The problem for progressives is not that we can't prove things like Project 2025 or Trumpism pose threats to democracy. I think we can. The problem is, we are assuming people are still sold on democracy because WE are, and that's not as true as we think. A 🧵...
2/ The left has an unnatural faith in the power of pure reason (even though facts don't tend to sway political decisions), and a faith that most people embrace values like democracy, such that they'll oppose any threat to it, once demonstrated. But what if that's not the case?..
3/ What if large numbers, for various reasons, are either ambivalent to democracy or even hostile? It's not far-fetched at all. In a society in which our daily choices are less democratic/collective than individualistic and rooted in consuming, the market subsumes democracy...
4/ As long as people have their choice of cars, gadgets, stuff on Amazon, shows to stream, etc. they feel satisfied. They experience a kind of "freedom" that can seem quite real, so long as they don't have serious health problems, and have enough money to pay rent/mortgage...
5/ So democracy is, to them, what we do every four years, or two, or six, one day out of those years, but not a daily thing for which we have to develop a kind of muscle to make it work. We spend thousands and thousands of hours consuming, and only a few doing democracy...
6/ Not to mention, some are hostile to democracy, as a recent New Republic piece notes, w/reference to survey data. Fact is, democracy is slow as hell, messy, and often things never seem to get done. That's why some long for an authoritarian: just to get things accomplished...
7/ And then there are the folks -- a minority, but not a small one -- who want an authoritarian bc they sincerely want him to hurt certain people (immigrants, LGBTQ folks, Black folks, women, etc) by way of his policy choices and actions...
8/ If a large enough share of the population becomes hostile to democracy, or even sufficiently ambivalent, it won't suffice for the left to scream and shout about how Trump and Project 2025 are threats to democracy. We need to remind people WHY democracy is a positive value...
9/ I know, it seems absurd to have to do that. But we do. Students aren't getting that from high school civics. And any attempt to show how hard people have fought to make democracy more real -- by fighting racism, for instance -- is being censored on behalf of white feelings...
10/ So rather than teach how hard it's been to secure the 'blessings of liberty' for millions -- and why it matters, and why those who've fought for that are heroes -- we're turning civics into empty patriotism, or just something we learn for a grade before we all get tech jobs..
11/ And in the tech-bro, online world, all that matters is money, and innovation and "Moving fast and breaking things" which is by definition not about democracy. Democracy is slow. Autocracy moves quickly, and we want new stuff, so...
12/ If we can't figure out how to sell the lofty principles of this country (however violated from the start), we're doomed. And if we can't sell democracy as well as others sell crypto scams, Stanley water bottles, and weight-loss meds, we probably deserve to be. END
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