Greg Sargent Profile picture
Aug 3, 2023 9 tweets 4 min read Read on X
Brief response to the @nytdavidbrooks column people are dunking on. His device (imagining the view from those at the bottom of the social order) is fine. Egalitarian liberals agree meritocracy is corrupted/distorted. But his core argument about the Trump indictments is flawed. 1/
There's a lot in the column, but I want to focus on the claim that “people in less-educated classes" feel under cultural “assault” from elites and see Trump as "their warrior against the educated class.”

This formulation erases the non-white working class from the equation. 2/ Image
In 2020, 53% of Biden voters didn’t have a college degree, vs. 46% who did, per Pew. Yes, that's more lopsided for Trump (31-70). But the Dem anti-Trump coalition has a *lot* of the “less educated class” in it.

The two coalitions don’t look that different in this regard. 3/
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Notably, Biden won a huge majority of *nonwhite* voters without a college degree.

Even if you grant there’s been some erosion among the nonwhite working class, the clear pattern is still that the anti-MAGA coalition has *tons* of “less educated” (nonwhite) voters in it. 4/ Image
Also, as @NGrossman81 points out, income breakdowns of the voting also tell a very different story than the one Brooks is telling. 5/
Brooks applies this frame to the Trump indictments: Those prone to “distrustful populism” see them as “another skirmish in the class war between professionals and workers.” He fudges on whether he’s talking about Trump supporters, so let’s assume he really means “workers.” 6/ Image
But there's a problem with Brooks' formulation: In the new NYT/Siena poll, a plurality of no-college voters overall thinks Trump committed serious federal crimes, 43-39. Yes, white no-college voters think he didn’t. But nonwhite no-college voters think he did by 53-25. 7/
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And a bare plurality of non-college voters overall — 46-45 — say Trump threatened democracy in the lead up to 1/6. Yes, white no-college voters say he was just exercising his right to contest the outcome. But nonwhite no-college voters say he threatened democracy by 57-29. 8/
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As I’ve argued (h/t @yeselson @erikloomis), simplified depictions of elite/no-college cultural schisms are totally divorced from today's realities. *This* merits more elite punditry! 9/9

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/…

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More from @GregTSargent

Oct 18
Trump's agents shot Marimar Martinez, a US citizen, multiple times for allegedly menacing them with her car in Chicago. Only hours later, Kristi Noem and DHS started spreading disinfo about the shooting.

Now the official line is crumbling. 1/

(link)
newrepublic.com/article/201957…
DHS said agents were "boxed in by 10 cars," and suggested she brandished a gun, which "forced" an agent to open fire. She "drove herself to hospital."

But charging doc only discusses two cars, doesn't mention gun, and ambulance took her to hospital. 2/

newrepublic.com/article/201957…Image
DHS also said her car "rammed" the agents' vehicle. But the Chicago Sun-Times reports that her lawyer says body cam footage undermines the notion that she drove her vehicle toward them and shows an agent saying "do something, bitch" before shooting. 3/

newrepublic.com/article/201957…Image
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Read 6 tweets
Oct 17
News on Trump boat bombings --> Now that SouthCom Commander Alvin Holsey resigned, likely over bombings, ranking Armed Services Dem Adam Smith tells me committee Ds will demand Holsey's sworn testimony and press Rs to join them.

Smith spoke to us on pod:
newrepublic.com/article/201905…
This fiasco has gotten worse. Some highlights from my pod talk w/ ranking Armed Services Dem Adam Smith: First, he says SouthCom Commander Alvin Holsey was likely pushed out over the boat bombings and that he's heard stuff to this effect from inside:

newrepublic.com/article/201914…Image
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This is incredible. Rep Adam Smith tells me the administration has given lawmakers *zero* in the way of the most basic information about the bombings. He says this is nothing like previous situations where basic info was supplied. In this case, nothing.

newrepublic.com/article/201914…Image
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Read 4 tweets
Oct 11
This week, MAGA figures claimed Kristi Noem "stared down" violent antifa protesters in Portland. Turns out they were talking mostly about a guy in a chicken suit.

This opens a window into MAGA propaganda and MSM's failure to cope with it. 1/

(new piece)
newrepublic.com/article/201669…
Trump and Stephen Miller have relied on an army of MAGA "influencers" disseminating a fraudulent picture of Portland in chaos, to bolster the case for deploying military.

NYT has a good piece on this. But it made several missteps worth highlighting. 2/

newrepublic.com/article/201669…Image
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NYT piece calls these MAGA types "provocateurs." It describes "dueling versions of reality." Common MSM tropes.

But these aren't provocateurs. They're propagandists. Only one side is employing deliberate deceptions on vast scale for instrumental ends. 3/

newrepublic.com/article/201669…Image
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Read 7 tweets
Oct 10
Appalling: JB Pritzker tells me he hasn't been able to get a single convo with Kristi Noem or any other top Trump officials to even discuss their Chicago operations. Pritzker just wants heads up for logistical reasons. Nada.

Pritzker opens up on the pod:
newrepublic.com/article/201604…
JB Pritzker has also been emphatically placing Trump's mental decline front and center. On our pod, he adds a new element: People around Trump are using his decline to manipulate him, so they're less likely to intervene. More Dems should say this.

newrepublic.com/article/201606…Image
Stephen Miller just said the Chicago ICE raid was one of the most successful police operations ever. I asked Pritzker to respond.

"If this was Pinochet’s Chile, if this was Argentina under authoritarian rule, maybe you’d call it successful," he said. 2/

newrepublic.com/article/201606…Image
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Read 6 tweets
Oct 8
JB Pritzker and Gavin Newsom are doing something new and important: They understand Stephen Miller's theory of fascist power politics and have developed a theory on how to combat it. More Dems must reckon w/Miller's understanding of the moment.

New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/201453…
Stephen Miller believes that if he supercharges the debate over Trump's abuses of power with enough propaganda, he can polarize it and nudge low-info voters into accepting authoritarianism. Pritzker/Newsom get that this requires an info-war in response.

newrepublic.com/article/201453…Image
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Trump just threatened to invoke Insurrection Act if govs/judges act *lawfully* within the constitutional system in ways that displease him.

Miller's statements show their real position: Trump's power to invent pretexts for emergency actions is limitless.

newrepublic.com/article/201453…Image
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Read 6 tweets
Oct 7
Trump's tweet that Portland is "war ravaged" just backfired. A Trump-picked judge cited it in blocking National Guard deployment to Portland, declaring him "untethered from facts."

On the pod, Oregon AG Dan Rayfield explains the ruling and what's next:
newrepublic.com/article/201408…
Highlights from this pod w/Oregon AG Dan Rayfield: He tells me Dem AGs are preparing for likelihood that Trump will expand efforts to federalize National Guards and deploy them in more cities.

Trump is trying to normalize troops in US cities, he says.

newrepublic.com/article/201409…Image
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Oregon AG Dan Rayfield warns:

"Anyone who’s seen the visual presence of what it’s like to live in an authoritarian country knows it’s a very different existence. That can never become a reality for us."

Stephen Miller is trying to acclimate us to this.

newrepublic.com/article/201409…Image
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Read 5 tweets

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