Chris Murphy 🟧 Profile picture
Nov 10, 2024 10 tweets 2 min read Read on X
That was a cataclysm. Electoral map wipeout. Senate D practical ceiling is now 52 seats. R's is 62.

Time to rebuild the left.

We are out of touch with the crisis of meaning/purpose fueling MAGA. We refuse to pick big fights. Our tent is too small.

1/ Some early thoughts:
2/ The left has never fully grappled with the wreckage of fifty years of neoliberalism, which has left legions of Americans adrift as local places are hollowed out, rapacious profit seeking cannibalizes the common good, and unchecked new technology separates and isolates us.
3/ The things that mattered are disappearing. We spend half as much time with friends as a generation ago. Hard work no longer guarantees economic mobility. Institutions (like churches) are delegitimized. Place based identity evaporates as we all become "global citizens."
4/ The left skips past the way people are feeling (alone, impotent, overwhelmed) and straight to uninspiring solutions (more roads! bulk drug purchasing!) that do little to actually upset the status quo of who has power and who doesn't.
5/ Does racism explain part of the attraction of the right's nativism? Of course. But mass deportation is a (terrible) response to Americans' real sense they are helpless in the face of global forces (like increased migration). The left largely ignores this pain.
6/ We don't listen enough; we tell people what's good for them.

And when progressives like Bernie aggressively go after the elites that hold people down, they are shunned as dangerous populists. Why? Maybe because true economic populism is bad for our high-income base. 😬
7/ Meanwhile, men tumble into a different kind of identity crisis, as the patriarchy, society's primary organizing paradigm for centuries, rightly crashes. The right pushes an alluring dial back. The left says "get over it". Again, a refusal to listen/offer responsible solutions.
8/ We cannot be afraid of fights - especially with the economic elites who have profited off neoliberalism. The right regularly picks fights with elites - Hollywood, higher ed, etc. Democrats (e.g. the Harris campaign) are tepid in our fights with billionaires and corporations.
9/ Real economic populism should be our tentpole.

But here's the thing - then you need to let people into the tent who aren't 100% on board with us on every social and cultural issue, or issues like guns or climate.
10/ Those are hard things for the left.

A firm break with neoliberalism.

Listen to poor and rural people, men in crisis. Don't decide for them.

Pick fights. Embrace populism.

Build a big tent. Be less judgmental.

But we are beyond small fixes.

• • •

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More from @ChrisMurphyCT

Jun 26
The press reported today that the votes are falling apart for Trump's budget (the one with the big Medicaid cuts).

It's the impact of organizing. It's why I set up American Mobilization Project.

1/ Here's a quick summary of what AMP has been up to in its first month. Image
Image
2/ I think the entire game right now is citizen mobilization. What's the point of raising money for the 2026 election if our democracy is at risk NOW? So I'm dedicating my fundraising efforts to citizen protest. That's what AMP does - fund protest infrastructure.
3/ A taste of what we are doing:

We formed a $200,000 partnership with the Committee to Protect Health Care. They organize doctors and nurses to fight the Medicaid cuts in key states.

Already, 4,000 doctors have signed up to take action.
Read 7 tweets
Jun 20
Earlier today I gave a speech at @sciencespo in Paris, laying out the argument for a U.S./EU regulatory approach to AI that rejects JD Vance’s insistence that we put AI industry profit and greed ahead of protecting jobs and our spiritual well being.

1/ A 🧵 on my main points Image
2/ Vance gave a speech in Paris in February that argued for no regulation of AI in Europe or America. It was a delusional and incoherent speech that appeared to be written by the AI industry that seeks to make billions of rapid replacement of human labor by AI and robots.
3/ He argued that AI would create more jobs in the U.S. and Europe than it destroys. This is patently untrue. The AI industry wants us to believe this so we don’t protect against the profits they will make if we don’t properly manage the transition to AI dominance.
Read 7 tweets
Jun 15
The Minnesota assassin appears to be a hate-filled right winger. So can we stop walking on eggshells about MAGA's legitimization of political violence?

Yes, Republicans have also been the target of inexcusable violence, but this isn't a "both sides" issue.

1/ A🧵on the danger.
2/ For the last five years, MAGA has been bathed in political violence.

Most importantly, MAGA's celebration of January 6th and Trump's decision to pardon ALL the Jan 6 rioters - including the most violent - became a clear endorsement of violence committed in his name.
3/ But it didn't start with January 6th. Trump regularly threatened protesters at his rallies with violence. He cozied up to brutal dictators abroad who used violence to maintain political control.

There was no comparison in Democratic messaging.
Read 9 tweets
May 25
Trump uses antisemitism as a false pretext to suppress dissent. It's disgusting, because as as this investigation outlines, Trump gives hiring preferences to people with strong ties to antisemites.

1/ A short summary of what they found. It's important.
npr.org/2025/05/14/nx-…
2/ White House official Paul Ingrassia is a vocal follower of white supremacist and antisemite Nick Fuentes. At a Fuentes rally Ingrassia attended, Fuentes exclaimed "calling Donald Trump a racist only makes me like him more!", and the crowd chanted "Down With Israel!" Image
Image
3/ Before coming to the White House, Trump official Rachel Cauley was a key defender of Jan 6 rioter Tim Hale Cusanelli, an avowed antisemite. In an one video rant, he called Orthodox Jews "a plague of locusts". Cauley attended his trial for support, and sat with his followers. Image
Image
Read 5 tweets
May 20
Rightfully, the cuts to Medicaid (over 10M people will lose their health care) and the tax cuts for the rich have been the story of the disastrous Republican budget bill.

But I read the whole thing. And there are some hidden rats in there you need to know about.

1/ A quick🧵
2/ A hidden provision of the bill...wait for it...legalizes gun silencers!! What?? So now criminals will be able to hide their crimes and police will lose the ability to respond to mass shootings. WTF.
reuters.com/world/us/us-re…
3/ The bill BANS states from regulating artificial intelligence - a present to the big AI companies that send $$ to Republicans.

So now no state consumer protections against AI stealing our jobs or corrupting our kids. What citizen is asking for that??
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/…
Read 5 tweets
Apr 30
I went to the Senate floor to tell a story about Trump’s first 100 days - a story of daily, norm shattering corruption.

I laid out 40 different corrupt acts - each one alone could have taken down previous presidents.

1/ A 🧵 of my speech. People need to know this story.
2/ The Trump crypto coin - the biggest scandal in the history of the American presidency.
3/ Trump ends enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, so that his staff can more easily get paid on the side by foreign governments and companies seeking to bribe the Trump Administration.
Read 10 tweets

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