A Note To Those Who Follow Me: Four years ago, I think I had about 500 followers on twitter. Today, more than 15K. I am under no illusion that the increase is due to so many of you wanting to know my views on cybersecurity law and policy (my professional specialty) /1
Nor because of your love of my memes or my @Nationals fandom. I have every reason to think that most of the increase was because of the unicorn effect -- I was a rare breed -- a Republican who was opposed to Trump and spoke out about it regularly. That is still who /2
I am and the past 4 years have convinced me that commitment to truth and the rule of law are bedrocks that unite me more with some of the liberals whose policies I have opposed in the past than it does with my former allies who seem to have abandoned principle for power. /3
But I want to offer a word of warning -- that realization has not made me a liberal or a Democratic party member. I am still conservative in most of my views and I imagine that, as we move forward into a Biden administration there will be plenty of things he does that I /4
will be critical of because they are inconsistent with what I think is the best policy. When that happens I will say so and in doing so, I may disappoint some of those new 15K+ followers who came for the unicorn. :-)
But here is my promise to you (actually several promises): /5
1) Though I will speak against Biden policies I disagree with, I will also speak in favor of those he adopts that I consider to be good ones;
2) I am especially ALL IN for any and all policies that are designed to restore American norms around the rule of law; free press; /6
truth in politics; and the security of our election system. Those should be shared goals for everyone in America -- and if you don't share those goals you should be condemned (looking at you @GOP). And
3) Most importantly, I offer you a commitment to civility. /7
One of the key things the past 4 years has reminded me of is that we can disagree without being disagreeable. Sometimes, in the past, I think I've failed in that regard and seen political opposition as indicative of character to be condemned. To the extent I ever /8
did that, I repent my ways. After 4 years of Trump, the single most important thing is to be able to discuss policy differences in a thoughtful way. I will try hard to adhere to that policy (though I reserve the right to make an exception for Josh Hawley) and if I /9
fail in that regard I hope you will call me on it.
So there you have it -- if you came for the Republican Never Trumper but don't want to hear my conservative views, let us part ways amicably now.
But if you want to still want to hear my conservative voice /10
or if you just want to talk about my beloved Nats, or my second home in Costa Rica, stick around for the conversation. I am optimistic about the next 4 years, and I hope you will join me in the project of restoring America. /fin
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
In this article (theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…) I made the case for conducting a criminal investigation of Trump after he leaves office. In doing so, I acknowledged the very strong norm against such activity. I also noted that the single MOST significant reason to decline /1
an investigation was the idea of civil peace and the peaceful transfer of authority. In some ways, the promise not to prosecute a successor is, realistically, the price we pay for the peaceful transition of power. It is a way of calming the body politic and uniting /2
the country. Some may snort in derision at the idea -- but it is a very real and sensible one. Ford's pardon of Nixon and the decision not to indict Clinton both allowed the country to move past those events and try to heal the wounds. The same, normally, would be /3
Musings on the "day after" (ok, several days after, but you get the idea): America faces three over-arching interlocking large-scale challenges that, in any reasonable world, should be the objective for the next four years:
1) At the narrowest, tactical level - we need to /1
fix the election system. Whatever you think of the result, the fact that this nation can be so miserably contorted in the process of elections -- long lines, mail-in disputes, different rules and rulings creating confusion, etc. -- is simply unacceptable for a mature democracy./2
2) More broadly, we must repair the rule of law. Over the last four years, confidence in the legal system has been deeply eroded by the ability of the President to game the system and to break rules and norms without consequence. No country can survive where the people /3
Your periodic reminder that there are so very many reasons to vote against Trump. Today's version -- for purely personal reasons I was doing some looking around on the National Park Service for information about Glacier Bay National Park. I happened to wander over to /1
the web page that would have information about how and if the glaciers are melting -- nps.gov/glac/learn/nat…) and when you go there, all the data is missing. Though the thumb nail below shows a glacier /2
if you click through on the link to the actual page there is only a picture of a skunk and the phrase "well that stinks" and "we can't find the page." Trump is deleting science. There are lots of other more important reasons to think he is terrible, but just a reminder of /3
There are many things totally wrong with Justice Kavanaugh's concurrence in the Wisconsin case yesterday, but this one piece takes the cake. Kavanaugh writes: "those States also want to be able to definitively announce the results of the election on election night, /1
or as soon as possible thereafter." Let's be clear -- there are ZERO states that definitively announce the results of the election on election night. ZERO. The results announced on election night are all partial returns since EVERY state, tallies absentee ballots and /2
provisional ballots in the days after an election. When an election winner is "announced" on election night it is a projection announced (ironically enough) by the media based on partial returns, percentage reporting, and exit polling. It is NEVER the official result /3
Four years ago, when the US gave up its contractual control of the DNS system, I thought it was unwise. My reasoning was simple -- I thought that the US govt had stood as a bulwark against authoritarian influence on the network since it was created and that continued US /1
influence as a protector of network freedom would be a net benefit to the world. Critical to that assessment was my belief that no USG would ever support an effort to severely restrain freedom of expression on the network. There were exceptions to this general rule /2
of course, like the dot xxx fiasco, but as a general proposition I thought it was well-supported.
I was wrong. Today the USG actually moved to control the content that US citizens can put on their phones, purporting to ban WeChat and TikTok. Besides being utterly /3