Share this page!

Don Moynihan Profile picture
Twitter logo
24 Mar, 6 tweets, 2 min read
If you ever wondered what it was like to live through a period of systemic attacks on democracy, now you know nytimes.com/2021/03/23/us/…
After the 2012 loss the Republican National Committee undertook a post-election review that emphasized the need to broaden the GOP tent by reaching out to minorities.
After the 2020 loss they formed a committee to make it harder for those people to vote.
Every corporate and individual donor to ALEC and the Heritage Foundation are funding an attack on democracy.
State and local officials did an extraordinary job running an election with historic turnout during a pandemic. But the GOP wants to replace them with partisan loyalists who will favor their candidates. This is a new and dangerous attack on the legitimacy of US elections.
2010 SCOTUS: parts of Voting Rights Act that monitor state and local efforts to restrict the franchise are outdated
2010 GOP: Wave of laws to restrict the franchise
2020: Historic turnout, Dem win buoyed by a minority coalition
2021 GOP: Wave of laws to restrict the franchise
McConnell yesterday: The filibuster has "no racial history at all. None. There's no dispute among historians."
McConnell today:

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Don Moynihan

Don Moynihan Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @donmoyn

Don Moynihan Profile picture
24 Mar
Black churches use Sundays for "souls to polls" mobilizing events.

GOP legislators have targeted Sunday early voting to undermine such efforts.

But this is the first time I've heard the "God supports voter suppression" argument.
Black churches used Sundays to organize their congregants, and the wider community, to vote in response to a history of discrimination and concerns about lack of safety when voting. npr.org/2021/03/22/977…
When North Carolina eliminated Sunday voting as part of a broader voter suppression package, courts noted the clear intention to target Black voters (via @Eugene_Scott) npr.org/2021/03/22/977…
Read 4 tweets
Don Moynihan Profile picture
24 Mar
One more time: the greatest threat to free speech on campus comes not from students, but from public officials using state power to censor ideas they disagree with.
I continue to tweet about this stuff because the dominant narrative continues to be that students/faculty are destroying speech even amidst a pretty straightforward wave of state censorship in the US (thread):
Anti-free speech governments in other countries have picked on the language of US conversations about "social justice", "wokeness" and "cancel culture" to go on their own wave of suppressing campus speech (thread)
Read 5 tweets
Don Moynihan Profile picture
21 Mar
"A deputy county prosecutor who criticized the law, saying it essentially criminalizes poverty, was fired for his remarks."
This Arkansas law does not just criminalize poverty, it targets the most vulnerable groups: "62% of cases in 2012 were filed against Black women (who make up about 20% of the city’s population)."
arknews.org/index.php/2021…
15 of 35 Arkansas Senators are landlords. Not only does the legislature criminalize non-payment of rent, it has blocked any laws that require homes to be habitable.
Read 4 tweets
Don Moynihan Profile picture
21 Mar
Florida became the pandemic poster child for unemployment systems that were not providing benefits because they were designed to fail. DeSantis promised to fix it. But instead he has pushed anti-fraud measures that are blocking eligible claimants from receiving benefits. (Thread)
DeSantis gained some credibility when he said that the UI system designed by Rick Scott had "pointless roadblocks" that he promised to fix. But he did not follow through with any investigation. 2/ palmbeachpost.com/story/news/pol…
Governor DeSantis doubled down on stopping fraud rather than helping people as the primary goal of the unemployment system.
See this report from @lmower3
sun-sentinel.com/coronavirus/fl…
Read 8 tweets
Don Moynihan Profile picture
20 Mar
Striking when US liberals look abroad for models they look at redistributive systems (hence the sort of odd obsession with Denmark) whereas conservatives seem increasingly enamored with the feats of non-democratic leaders (Putin, most obviously)
Like, what the hell is this? I understand some people like the glitter of the UK royals, or admire the Queen, but they are organizing to defend the system of government that the US overthrew
Trump brought praising authoritarians to ridiculous levels. But there are other examples: the fetishization of Pinochet by Proud Boys & Three Percenters, celebration of Orban by the intellectual wing theintercept.com/2021/02/04/pin…
vox.com/2020/5/21/2125…
Read 12 tweets
Don Moynihan Profile picture
19 Mar
The US keeps asking its tax agency to oversee stuff it is not designed, funded or wants to do, like welfare (EITC) or health (ACA). We do this b/c of an unhealthy desire to hide the welfare state in tax expenditures instead of building the admin infrastructure necessary..
One cool thing about the history of Social Security is that when it was set up it had very few employees and no offices and had to enroll 26M people in a very short space of time. So they used the Post Office to do so - trusted brand, physical locations everywhere.
There may be technical issues I don't understand here in terms of the advantages of IRS data, but if Biden wants a child tax credit to become a permanent children's allowance, he should be transitioning it to SSA, which has the closest equivalent task and skills.
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @donmoyn has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @donmoyn!

Read all threads by @donmoyn