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David Rothkopf Profile picture
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10 Jan, 5 tweets, 2 min read
This week, I can't help but remember the warnings of the great Village Voice journalist Wayne Barrett, who started warning the world about Trump in the 1970s and who first exposed his sleaze and diseased character. Barrett died the day before Trump was inaugurated.
Here's one of Barrett's first pieces from 1979. villagevoice.com/2018/10/30/don…
And here's one of the best remembrances of Barrett that followed his death, from @POLITICOMag by @michaelkruse. politico.com/magazine/story…
And, I would add this, from @frankrichny, one of the very best pieces ever done on the origins of Trump...that puts Barrett's contributions and those of other local NY journalists (notably not at some mainstream media) in perspective. nymag.com/intelligencer/…
If you have time on a Sunday, these are worth a read. They starkly describe how the road to where we are began...and why none of it is a surprise, none of it should have been allowed to happen.

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More from @djrothkopf

David Rothkopf Profile picture
12 Jan
Things the GOP did not find "divisive": Launching an insurrection against the US government, seeking to disenfranchise 81 million Americans, seeking to negate the votes of entire states, seeking to negate the votes of African Americans, attacking the Capitol...
...killing Capitol police officers, inciting a riots that claimed five lies, participating in the largest act of domestic terrorism in US history, hunting down Congresspeople in the halls of Congress, supporting and defending white supremacists...
...supporting and defending Neo-Nazis, turning US federal force against peaceful demonstrators across the country, calling Mexicans rapists, discriminating against Muslims, putting children in cages, ending protections for children born innocently in the United States...
Read 13 tweets
David Rothkopf Profile picture
12 Jan
@JonathanTurley suggests the founders would not react so quickly against a president who led an insurrection. Washington led an army of 13,000 people against a small group of farmers who wouldn't pay their taxes on whiskey.
One founder actually did lead an insurrection. His name was Aaron Burr. He was arrested and charged with treason. He walked on technical reasons and was already out of office so impeachment was not the right option, but he ended up in exile for years afterward.
(Beautifully, while in exile Burr lived in a house on Craven Street in London.) Turley also says that Trump's incitement to insurrection was protected speech. This is beyond ludicrous and shows a lack of understanding of the law that would get him kicked out of any law school.
Read 11 tweets
David Rothkopf Profile picture
8 Jan
Just had to turn off CNN. Can't listen to one more pol bloviate about how Trump shouldn't be impeached because it will make healing harder. Have they not been paying attention? We got here because there have been no consequences for Trump's abuses...or those of predecessors.
Without consequences for Trump and those who supported this sedition and those who enabled his corruption and those who collaborated with a foreign enemy and those who obstructed justice THERE WILL BE NO HEALING.
The impunity of the empowered is what has fueled our current crisis & enabled them to inflame political divisions. Lincoln was wrong to let Confederate traitors off the hook. Ford was wrong to let Nixon off the hook. GHWBush was wrong to let the Iran-Contra crowd off the hook.
Read 5 tweets
David Rothkopf Profile picture
8 Jan
If the (erroneous) Office of Legal Counsel memo saying president's can't be indicted for crimes while in office had not been written, hundreds of thousands of Americans would still be alive today.
If Rod Rosenstein had not told Mueller to stay out of investigating Trump's finances and to narrowly define his investigation, the coup attempt would never have taken place.
If Mueller had not gone along with Rosenstein and had followed all of the investigations into Trump's ties to the Russians and his finances, we would not have seen months of attempts to attack and weaken our democracy.
Read 21 tweets
David Rothkopf Profile picture
31 Dec 20
140 elected members of Congress who have publicly stated they will seek to overturn the results of an election judged free and fair by every single court or legal authority that has examined it. It is a devastating and profoundly dangerous development.
The GOP is now actively opposed to democracy, our Constitution and our values. Under Donald Trump it has become America's first fascist party. Overstatement. Consider the dictionary definition from Meriam-Webster:
"A political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation & often race above the individual & that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic & social regimentation, & forcible suppression of opposition."
Read 5 tweets
David Rothkopf Profile picture
27 Dec 20
@ianbremmer With respect, it's not that simple. For decades the right have been engineering institutional changes (gerrymandering, packing courts, working to take over legislatures, increasing the corporate money flows through Citizens United etc., suppressing votes, etc.)...
@ianbremmer They have worked hard to enable a minority to gain influence (abetted by flaws in our Constitution). Since the elimination of the fairness doctrine and pulling strings to help Murdoch gain his US licenses during Reagan, they have created an alternative reality media bubble.
@ianbremmer And they have actively promoted policies that increased the power and wealth of their sponsors among the few and promoted division below. Have the needs of regular Americans been ignored? Of course. Look at our social safety nets compared to every other developed country.
Read 5 tweets

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