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8 Jan, 4 tweets, 2 min read
In addition to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Wednesday saw scores of pro-Trump rallies across the country. Yesterday, the script flipped, and the dominant themes of protest activity in the U.S. were defenses of democracy and calls for GOP officials to resign.
The biggest one I've seen so far happened in Brooklyn, were thousands marched from Barclays Center to Sen. Shumer's residence to demand Trump's removal from office. nytimes.com/2021/01/07/us/…
A fair number of these events occurred in other places, too, though, including but not limited to Buffalo, Nyack, and Great Falls, NY; Jacksonville, FL; Roanoke, VA; Manistee, MI; and Detroit, SF, and Houston.
Per usual, @crowdcounting is tracking these events along with other protest activity in the U.S. at crowdcounting.org. You can see the running table of January events here: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…

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More from @JayUlfelder

Jay Ulfelder Profile picture
10 Jan
Picking up on @henryfarrell's comments here, one implication of my work on democratic breakdown is that the US should harshly punish GOP leaders who attempted to keep Trump in power despite losing the election and fomented insurrection to advance that effort. 1/n
I wrote a book a decade ago that used game theory to explore the ways democracies die and what that tells us about how and why they sometimes survive. 2/n rienner.com/title/Dilemmas…
One implication of the formal model in that book is that normative commitments to democracy may matter less than expectations about the benefits and costs of trying to subvert democracy. 3/n
Read 12 tweets
Jay Ulfelder Profile picture
29 Nov 20
Most comprehensive piece I've seen so far on Trump's efforts to usurp the presidency back from Biden. The main thing missing is a clear sense of how devastating a "win" would have been for American democracy. washingtonpost.com/politics/trump…
To be clear, the U.S. didn't really become a democracy until the 20th century, with the federal guarantee of women's suffrage, and the quality of that democracy has varied significantly since that time, especially with the passage and then diminution of the Voting Rights Act.
And, of course, key U.S. institutions—the Electoral College and the Senate—effectively give some voters far more influence than others, a design that runs counter to one of democracy's core principles, namely, equal citizenship.
Read 6 tweets
Jay Ulfelder Profile picture
10 Nov 20
IMO the politics of the language around this stuff matters a lot more than the academic definitions right now. That said, I do think Trump and the GOP's ongoing actions constitute an attempted consolidation of incumbent advantage, a.k.a. autogolpe. Outcome TBD.
Since the early 1990s, consolidation of incumbent advantage has been the dominant mode of democratic breakdown worldwide, so there are plenty of relevant examples. Coups involving the direct use or threat of force have become comparatively rare.
A consolidation of incumbent advantage occurs when the incumbent party uses its power to effectively ensure that it stays in power, even as "competitive" elections continue. They usually involve tilting the electoral playing field, but they can involve "judicial coups" as well.
Read 5 tweets
Jay Ulfelder Profile picture
9 Nov 20
BLM Plaza in DC on Saturday was a microcosm of anti-Trump America. A couple of demonstrations were planned for the afternoon, but people really started thronging there around midday, after major media outlets called the presidential race for Biden/Harris.
That impromptu rally lasted into the night, and it sounds like the main themes were celebration and relief. Lots of booze was consumed, and fireworks got shot off.
Not everyone on the plaza was feeling so relieved, though. Late afternoon, a group organized by @DcProtests marched to BLM Plaza to keep pushing the call for racial justice, for defunding police, and for justice for Karon Hylton. dc.medill.northwestern.edu/blog/2020/11/0…
Read 5 tweets
Jay Ulfelder Profile picture
7 Nov 20
From my passes so far through yesterday's news and posts, it looks like pro-Trump, "stop the steal" protests continued to spread around the country, although in many cases the crowds remained modest in size (i.e., dozens, not hundreds).
Pro-Trump crowds returned to vote-counting centers in PA and AZ, and protests echoing the president's baseless claims of election fraud also popped up in places like NC, FL, OK, and CA. For example... newson6.com/story/5fa61251…
I'm a biased observer, but in reporters' interviews with participants, it seemed like the main theme wasn't "There is clear evidence of cheating" so much as "Trump had huge rallies and is so popular, so it's impossible that he lost, so cheating is the only explanation."
Read 9 tweets
Jay Ulfelder Profile picture
2 Jun 20
Trump's Rose Garden remarks last night chilled me to the bone. I saw a man who fantasizes about ruling America with a "firm hand" relishing an opportunity to act out those fantasies, to become the kind of "strong man" he admires.
This is a man who, 30 years ago, criticized Gorbachev as "weak" for losing control of the USSR and praised the Chinese Communist Party for showing us "the power of strength" in Tienanmen Square.
This is a president of the United States who openly sympathized with heavily armed gunmen threatening Michigan's legislators and saw "good people" among the white supremacists in Charlottesville but sees antifa as a vicious terrorist group and black protesters as "thugs."
Read 8 tweets

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