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15 Jan, 4 tweets, 1 min read
In U.S. history, the price for extending democracy has always been political instability - or: division - because demands for equality are inherently destabilizing to a political order of white elite rule.

Sinema chooses to uphold that order. The rest is self-serving noise.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t opportunistic considerations shaping her choice: She certainly wants to present herself as the one who stands up to the “radicals” in her own party – and apparently, she believes this might even carry her to the presidency one day…
But ideology circumscribes and defines the realm of opportunity. If Sinema were strongly committed to the idea of multiracial democracy, this type of opportunism wouldn’t be an option for her right now.
All the white elites who came before her and proclaimed themselves “moderates” while standing in the way of protecting or extending democracy were driven by the same mix of ideology and opportunism. Sinema is earning her place in those shameful ancestral halls.

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More from @tzimmer_history

Thomas Zimmer Profile picture
16 Jan
I’d say 5 percent of the blame goes to Biden for constantly evoking “bipartisanship” throughout 2021, opening the door for such criticism.

But 95 percent of the blame goes to Chuck Todd for framing this as anything but a result of complete Republican obstruction. Just bizarre.
This is the clearest example of how too much of the establishment media is actively complicit in the Republican assault on the political system in the exact way it was during the Obama years: All Republicans have to do is make functional governance impossible and blame Democrats.
I’m as frustrated as anyone by the fact that some establishment democrats still insist a return to “normalcy” is imminent (any minute now!), when Republicans could not be clearer about the fact that they consider Democratic governance fundamentally illegitimate.
Read 17 tweets
Thomas Zimmer Profile picture
15 Jan
Part 2 (of 3) of my conversation with @ardenthistorian on the @KreuzundFlagge podcast: We are back debating the past and present of U.S. democracy and what is animating the anti-democratic radicalization of the American Right.
We’re covering a lot of ground in these podcasts, and they’re helping me, personally, to get the big picture right. Here is an incomplete list of the topics we discussed – and once again, I’ll include a few links to previous reflections to provide some more evidence (in English):
How the current onslaught on democracy can be situated in the longer-term context of democracy’s contested history since the Civil War, and the evolving forms of anti-democratic obstruction on the Right:
Read 11 tweets
Thomas Zimmer Profile picture
14 Jan
Last week, some rightwing media misrepresented something I posted on Twitter as evidence of liberal hysteria - yet another woke professor proving how illiberal the Left really is. What else is new?! But: What they said is actually quite revealing. So, here are some thoughts: ImageImageImageImage
Both “Reason” and the “Washington Examiner” targeted a relatively innocuous thread in which I praised the recent “Every day is Jan. 6 now” intervention by the NYT editorial board, but also criticized the paper for not really following that maxim in any consistent way.
According to these rightwing outlets, what I wrote was a manifestation of deranged alarmism, typical liberal hysteria – an outrageously illiberal attack on all conservatives, an undemocratic call to deplatform and boycott all politicians of a major party. ImageImageImageImage
Read 12 tweets
Thomas Zimmer Profile picture
13 Jan
The fever dream of reactionary centrism: A center-right re-alignment of American politics, all in the name of defending democracy against Trump - while also upholding the traditional order against the forces of multiracial pluralism. Wow.
In this vision, Trump and the excesses of militant Trumpism are excluded from the “respectable” spectrum of American politics – but so are all the “radical Leftists” like Bernie Sanders, and all those “woke” activists and crazy “critical race theorists.”
The desired result is a new normal that not only glorifies the status quo, but actually restores a more secure white elite dominance. With the exception of Big Lie-inspired election subversion, Cheney does not seem to have a problem with the GOP’s other undemocratic tools.
Read 14 tweets
Thomas Zimmer Profile picture
11 Jan
I respect Kinzinger taking a stand against the authoritarian assault on democracy. But his continued insistence that his Republican colleagues are just scared and cowardly obscures the actual problem: Most of them are on board with the anti-democratic radicalization. 1/
The “cowardice” tale is so attractive for several reasons: It provides cover for Republicans (better a coward than an extremist); and it allows the news media to cling to the conception of the GOP as a “normal” party that is just struggling with an authoritarian insurrection. 2/
But the “cowardice” narrative fails to explain the actions of Republican elected officials up and down the country – particularly on the state and local levels – who are actively complicit and often seem to revel in the attack on democracy. 3/
Read 17 tweets
Thomas Zimmer Profile picture
9 Jan
On a rainy Sunday afternoon, a somewhat gloomy thought on January 6 and the mainstream media: This past week, every major outlet published pieces emphasizing the acute threat to democracy. Good! But that was the easy part. The tough part: What happens during the rest of the year?
I’ll mention this intervention by the @nytimes editorial board as representative of the many such pieces that have come out: I agree with every word in it. But the question is: Is the NYT willing to make sure that the paper’s political coverage actually reflects these warnings?
I think the @nytimes, as an institution, would have to make some serious changes if it really took the idea that “Every Day Is Jan. 6 Now” to heart and made it the paper’s operating principle going forward.
Read 9 tweets

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