The GOP defense of Trump during the impeachment was that it was too close to an election to remove the president: The people should decide.
Now 17 GOP-led states want a pretext to throw out the election.
Sad conclusion: A great many Americans still don't want democracy.
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Now 17 GOP-led states want a pretext to throw out the election.
Sad conclusion: A great many Americans still don't want democracy.
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https://twitter.com/lawrencehurley/status/1336764610993655810
Notice that I said "still."
A great many Americans didn't want democracy during the Civil War. Slavery was decidedly undemocratic.
A great many Americans didn't want democracy during Jim Crow when African-Americans were lynched for trying to vote. That wasn't democratic.
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A great many Americans didn't want democracy during the Civil War. Slavery was decidedly undemocratic.
A great many Americans didn't want democracy during Jim Crow when African-Americans were lynched for trying to vote. That wasn't democratic.
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A great many Americans didn't want democracy when the Fifteenth Amendment was passed and women were deliberately omitted. Denying the vote to women was not democratic.
Democracy scares people.
They prefer power concentrated in the hands of people who look like them.
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Democracy scares people.
They prefer power concentrated in the hands of people who look like them.
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I concluded my earlier thread about the legal problems with the #TexasLawSuit by saying that a kind of cynicism was behind the lawsuit.
People who don't want democracy don't believe that fairness and equality are possible.
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People who don't want democracy don't believe that fairness and equality are possible.
https://twitter.com/Teri_Kanefield/status/1336758630071160832
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These are the same people who think tyranny is when the government tries to get people to wear masks in a pandemic, and good government when the wealthy get tax breaks.
They are "hierarchy" people (instead of "fairness") people.
They think there’s a natural order.
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They are "hierarchy" people (instead of "fairness") people.
They think there’s a natural order.
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They think some people naturally belong on top. Others (the takers) belong at the bottom and don't (can't) contribute.
For them, the purpose of government is to allocate power. When they're in power, they try to grab more.
They assume everyone sees government this way.
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For them, the purpose of government is to allocate power. When they're in power, they try to grab more.
They assume everyone sees government this way.
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Because they don't believe "fairness" is possible.
Fairness people, on the other hand, believe equality is possible, so for us, the purpose of government is to create fairness, to give everyone equal opportunity, and to prevent cheating.
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Fairness people, on the other hand, believe equality is possible, so for us, the purpose of government is to create fairness, to give everyone equal opportunity, and to prevent cheating.
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It's really the same division that has always been there.
Fairness and hierarchy people have two different views of history and literally want two different forms of government.
That's why it's such a big divide, and why the problem has always been with us.
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Fairness and hierarchy people have two different views of history and literally want two different forms of government.
That's why it's such a big divide, and why the problem has always been with us.
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The fairness view of American history goes like this: The founders started with some pretty good ideas, but they left out a lot of people. As we've expanded who is included in "we the people," America comes close to our founding ideals.
The graph looks like this ⤵️
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The graph looks like this ⤵️
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Hierarchy people think that democracy is messy and disordered. They use the word "corrupt" in the sense of "defiled." The body politic is corrupted by the unworthy trying to achieve equality, which they perceive as someone trying to dislodge them from their place at the top.
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They think America has gone downhill--it used to be great [when white men had all the power.] They see the graph of history like this. That's why they want to make America great "again."
Democracy requires compromise, but they don't want to share power.
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Democracy requires compromise, but they don't want to share power.
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But⤵️Trump tells them they're at the top of the hierarchy.
That's why they love him. It's the same reason poor whites supported the Confederacy, which was (to use @HC_Richardson's phrase) an oligarchy. Poor whites weren't part of the ruling class.
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That's why they love him. It's the same reason poor whites supported the Confederacy, which was (to use @HC_Richardson's phrase) an oligarchy. Poor whites weren't part of the ruling class.
https://twitter.com/Sweordbora/status/1336786964201304064
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Me: "EWWW gross."
Trump: "You are the top of the hierarchy. The reason you don't have more is because 'others' (unworthy minorities, migrants at the gates) are taking what is rightfully yours.
So they love him.
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Trump: "You are the top of the hierarchy. The reason you don't have more is because 'others' (unworthy minorities, migrants at the gates) are taking what is rightfully yours.
So they love him.
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