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Feb 13 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
!!!
Aside from the disastrous effects of their “bipartisanship or bust” politics, the fact that the “unity” crowd consistently relies on this kind of bizarrely distorted and utterly stupid version of the nation’s history should really give anyone with a shred of self-respect pause.
“Bipartisanship or bust” is how democracy dies. And actually, if that had been the maxim, America never would have gotten anywhere near democracy territory in the first place.
Never forget: 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. You can prioritize “unity” or democracy - but not both.

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More from @tzimmer_history

Thomas Zimmer Profile picture
Feb 15
This may sound harsh, but I agree with @jasonintrator. Too many commentators thought their expertise on European fascism enabled them to weigh in on Trumpism, not realizing that they actually lacked an adequate understanding of the American (Far) Right, past and present.
One such case is Richard Evans, specifically his essay “Why Trump isn’t a fascist,” published a week after the January 6 attack on the Capitol. newstatesman.com/long-reads/202…
Richard Evans is one of the pre-eminent scholars of Nazism – and arguably one of the best-known historians in the world. I respect him greatly, especially his earlier work that focused on nineteenth-century German social history; the focus on Nazism actually came quite late.
Read 21 tweets
Thomas Zimmer Profile picture
Feb 15
You know what Yascha Mounk conveniently fails to mention? That he also called for an end to “hygiene theater” in May 2021 – that was before Delta, before Omicron. About 350,000 Americans have since died of Covid.

Something to keep in mind when assessing his credibility. ImageImage
You’d think that including some form of acknowledgment of his previous calls to “end pandemic theater” might be in order? Something like “Mind you, I also proudly proclaimed the exact same thing many months ago, and that was clearly premature”? Some critical self-reflection?
It’s the complete lack of humility that I find astonishing. “I used my significant public platform once before to deride people who remained cautious, including pretty much all the actual experts - they were right, I was wrong, many people died, but hey, no hard feelings, right?”
Read 4 tweets
Thomas Zimmer Profile picture
Feb 13
A question I’m often getting when I talk about reactionary white male grievance is: How much of this is “sincere,” how much is opportunism?

This is a good example why the answer is not either/or: It’s both, ideology and opportunism reinforcing each other in interesting ways.
There’s no question that Sorbo understands the opportunity that is presented to him: There’s a whole rightwing propaganda infrastructure for guys like him - a standing invitation to gain a little bit of attention (and money) by leaning into their supposed victimization.
But when he looks in the mirror in the morning, does he go: “Goodness, I can’t believe they’re buying this BS - let’s go out there and tell some more nonsense stories!” I don’t think that’s the case. What’s on display here is a little more interesting than that.
Read 13 tweets
Thomas Zimmer Profile picture
Feb 10
A clarifying piece by @perrybaconjr: What kind of democracy, and for whom?

Conservatives want to restrict democracy in order to uphold white Christian patriarchal rule. They are turning to authoritarianism because they are failing. Thoughts from a historical perspective: 1/
There are two key questions that have defined recent U.S. history: How have ideas and realities of democracy changed, specifically since the 1950s? And how has political conservatism reacted to those shifting versions and visions of democracy? 2/
It is often said that the U.S. is the world’s oldest democracy. While that is not necessarily incorrect, depending on the definition of “democracy,” it obscures rather than illuminates the reality of American life, past and present, and the nature of the current conflict. 3/
Read 33 tweets
Thomas Zimmer Profile picture
Feb 9
I wish more people knew about this story: a bust one of the KKK’s founders (!), in the year 2000 (!), in Selma, Alabama (!), in direct reaction to the election of a Black mayor. Grapple with this in earnest and you’ll understand so much about America’s past and present.
Nathan Bedford Forrest is famous not in spite, but solely because he was a traitor, war criminal, and the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. He was the embodiment of white supremacist violence when he was alive, and has been a symbol of continued white supremacy ever since.
What would you say about a German town with a large Jewish community, that just elected a Jewish mayor, erecting a statue of a Wehrmacht general who was infamous for being an anti-Semite, massacring Soviet soldiers, and founding a neo-Nazi terror organization after the war?
Read 5 tweets
Thomas Zimmer Profile picture
Feb 8
The 21st-Century History Wars #GEST535

Here’s a recap of Week 3, last week’s class: A look at the conflict over National History Standards in the 1990s, and an attempt to figure out how to relate the History Wars to the current wave of the anti-“CRT”/ education bills.
The general idea last week was to explore broader contexts in which to situate the current conflict over history education, specifically, and establish a framework for what is happening currently. Three broader contexts stood out. #GEST535
The first context is the general conflict over public education. The conservative critique of public education has a long history – in many ways, it’s been an important part of the modern conservative project since its inception. #GEST535
Read 24 tweets

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