, this is from a book review I wrote thirty years ago - and it uses a line that appeared decades later in the book. /1

I was brutal on the authors of a book on SDI because they basically said that things like strategic defenses were just too important to be left to presidents like Reagan, and that engineers should get the final word. That made me bristle, and still does. /2

That's why "Death of Expertise" had a chapter explaining the difference between experts and policymakers - basically arguing that people in a democracy have the right to insist on dumb policies - even if I wish they wouldn't. That's still how I feel. /3

Read 5 tweets

Tom Nichols

@RadioFreeTom

11 Nov

I’m getting tweets about Susan Rice from the same people who were certain that Elizabeth Warren should be nominated for president because she would totally give Trump a raft of shit during the debates and that Joe Biden wasn’t tough enough to win. /1

Even if I agreed that Susan Rice was a great pick for anything, and I’m not sure I really agree with that, this is a time to move forward, bring in new people, not lightning-rod revenge picks. What might be emotionally satisfying to you is not the best choice for the country. /2

But in the end, these are Biden‘s decisions to make. I am allowed to disagree with all of you about who would be the best choices. Calling me a sexist or implying I’m a racist isn’t really an argument; it’s just the usual performative twitter emoting. /3

Read 4 tweets

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