Trump has treated coronavirus as a weapon of division, a way to maximize civil conflict. This presents Biden with an opportunity: To use the crisis to rehabilitate a sense of common purpose.

I talked to the Biden team. They see deeper possibilities here:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Biden faces a truly epic public communications challenge.

I talked to David Kessler, co-chair of his Covid Task Force, and I'm convinced they see a big responsibility here -- to rehabilitate a sense of national common purpose and mutual obligation:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
“They’ll put scientists up on the podium, not politicians. And they’ll relentlessly push calm, fact-based messages. Attitudes won’t change overnight. But the public may come to understand covid through a less partisan lens."

@nicholas_bagley, to me:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
@nicholas_bagley We constantly hear that liberalism's failures led to Trump.

However true that is, the coronavirus crisis gives Biden a huge opportunity to rehabilitate the Democratic Party's commitment to the common good, as an answer to Trump's malevolent illiberalism:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…

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More from @ThePlumLineGS

11 Dec
Every American should read Pennsylvania's scorching brief in the Texas lawsuit. It shows that those backing this lawsuit are demanding nothing less than the lawless imposition of the minority's will on the majority -- tyranny. I unpacked the brief here:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
The Texas lawsuit's actual argument is that Texas *voters* were harmed by pro-Biden outcomes in four other states.

Thus, the redress demanded is the imposition of Texas voters' will on the will of voters in those states.

This is the *explicit* demand:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
In the four states that Texas' lawsuit has targeted, 10 million people voted for Biden.

"It's an invitation to the Justices to simply substitute the preferences of a minority of voters for those of the clear majority," @steve_vladeck tells me:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Read 4 tweets
1 Dec
It's getting ugly in Georgia. Republicans are now openly begging Trump to stop lying about the voting being fraudulent. What's disgusting is that they happily told these same lies, and only now want him to stop due to fear of flat GOP turnout. New piece:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Amazing: An adviser to @KLoeffler is now calling on Trump to stop undermining the integrity of Georgia elections. But Loeffler herself is doing exactly that!

Telling the truth to GOP voters -- that Trump legitimately lost -- is simply not permitted:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
@KLoeffler Here's where it gets even crazier.

Both Loeffler and Perdue want to run as a check on a Biden presidency.

But they can't so much as *hint* that Biden won the election, because it angers Trump voters.

Again, telling them the truth is not an option:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Read 4 tweets
30 Nov
The stakes in the Georgia runoffs couldn't be higher.

GOP Senate means:

* More economic misery

* More illness and death from Covid

* Validation for declaring elections illegitimate as a weaponizable political tactic

I talked to @ossoff about all this:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
@ossoff A GOP Senate means no ambitious stimulus, a far less coordinated response to coronavirus' latest rampage, and a death knell for popular policies that will secure our future.

“We have to make sure voters understand the stakes," @ossoff tells me:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
@ossoff Lies from Trump and Perdue about the election "are a direct attack on Black voters, whose turnout powered Biden’s victory in Georgia,” says @ossoff.

They are "having a public tantrum" because they weren't saved by “the apparatus of voter suppression."

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Read 4 tweets
27 Nov
Why did Dems lose at least 12 House seats -- despite Biden getting 80 million votes against Trump and winning the popular vote by as much as 7 million?

I had a great chat with @Redistrict about what really happened. Some surprises you won't want to miss:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
@Redistrict A few highlights from our talk. First, massive Trump base turnout lifted downballot Republican congressional candidates in surprising ways: They could pocket that turnout while winning anti-Trump swing voters on top of it.

(cc @DamonLinker @lkatfield)

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
@Redistrict @DamonLinker @lkatfield What's more, it's not clear how much of an impact Democrats' woes among blue collar whites hurt them down-ballot. It's complicated.

Fascinating suggestions from @Redistrict on this:

(citing @EricLevitz and @davidshor)

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Read 6 tweets
25 Nov
Michigan Republicans were offered a stark choice: Stand for the rule of law and the legitimacy of our election, or stand with Trump's efforts to overturn it. It's a bad sign for the future that so many of them felt obliged to act out the latter. New piece:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Trump will leave office. But what's so infuriating is that he will never once tell his supporters that the system has operated lawfully -- that the verdict it rendered is a legitimate one:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Awful, from @TimAlberta's report on Michigan:

The two GOP leg leaders brought counsel to meeting with Trump. They knew this scheme was on thin legal ice but went anyway.

Why? Because they worried spurning him would hurt their careers. That bodes badly:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Read 4 tweets
23 Nov
Is this how it's gonna be? Is it now a fact of our political life that Democrats must win presidential elections by cheat-proof margins to prevail? What if the rogue-elector scheme comes to be seen as just another tool of political warfare? My latest:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
To an unsettling degree, the idea that Republicans must refrain from criticizing Trump's efforts to steal the election in order to **keep the base energized** is getting treated as just another immutable fact of life about our politics:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
I talked to expert @Nedfoley about what reforms might preclude a state legislature from appointing rogue electors.

It's unclear how, as long as we have the electoral college. That leaves us relying in part on fair play.

(cc @jessewegman @julia_azari)

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Read 4 tweets

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