Latest Twitter Threads by @DavidPepper on Thread Reader App

Apr 5 • 7 tweets • 2 min read

🚨

If you’re continuously stunned by the behavior of gerrymandered GOP representatives in the world of Citizens United, don’t be.

Here’s how to think of them:

They are no longer public servants.

Improving public outcomes is not their goal. Nor do they do better in life…

1/ …by serving the public interest.

In fact, if they serve the public interest, they will likely be primaried. And lose.

Think of them as the servants of certain private interests. See that they are in public office to use public power to benefit those private interests.

2/

Apr 3 • 28 tweets • 5 min read

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United Defiance or Divided Compliance?

A 🧵

Two sets of institutions— each central parts of the infrastructure of a functioning democracy—find themselves facing a similar dilemma.

Higher ed institutions, and law firms.

1/ In case people question the centrality of these institutions’ roles in our democracy, know that Trump and Vance fully understand:

That’s why Vance has declared universities and professors the enemy to what he and his allies seek to achieve.

2/

Apr 2 • 9 tweets • 3 min read

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A Big Day for Democracy

A 🧵

It’s not just that Susan Crawford won.

It’s how she won—decisively.

And it’s who she beat—Musk, Trump and millions spent against her. Musk clearly was using his money to buy votes and buy Wisconsin justice and power.

1/

And Wisconsin said no!

2/

Mar 27 • 6 tweets • 2 min read

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Quick take on Signal Gate

A 🧵

Beyond the egregious security breach involved, the Signal scandal also puts on full display:

1) the appalling dishonesty of these people (lying with gusto even after incriminating evidence is out in the open);

1/

2) their sheer incompetence/arrogance (they essentially invited Goldberg to release the messages with all their trash talk and bald-faced lies);

3) the inability of most GOP legislators to call out anything—

2/

Mar 26 • 5 tweets • 1 min read

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Last night’s big PA Surprise

Short 🧵

I chatted with a PA Dem strategist who wears the opposite of rose-colored glasses about last night’s surprise upset in PA.

He was not involved in the race.

A few quotes:

1/

“[F]rom a ‘sign of the political winds,’ the victory last night was significant for several reasons: first, turnout was quite high for a random March date.

Second, this turf has been Republican since the Civil War…”

2/

Mar 24 • 9 tweets • 2 min read

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“Will we even have future elections?”

The trap

A 🧵

It comes up regularly in meetings and zoom calls I’ve participated in.

Sometimes as a throwaway line.

Sometimes more seriously.

“Will we even have elections?”

1/ And it’s a dangerous question.

Not because we won’t have elections.

But because if enough people start to believe that the answer is “no,” then they won’t engage.

They won’t prepare. They won’t bother.

2/

Mar 24 • 13 tweets • 2 min read

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The Caving Continues

A 🧵

Another day, another institution caves to the threats and shakedowns of Donald Trump.

And the pattern is clear: the more powerful institutions are, the more likely they are to comply.

1/

My law school classmate and friend @DavidLat shared on his substack an email from the chairman of the firm Paul Weiss (Brad Karp), where he described the situation the firm faced:

2/

Mar 23 • 5 tweets • 2 min read

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More details are coming out that many of those whisked away to El Salvador did not have criminal records, and do not appear to have been part of a gang of any sort:

1/

To sum it up, they were flown off to a prison in El Salvador with no due process—treated as “alien enemies” under a law meant for wartime, as if the United States is at war with Venezuela (when we clearly are not).

2/

Mar 22 • 5 tweets • 2 min read

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Columbia Caves

A 🧵

If we’ve learned anything during the Trump era, it’s that once you cave to a bully, the bullying is just getting started.

So isn’t hard to see how this plays out from here: Follow-up letters by the Trump administration…

1/

unsatisfied with Columbia’s response and demanding even more concessions. Then more caving by Columbia. And downhill from there.

And buoyed by his success with Columbia, Trump will no doubt make similar “hold-ups” and lists

2/

Mar 21 • 39 tweets • 6 min read

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While there were students there for the photo-op, there were also a number of other prominent politicians at Trump’s event yesterday—announcing the destruction of the Dept of Ed

And the old saying that “you are judged by the company you keep” certainly applies here…

1/

Because the governors who were there to cheer on this latest attack on public education all have one thing in common beyond their party affiliation: they are all pursuing disastrous education privatization schemes in their states.

2/

Mar 17 • 14 tweets • 3 min read

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Defying Court Orders: Heed the Tragic Lesson from Ohio

A 🧵

The Trump administration violated a federal court order, claiming that because planes in question were in the air and outside of American airspace, they were beyond the reach of the court:

1/

Think about what would happen if that argument—that “the planes have already left the country so we can ignore a judicial order”—prevailed.

2/

Mar 15 • 25 tweets • 4 min read

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Trump’s DOJ Campaign Rally

A 🧵

One of the most disturbing aspects of Project 2025 was that it openly called for the political weaponization of the DOJ (and the FBI).

No longer should it remain independent of the President, the infamous plan made clear.

1/

No longer should it serve the broader mission of justice and the rule of law—even (and especially) when those goals conflict with the wishes or interests of the occupant of the White House.

2/

Mar 14 • 9 tweets • 2 min read

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The Attack on Academic Freedom, continued…

A 🧵

One of the central fronts in the far right’s attack on democracy is its vicious attack on America’s colleges and universities.

As JD Vance summarized,

1/ they consider higher ed institutions “the enemy” and an obstacle to their conservative views winning the day.

This is playing out in so many ways—the NIH cuts, the censorship and attacking of academic freedom under the mantra of “DEI,”

2/

Mar 10 • 11 tweets • 3 min read

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Last year, I launched the first chapter of “2025,” my novel that took seriously and dramatized all the promises Trump was making along the campaign trail, as well the details of Project 2025.

Chapter 1 involves a former student who had been involved in campus

1/

protests:

“So you’re gonna detain everyone who was involved in the college protests from last year? That’s nuts.”

The bald man winked, then looked over Ammon’s shoulder.

“Not everyone."

The man to his left shifted in his chair, laying another piece of paper on the desk.

2/

Mar 9 • 11 tweets • 3 min read

“Shut Up About 🥚 Prices”

A quick 🧵

When he was asked, Trump said nothing was more central to his victory than the high price of eggs.

As he told NBC’s Kristen Welker after the election, when she asked why he won, here was his answer:

1/ “Very simple word, groceries. Like almost -- you know, who uses the word? I started using the word -- the groceries.

When you buy apples, when you buy bacon, when you buy eggs, they would double and triple the price over a short period of time,

2/

Mar 8 • 19 tweets • 4 min read

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No More Celebrating Women?

A 🧵

Diversity.

Equity.

Inclusion.

In 2025, under Trump, all three have been turned into words of suspicion.

Banned and punished.

Now come more…

Women….

1/

Black…

2/

Mar 5 • 51 tweets • 11 min read

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The destruction of public schools.

A 🧵

This is what’s happening in Ohio and other states under privatization scans and giveaways.

If Trump has his way, this is what will happen in every state.

H/t @StephenODyer on the slides and data

1/ Point one: Many states have long underfunded public schools to begin with.

Ohio has long had a problem that the state short-shrifted public school funding, relying too much on local property taxpayers to foot the bill.

2/

Mar 2 • 22 tweets • 5 min read

The View from Ukraine:

A 🧵

A few weeks back, I shared a thoughtful and eye-opening letter from a man named Valerie Pekar, who helped provide insight on the US-Russia-Ukraine nightmare from the perspective of a Ukrainian reformer.

1/

Let me share another piece sent by the same Ukrainian family friend. It also comes from Professor Pekar—and was shared on the substack Persuasion — American Purpose.

Here are a few eye-opening observations and excerpts:

2/

Mar 1 • 26 tweets • 5 min read

Disgusted. 🤢

Dirty.

Ashamed.

A 🧵

For an entire afternoon, most of us felt it. Still do now.

The mobster-like bullying and language:

1/

Open trash talk and ganging up you’d expect from high schoolers.

Lies and disinformation (like Vance’s lie that Zelensky had never thanked America….Grok made clear how false that was)

2/

Feb 28 • 17 tweets • 5 min read

🚨 🥇 🏆

My Patriots of the Week

A 🧵

Lots of people are starting to step up.

So there’s a lot of kudos to give out this week.

Individuals. Groups.

@JasmineForUS and @ChrisMurphyCT are on fire.

But this week, I’m honoring those everyday patriots

1/

whose actions changed the conversation in America over the past week.

And began to, as RFK said, send ripples of hope and passion and energy around the nation, building as they spread.

These folks held feet to the fire that needed to be held to that fire.

2/

Feb 25 • 5 tweets • 2 min read

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BREAKING

After all the Vivek hype yesterday, turns out he’s BEHIND @amyactonoh in the polls for #ohgov

Without ever having run for office, and even being out of the limelight for years (vs Vivek nonstop media) she’s STILL up 45-44.

Why?

1/

https://twitter.com/314action/status/1894421234776944978

Lots of reasons.

But from this @314action poll, Ohioans far prefer a doctor (40%) to lead our state than a billionaire (26%) or a politician (6%).

They especially prefer a doctor (60%) than a billionaire (21%) when it comes to their healthcare.

2/

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