My Tuesday column: Are We Destined For a Crisis of Democracy in 2024?:
nytimes.com/2021/06/08/opi…
It's a sequel, of sorts, to my Sunday column: Three Paths to Containing Trump:
nytimes.com/2021/06/05/opi…
Let's see if I can respond to these objections, 1 tweet for 1 tweet:
"Institutional support" here means "support from courts, officials, leaders and legislative bodies that had actual leverage to change the outcome," not Congressional Rs playing (yes, deeply reckless) games bc they knew the outcome wouldn't change:
I'm not arguing that Trump didn't come through January 6th and its aftermath as a powerful figure and a likely GOP nominee in 2024; I agree with the alarmists that he did and is.
The "weakness" I'm describing here is his inability to control the levers of government as POTUS or advance his election-overturning effort *at all* through institutional structures; again I agree he remains popular and could lead the GOP in 2024.
Yes, Graham has reverted to being slavishly pro-Trump; I'm describing the Congressional faction that voted to keep Cheney and then to get rid of her a couple of months later bc she was harping on Trump, similarly-minded senators around McConnell, etc.
The point is that the Obama era was *not* an era of bipartisanship, but going back is still a de-escalation compared to Trump's behavior. Rolling together Garland hardball (or Obama's immigration hardball) with #StoptheSteal is a category error.
The claim is not that they're designed to stop voter fraud; it's that they're pitched to fraudpilled GOP voters, to show them that something has been done and the supposed insecurities created by the Covid election have been fixed.
Yes, some Rs believe the bills will suppress Dem votes. Others know they probably won't (they might even suppress R votes) and support them primarily as a "we've done something" message to the base. (Paxton is claiming TX's laws already prevented fraud.)
I used "clear" to mean "not a Florida-in-2000-style outcome," which I think would probably plunge us into a crisis, but of a somewhat different kind.
My standard here is the widely-shared Dem hope-cum-expectation for 2020 that the party would gain House seats, make more Senate races competitive, and win a bigger victory over Trump:
I agree that Biden has been a relatively good leader for his party so far and if the Dems hold the House and/or the Senate he will deserve a lot of credit.
To end with disagreement, I suppose, I think the centerpieces of the @perrybaconjr list cited here - HR 1 and a full-scale Media Campaign to Save Democracy - would not have the effects he imagines. At all.

• • •

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

Keep Current with Ross Douthat

Ross Douthat 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 @DouthatNYT

12 May
The world is not disenchanted:
firstthings.com/article/2021/0…
Not disenchanted:
Not disenchanted:
Read 5 tweets
3 May
My wife and her new book in the latest Opinion newsletter:
static.nytimes.com/email-content/…
Her essay in Sunday's paper:
nytimes.com/2021/05/01/opi…
The book itself, with six shopping days till Mother's Day:
amazon.com/Mom-Genes-Scie…
Read 4 tweets
27 Apr
My wife's terrific new book is out today. I am on social media, she wisely is not. Therefore in the style of a Bernie Sanders meme I am once again here asking you to buy it:
amazon.com/Mom-Genes-Scie…
If you need more inducement here is a positive review from someone who is not me:
wsj.com/articles/mom-g…
Here is an excerpt/adaptation:
smithsonianmag.com/science-nature…
Read 6 tweets
29 Mar
Short take on the Snyder Cut (longer take in the next NR): The new Justice League is effective on its own terms, but those terms are a step back from what Snyder was trying to do in Man of Steel (where it mostly worked) and Batman v. Superman (where it completely didn't).
For all the four-hour-ness and not-Marvel-ness, Justice League is much more of a conventional superhero movie than its predecessors, which were more interested in the terror and havoc Superman's arrival wreaked on *us*.
The setup in Batman v. Superman, especially - how do our leaders, our weirdos, our normies, our merely human heroes all relate to a demi-god - was genuinely original. Unfortunately the plotting was just terrible. And no less terrible in the director's cut, alas.
Read 5 tweets
17 Mar
If Democrats do abolish or dramatically weaken the filibuster it will because the Republican Party, by its nature as a blocking coalition, struggles to make credible policy threats.
The Democrats have all kinds of internal divisions but they have a core agenda (for now) that unifies the party. The Republicans, given 51 Senate votes, would still lack such an agenda, and so the prospect of giving them more power to legislate inspires little liberal fear.
This might be short-sighted: A post-filibuster GOP could face new pressures that make it policy-oriented and more threatening to liberalism. (Indeed that's one reason conservatives who want a more ambitious GOP might welcome the change.)
Read 4 tweets
16 Mar
I enjoyed this @mattyglesias take but he does not, in fact, bite the bullet implied by his analysis:
slowboring.com/p/meritocracy-…
If the problem with meritocracy is really that it has led to a decline in "public virtue" and "a belief that some things just aren’t worth it" among the elite, then really, truly biting the bullet would involve saying that maybe we need ... a more hereditary elite.
The argument being that you need some people inside your elite who are secure enough in their place within it that they aren't in competition with each other all the time and have the leisure to set some rules about morality and good form.
americanaffairsjournal.org/2021/02/redisc…
Read 6 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!

:(