Thread by @FreedomFriesInc

(1) Saw this in an @AndrewYang fan tweet:

"[Democrats are] genuinely terrified of an anti-political hero like Andrew Yang actually making politics transparent, user friendly, and real again."

Honey, this is exactly the kind of lie that got Trump elected in 2016. Learn from...

(2) Learn from the mistakes of others so you don't have to learn from your own mistakes.

An "anti-political hero" comes in many forms. None of them can ever deliver on such a promise. Trump didn't. Bernie Sanders didn't. Rand Paul didn't.

(3) The main reason I chose political science as my college major was to learn what makes a politician, party, or country successful and what does not.

Comparative Politics is a really fascinating sub-discipline of pol sci. You learn about lots of different countries & systems.

(4) Maybe my interest in comparative politics is because I'm a New Zealander who grew up outside the global center of Europe and North America... we are used to dropping off the edge of the map.

(5) This is actually how I grew up thinking about the world, and probably everyone else in the Asia-Pacific did too.

IMO there is so much to be gained from learning about life outside your own country. Studying history is essential, too.

(6) World history is brimming with examples of politicians who claimed their outsider status was the one magic ingredient that would make it all better.

Every one of them lied.

An outsider might win, now and then, but it doesn't last.

(7) That Reagan quote, in context, is about the main reason the founding fathers and mothers made the RKBA the second amendment to the US Constitution.

In the 1980s the archetype we all kept in mind was Hitler's rise to power. In recent years even that became politicized.

(8) During the four years in which I supported Trump (always on the condition that if he betrayed certain fundamental promises, I was out), I saw from his opponents Hitler reference after Hitler reference. Crying wolf so many times is one of the reasons 1/6 was able to happen.

(9) Even I, was called a Nazi on Twitter. At the time (2016) I just laughed. In 2021, I need to write some blog posts about the ideology behind actual 1920s German Nazism, the current Democratic party in the US, and the current Republican party in the US. (They're not Nazi.)

(10) Trump's ideology isn't Nazi, either. But there are similarities in some of the tactics he uses, that I think we all need to get our heads around.

Andrew Yang isn't Nazi. But he is offering voters a dishonest vision in much the same way lone politicians always have.

(11) The reason "outsider" Trump failed to keep his promises is that, ultimately, he did not co-operate with the rest of the GOP.

I remained a supporter until near the end bc he appeared to be co-operating on several important issues, like tax reform, originalist judges etc.

(12) For those who can keep an open mind, Trump's legacy should be that going against the party doesn't work, & indeed causes untold damage to everyone affected.

Right now the only winners in this situation are Democrat politicians. D voters are losing along with everyone else.

(13) Yes, Einstein, political parties are corrupt.

But one man or woman can't fix anything on their own. (Maybe as a Mayor, but a case can be made against even that.)

We are stuck with political parties. And size matters.

(14) Whenever I see complaints about this or that thing the Democrat-controlled White House, Senate or House is doing, I just remember how they got all that power.

Because Trump failed to take advice from others, even to the point of discarding core duties like basic security.

(15) It certainly wasn't bc anyone "stole" the election. I know it can be painful to admit that. After the Electoral College voting, & the hail Mary SCOTUS attempt led by TX AG Paxton in December, I started to accept reality.

Trump had ample opportunity to contest the result.

(16) Trump himself made me stop supporting him. His real self came to the fore. And he's still doing it. Like Nixon, he will almost certainly go to his grave claiming he did nothing wrong. And Nixon's literal & moral crimes were minor in comparison.

This note appeared in 2016:

(17) At the time, Trump supporters liked that Nixon had told him that in 1987. I think the letter reveals a lot about Nixon, and Trump.

They were both very good at political marketing. Many of their policy achievements were brilliant. But they threw it all away.

(18) I hope it's clear that I didn't write this thread to comment on Andrew Yang one way or another. It was about the belief that one person could make politics "transparent, user friendly, and real."

You and me have to make it that way ourselves. By staying skeptical.