Jeet Heer Profile picture
19 Feb, 4 tweets, 2 min read
1. Ted Cruz's current travails are a good occasion to revisit the single best piece of writing on the Texas Senator: @DouthatNYT description of Cruz as the Kenneth Widmerpool of American conservatism.
2. Widmerpool (pictured below) is the anti-hero of Anthony Powell 12-volume roman fleuve A Dance to the Music of Time. A delightfully detestable character, Widmerpool is graceless and awkward, a social climber without a moral code, an unloved go-getter.
3. Hitchens on Widmerpool: "A monster of arrogance & conceit, but entirely wanting in pride. Bullying to those below him, servile & fawning to those set in authority, entirely without wit or introspection, he is that type of tirelessly ambitious, sexless, & charmless mediocrity"
4. One thing that Anthony Powell captures, which is true of both Widmerpool & Cruz, is the strange masochism of the striver, the secret love of self-abasement & public humiliation. More here: thenation.com/article/politi…

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More from @HeerJeet

17 Feb
1. Since some people aren't aware of why the name L. Brent Bozell IV is so resonate, it's worth underscoring that the Bozells, intertwined with the Buckleys, have been a political dynasty going back a century, shaping GOP politics on everything from abortion to courts to media.
2. These two charmers -- Pinky & the Brain -- are L. Brent Bozell, Jr. and William F. Buckley, Jr. -- sons of wealthy conservative fathers who met at Yale, collaborated on a book defending Joe McCarthy and founded National Review.
3. This is an accurate lineage of the Bozells. What's key to understand is that Bozell Jr. & Buckley, Jr. were both scions of already very right-wing families. When Bozell, Jr. married Pat Buckley, the two dynasties merged.
Read 14 tweets
16 Feb
1. Our 9-year old daughter Bella, in collaboration with her two best friends, just published her first book, The Discovery Girls (with stipend from mommy & daddy). This almost got her banned from Facebook. A true story of cancel culture.
1. The villain of The Discovery Girls is "Jhon McBobb AKA The Evil Captain" (pictured below). While exchanging notes about John McBob on Facebook messenger with her friends Bella described him in harsh terms ("horrible" and "stupid"). Facebook didn't like that.
2. Facebook Messenger kept telling Robin and me that Bella was using abusive language and would soon be banned. But it was all about a fictional character, Jhon McBob, AKA The Evil Captain!
Read 9 tweets
15 Feb
1. So Trump has been twice impeached & twice acquitted. What now? It's important to keep our eyes on the prize: the goal is to create a broad coalition that will render Trump a pariah & de-Trumpify America.
2. The impeachments left mixed results but one heartening fact is that in 2nd impeachment we see a genuine bipartisan rejection of Trump: aside from Dems, 10 GOP house members & 7 Senators voted against Trump. A small wedge has opened up between Trump & GOP. Needs to widen.
3. Lots of reasons to want Trump to be ostracized, not all of which are partisan or ideological: his racism, his corruption, his incitement to violence. This is stuff that some Republicans and even some people who identify with Trump's populist nationalism strongly dislike.
Read 4 tweets
12 Feb
1. This accurately describes the tight-rope walk the GOP senators are doing. They know Trump is guilty as hell but they're trying to avoid convicting. Worth asking why.
2. Obviously there is an element of fear here. At a basic level a fear of the mob (i.e. death threats faced by Georgia Republicans when they upheld election results), more broadly political fear (Republicans who turn against Trump face primaries)
3. Like so much else in the Trump era, the impeachment is going to lead to muddled and mixed results. It'll solidify anti-Trump feelings among Democratic majority (the evidence is damning) but also Trump's hold on GOP minority (they can't quit him).
Read 4 tweets
8 Feb
1. If you are looking or signs of progress, then one heartening fact is that for the first time in 4 decades there is a Democratic administration that is willing to ignore Larry Summers.
2. It's hard to think of a figure comparable to Summers, someone who keeps fucking up but keeps getting promoted to bigger and bigger jobs. Maybe Robert McNamara? Started off in Reagan administration but got really elevated by Clinton and brought back in by Obama.
3. @NaomiAKlein 2009: "Summers has been spectacularly wrong again & again. He was wrong about not regulating derivatives. Wrong when he helped kill Depression-era banking laws, turning banks into too-big-to-fail welfare monsters. & as he helps devise ever more complex tricks..."
Read 6 tweets
27 Jan
1. In retrospect the failed putsch of Jan. 6 was likely the last chance the GOP party elite had of severing ties with Trump. They could have coalesced around a quick removal (either through 25 Amendment or impeachment). Instead the party is becoming more Trumpified than ever.
2. Only 10 Republicans in House voted to impeach. Only 5 GOP Senators voted to move impeachment to a trial. It's extremely unlikely that there are many more than 5 votes to convict. Instead of dislodging Trump, current battle has shown how hard it for GOP to quit Trump.
3. Worth looking at the state Republican parties, which show the pattern of Trumpification (and indeed in some cases QAnonification). Oregon GOP says Jan. 6 was false flag operation & condemned anti-Trump congresspeople.
Read 6 tweets

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