Thread by @DavidOAtkins

The biggest mistake moderate Democrats are making is that they are governing to preserve institutional credibility while hoping that Trumpism will blow over, rather than preparing with grim fortitude for a society-wide confrontation with a fascist movement playing for keeps. /1

What does this look like? Let's take some examples. Democrats are trying to preserve the comity of the Senate so it keeps "working" after Trumpism dissipates, failing to get that the Senate is the barricade the fascists are fortifying to prevent us from stopping their coup. /2

The Supreme Court. Much of the center-left is terrified of expanding the court, worrying about future GOP expansions & the legitimacy of the institution, rather than understanding that the current balance, with Senate apportionment, is their siege engine against democracy./3

Democrats are terrified of backlash on "crime" and policing, refusing to partisanize the police problem, failing to understand that the fascists are counting on MAGA cops dominating blue cities as the frontline troops to beat down progressive resistance to the coup. /4

Democrats treat the gun problem as if they were debating people who simply don't understand the origins of gun violence, rather than address what is happening: the MAGA glorification of a culture of political violence by people eager to kill Others and prepping for civil war. /5

Democrats are dealing with the anti-LGBT and abortion pushes as if they were passing moral panics to push against for votes, rather than a deliberate attempt to create a theocracy before the country secularizes--and cleanse red states of liberals while crushing blue cities. /6

We have to stop trying to preserve institutional norms to keep working until the fever breaks. It's not going to break. DeSantis is working on enhancing Trumpist fascism without the chaos. We need to be preparing at all levels to fortify democracy against the coming trial. /7

The fascists see demographic disaster looming, & they are leveraging all the centers of power they can to seize total control. They don't care how they have to do that, or what they have to break. Democrats cannot save ourselves & the nice institutional norms at the same time./8

It's time to understand that the battle isn't just to win the next election. You can't win EVERY election. There are too many variables. Also, the fascist fever isn't breaking. The battle is to stop the coup. That means changing the institutions to make the coup impossible. /9

That means BIG STRUCTURAL CHANGE, even if it feels a bit destabilizing. It means expanding the court, adding states, ditching blue slips, killing the filibuster, invoking the 14th, adding requirements for police hiring, and honestly talking about what the GOP is doing. /10

Is it a risk? Of course. But it's NOT AS BIG AS RISK AS THINKING YOU CAN WIN ENOUGH ELECTIONS UNTIL THE FEVER PASSES. That sounds nice, but it is stupid. The fever isn't going to "pass" with these people, and you'll eventually lose an election. /11

As long as the public thinks it's just politics as usual, they tend to behave thermostatically. Most won't understand the consequences of Republicans taking power unless institutional Democrats and trusted public figures make it explicit. And note that it's not just Trump. /12

A time of testing of powers is eventually coming, socially and institutionally. I expect the fascists to lose, but we stand a better chance of winning the more we have prepared explicitly for that rather than trying to seem like the nice sensible ones because polls said so. /end