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20 Feb, 6 tweets, 3 min read
Scott Walker oversaw the worst gerrymander in the country. His "election integrity" proposals are aimed at solving the same problem: undermining the political participation of people who disagree with him.
Here are things we know: there are almost no cases of voter impersonation. Efforts to prevent these non-problems with voter ID and signature verification end up falling heavier on younger and minority voters. The problem Walker et al want to solve is not fraud, but turnout.
Q: What do the mob who attacked the Capitol and state legislators launching voter suppression bills have in common?
A: Both are participating in an extraordinary backlash against *democracy* itself, fueled by the Big Lie.
brennancenter.org/our-work/resea…
Even Republicans who avoid the Big Lie, acknowledging scant no evidence of fraud, argue there is a need to restore "voter confidence."
How much confidence should people have in a system where politicians don't want them to vote or have their vote matter?
ajc.com/politics/polit…
If politicians like Scott Walker were interested in voter confidence in democracy, they would have avoided policies that blatantly undermine democracy. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
Scott Walker is a giant hypocrite

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Don Moynihan Profile picture
22 Feb
Macron investigating academics for wrong speak shows that the basis for these anti-university attacks is to appease the far right (in his case, Le Pen voters).
Just to confirm this point: the WSJ editorial page applauds it as a defense of liberalism, invoking Orwell.
Abuse of Orwell is standard practice of course, to the point that when Josh Hawley lost a book contract for encouraging the Capitol Insurrection, he described it as Orwellian. nytimes.com/2021/01/13/boo…
It does seem to odd to invoke Orwell, who worried about government regimes targeting and silencing dissent, as someone who would support a government targeting academics who hold dissenting views from the French political class.
But that's the WSJ editorial page!
Read 4 tweets
Don Moynihan Profile picture
21 Feb
One way of reading this story is that someone who took place in the Brooks Brothers riot in 2000 has used his position at Facebook to maintain the influence of people who took part in the Capitol Insurrection buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanma…
The people who took place in the Brooks Brothere riot - trying to stop vote counting in Florida to ensure their candidate won - are emblematic of how the right set of connections protects you from any professional penalty.
Of course, the design of Facebook ensures that Zuckerberg has final say on all decisions. Instead of insulating himself from political decisions, he personally intervenes, overturning internal Facebook processes and principles to protect figures like Alex Jones.
Read 4 tweets
Don Moynihan Profile picture
16 Feb
The most dangerous threat to campus speech over the past few years is authoritarian and far right governments shutting down dissent. In Philippines, Duterte has empowered the army to arrest students in one of the few spaces free speech was allowed. nytimes.com/2021/02/14/wor…
While not authoritarian, the French government is pivoting right to pick up votes away from Le Pen supporters. Their strategy for doing so? announce an inquiry into the speech of faculty. So much for academic freedom.
The right win UK government is also creating what are euphemistically called "free speech champions" to police campus speech, and to sue protestors.
Read 10 tweets
Don Moynihan Profile picture
16 Feb
The UK under Boris Johnson has gone down the road of policing campus speech, including fining protests they disagree with. They oppose regulation, except in the marketplace of ideas. theguardian.com/education/2021…
Speech on campus is messy and attacks on free speech are bad. But academics have managed it for hundreds of years with pretty decent outcomes. Having govt police campus speech and protest is a hallmark of authoritarian countries.
BTW, this proposal to give a right to sue protestors and universities for financial liability was adopted first in US universities like WIsconsin, the brainchild of a Arizona libertarian think tank. Is this where the Johnson govt is getting its ideas?
Read 6 tweets
Don Moynihan Profile picture
15 Feb
Very peculiar. Lincoln assassinated and then 39 days later no other presidential assassinations? Sounds pretty fishy if you ask me!
Well, well, well: a series of armed insurrections in US *state* capitols in 2020 *an entirely different year* from a more extreme version of the same tactic in 2021 at the *federal* level.
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
Recap:
*people were murdered, 140 Capitol Police officers assaulted
*members of Congress could easily have been captured
*majority of GOP believes the election was stolen, remain committed to anti-democratic action in the future.

Its not a one-off folks.
Read 4 tweets
Don Moynihan Profile picture
13 Feb
Watching the impeachment trial is very different to following it on twitter. It seems like the Dems wanted to get a specific piece of evidence in, and used the threat of witnesses to do so. But based on twitter you would think they made a massive strategic error.
At this point we know what happened and the outcome of the trial. Prolonging the trial is basically about how much you want put more material in the record and on public view vs. the potential opportunity cost of other policy gains in the Senate.
This line on twitter is "Dems decided to call witnesses, and then decided not to" when I think its more accurate to say they wanted to get a specific piece of evidence in, and they did, and the defense accepted it as accurate.
Read 5 tweets

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