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Nov 13 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
DeSantis v. Trump wouldn't just be about personalities. DeSantis is traditional GOP. Many Republicans like that! They liked the pre-Trump GOP and want to return to that.

But Trump ran in 2016 against GOP dogma because (as Ron Paul also showed) a big part of the base rejects it.
DeSantis is a very smart politician so he adapted to the Trump era. He also got COVID right by relying on science, and adeptly uses the culture war.

But if you look at his House voting record, he's like Pompeo: supports the foreign and economic policy which Trump 2016 rejected.
Here's Pompeo on Ukraine: exactly the same as Dems, neocons, Biden, etc. He's a foreign policy hawk, never opposes wars, wants pro-corporate policies, tax cuts for the rich etc. That's largely DeSantis' record, too. But much of the GOP base opposes this.

There's real and substantive internal division on the US right in both foreign and domestic policy. The early Tea Party and Ron Paul's relative success captured that before Trump used his celebrity, charisma and media attention to win with it. These debates don't exist with Dems.
I can see why many conservatives want to move beyond Trump. Maybe there's someone like Josh Hawley who could more effectively advocate the 2016 iteration of Trumpism (that often wasn't reflected in his Admin). Or maybe only Trump can. But this debate is needed and is healthy.
And on DeSantis, what @ZaidJilani says is true. I'm not assuming DeSantis still advocates old GOP foreign policy. Many people evolve as they see more (smart people by definition do so). Just saying his House votes were aligned with traditional GOP policy:

One last point on DeSantis' record in the House on foreign policy and how it compares to Trump's 2016 campaign vision (which, again, Trump's Admin often did not follow). DeSantis did denounce and oppose Obama's intent to use military force in Syria:

wokv.com/news/local/rep…
And here's @justinamash -- always a consistent voice and vote against needless US wars and surveillance -- on both DeSantis and Pompeo, with whom he served in the House. It'll be interesting to see how DeSantis positions himself now on foreign policy:

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More from @ggreenwald

Glenn Greenwald Profile picture
Nov 15
These are absolutely reasonable question to ask the FBI Director -- not just reasonable but necessary.

But within liberal political culture, any questioning of authorities is castigated as "deranged conspiracy theories." Only blind and uncritical acceptance is deemed honorable.
Liberals now have all sorts of memes and clichés they've been trained to recite that mock the notion of "just asking questions."

That's what it means to build an authoritarian culture: FBI, DOJ and CIA leaders are to be honored and believed, not questioned or doubted.
One reason (of many) that it's so sinister to hire huge numbers of former US Security State operatives as TV stars and "news analysts" -- as NBC and CNN compulsively do -- is it trains their liberal audience to see Security State operatives as trusted allies, not trained liars.
Read 10 tweets
Glenn Greenwald Profile picture
Nov 14
Credit to the NYT for writing this unflinching look at how puberty blockers have been handed out to kids as young as 8 with almost no data on their safety, yet now studies are finding - surprise! - they cause all kinds of harms, including to bone density:

nytimes.com/2022/11/14/hea…
One of the most dishonest debate-closing tactics has been to imply those who write a lot about trans issues (that does not include me) are creepily obsessed with what adults do to their bodies.

It's just a lie: most of the debate is about what society is doing to *young kids.*
That liberals have been able to basically force people to swallow new, very radical gender realities with no data is a testament to their hegemony in media, politics, Hollywood, etc.

But it's immoral to ban debate over science, especially for kids' health. Read the NYT article.
Read 11 tweets
Glenn Greenwald Profile picture
Nov 14
So revealing how many liberals and "leftists" are telling Musk he's stupid and reckless for speaking irreverently to a Senator (!), especially one with power over his companies.

These people are such fucking authoritarians: you speak to Democratic Senators with respect or else! ImageImageImageImage
This has been the most overlooked part of the debate over Big Tech censorship from the start. This is not, as liberal censorship defenders claim, a case of private companies deciding to censor. They're doing it under explicit punishment threats from Dems:

greenwald.substack.com/p/congress-esc…
And @SenMarkey in particular has been one of the Democrats most explicit in telling Big Tech executives: you either "take down" the posts we regard as dangerous, or you will face legal and regulatory punishment. This is a core Democratic Party threat:

Read 5 tweets
Glenn Greenwald Profile picture
Nov 13
Look how repulsive this is. @joekent16jan19 risked his life to fight in the wars that @DavidFrum sent other American families to go fight in, but not his own kids. Kent lost his wife in those wars. And now Frum depicts *himself* as the Paragon of Decency, and Kent as "indecent."
This is why Ron Paul was able to go around Iowa and SC in 2008 and say: why are we allowing neocons and the Cheneys to send your kids to die in pointless wars that only benefit them while you struggle with poor jobs and no health care?

That's the tension Trump recognized in 2016
The international left continues to be anti-war and opposes the US's Endless War posture. But that is sadly absent in the US "left," which stands united in support of those policies. Maybe it's Hawley, or Rand Paul, or someone needed to denounce this:

edition.cnn.com/2015/11/08/pol…
Read 4 tweets
Glenn Greenwald Profile picture
Nov 13
Is it at all strange that a brand new and opaque voting system was implemented in the name of COVID; people are trained to think it's normal to take not days but weeks to count votes; and candidates are required to concede when the media says so, not when the votes are counted?
I'm not stating or implying there's fraud in this election. I've seen no evidence of it.

But when the planet's richest country purposely implements a voting system that takes weeks to count votes, and votes appear from all corners, of course that will foster rational distrust.
The most surreal part is that the people who claim to embody "democracy," who tell you the only way to save democracy is to vote how they tell you, are the ones who defend this.

Anyone asking questions about why this takes so long and is so chaotic is somehow "anti-democracy."
Read 5 tweets
Glenn Greenwald Profile picture
Nov 11
Blue-checks for anyone is good for democratizing Twitter, but the solution is obvious: 1) require proof of identity and 2) name changes result its loss.

Anonymity is crucial for the internet - not everyone can speak under their names - but blue checks can be for verified ID.
There's a verified account using my name that is clearly a liberal: bashing me for insufficiently fealty to Dems.

And it's basically nothing but a mountain of every sick anti-gay trope: fundraising for NAMBLA, seeking kids to date, poisoned my husband because he got too old etc.
As I've said before, I've warred with every faction during my journalism career: Bush/Cheney conservatives, neocons, the Brazilian right, the Brazilian left, UK establishment.

The *only* faction that routinely deploys homophobic tropes against me is the US liberal/left.
Read 5 tweets

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