"As through this world I travel, I meet lots of funny men. Some will rob you with a six-gun, and some with a fountain pen." --Woody Guthrie, "Pretty Boy Floyd"
Nov 9 • 11 tweets • 5 min read
Me at @Salon: Trump's Six Gaslighting Keys To Victory:
Climate denial, Great Replacement theory, the myth of mass voter fraud, his gaslighting Roe, being "great for the economy" vs Dem disaster & thus, Dems as threat to democracy, Trump as savior. 1/11 salon.com/2024/11/09/six…
Calling the MSG hatefest "a lovefest" is #gaslighting, A guide:
Lying is deceiving people about the state of the world
#Bullshitting is deceiving people about one’s motives.
#Gaslighting undermines people’s entire sense of reality & imposes an invented reality in its place 2/11
Aug 31 • 28 tweets • 9 min read
“When we fight, we win!” Kamala Harris has made that the clarion call of her campaign. But the judicial tyranny of SCOTUS stands in the way. It CAN be defeated with jurisdiction-stripping & more. It's a fight we can no longer avoid. 1/28 salon.com/2024/08/31/how…
SCOTUS granting Trump (who else wants it?) king-like powers in Trump v US highlights how un-American/anti-democratic SCOTUS has become. Dobbs made its anti-freedom agenda personal. But those are just 2 examples of a wide array of decisions overruling the will of the people. 2/28
Aug 18 • 26 tweets • 9 min read
Donald Trump and JD Vance: Decoding a double dose of right-wing racism. Even if they're defeated, forces behind them have joined. New from me at with help from @DavidAstinWalsh & @Annaleen whose recent books illuminate each: 1/24 Salon.com salon.com/2024/08/18/don…
Trump most makes sense to me as a champion of the far right aka paleocons, as traced by @DavidAstinWalsh in “Taking America Back: The Conservative Movement and the Far Right,” my author interview here: 2/24bookshop.org/a/2464/9780300… salon.com/2024/04/20/a-p…
Jul 7 • 22 tweets • 8 min read
“I LOVE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS,” the lying, thieving, covetous adulterer Donald Trump trumpeted in all caps on his Twitter knock-off site. He loved it as branding & the Louisiana's version was a Cecille
B. DeMille Hollywood production. via @Salon 1/22 salon.com/2024/07/07/ten…
In this story you'll learn: 1) The law's text was promoted by Hollywood 2) It edits out blatantly un-American text 3) Gov Landrie's justification contained 3 lies 4) the bible's account of the 10 Commandments is self-contradictory...
and MUCH more. Let's begin! 2/22
Jun 29 • 23 tweets • 7 min read
SCOTUS decisions & the debate got you down? Take a step back with a broadview story of untapped democratic possibility being developed in LA from @RandomLengths 0/21
Democracy's under worldwide threat but there's a answer: an Athenian model of jury-like deliberation, used over 700 times but still little-known in the US. Activists in LA vow to change that: 1/21
"Athens In LA: Working Towards A Rebirth of Democracy" randomlengthsnews.com/archives/2024/…
May 26 • 15 tweets • 5 min read
My latest at Salon: A 3-part glossary provides a guide to the dominionist threat in America. Biden's Gaza policy may be horrific, but these folks think Armageddon is a good thing. We damn sure need to understand them in order to stop them. 1/15 salon.com/2024/05/26/cra…
The glossary's first section, "Preliminary Terms" lays the foundations for understanding dominionism today. White "Christian nationalism" for example (the belief that America was founded as—and was intended by God to be—a Christian nation) has been around much longer: 2/15
Apr 20 • 19 tweets • 7 min read
In his new book, "Taking America Back" @DavidAstinWalsh plumbs the prehistory of MAGA, how--contrary to the "never Trump" narrative-- 'mainstream' conservatives never purged the hard right. My author interview explores what he found. 1/19 salon.com/2024/04/20/a-p…
Legendary conservative William F. Buckley Jr. is a central presence in Walsh’s book & it’s undeniable that Buckley tried to purge the American conservative movement of its most extreme elements. Indeed, he did so over and over again, because no clean break was possible, 2/19
Mar 3 • 18 tweets • 7 min read
SCOTUS is a threat to democracy — but activists at @LPE_Project & @PeoplesParity are organizing to fight back, with a vision that goes well beyond court expansion: 1/18 salon.com/2024/03/03/tod…
The Supreme Court is a supreme threat to American democracy. That was Abraham Lincoln’s view in light of the Dred Scott decision, expressed in his First Inaugural Address. And the threat continued after his assassination: 2/18
Feb 17 • 18 tweets • 7 min read
Democracy itself is on the ballot in '24—ONLY IF DEMS PUT IT THERE!!! @RachelBitecofer explains why & how to do it in her new book, "Hit 'Em Where It Hurts: How to Save Democracy by Beating Republicans at Their Own Game." My author interview 4 @Salon: 1/18 salon.com/2024/02/17/rac…
Bitecofer's most basic point is simple: Democrats as a whole—despite their “reality-based” self-image—have been unable or unwilling “to accept that the American voter is, at best, rough clay,” and to work with it accordingly, as Republicans have been doing for decades: 2/18
Jan 14 • 22 tweets • 7 min read
With Trump's low-40s appoval there's no way for him to be elected without the help of reactionary centrists—a term coined by Aaron Huertas for supposedly fair-minded moderates who routinely punch left. I explore why/how—including Israel/Gaza: 1/23 salon.com/2024/01/14/rea…
After Aaron Huertas coined the term "reactionary centrist" insights from @RottenInDenmark, @tzimmer_history, @tzimmer_history, @LilyMasonPhD & @perrybaconjr shed additional light on the causes, dynamics & consequences of reactionary centrism. I'm indebted all of them. 2/23
Jan 2 • 15 tweets • 6 min read
Evangelicals closest to Tump are part of the New Apostalic Reformation [NAR], a dominionist movement radically transforming Christianity. Canadian bible scholar @andre_gagne1 provides an inside guide in his new book, he & others discuss: 1/15 salon.com/2024/01/02/mee…
Lance Wallnau, Paula White-Cain & Dutch Sheets are just 3 prominent Trump-supporting figures from the NAR, which @andre_gagne1 explores in “American Evangelicals for Trump: Dominion, Spiritual Warfare, and the End Times.” 2/15 bookshop.org/a/2464/9781032…
Nov 19, 2023 • 20 tweets • 6 min read
"Hey! Hey! LBJ! How many kids did you kill today?" I chanted 50+ years ago.
But he was EASILY the best POTUS of my lifetime.
What's a better, pro-active plan?
Correct the mistakes of the Cold War & actually live up to our values. What that means: 1/20 salon.com/2023/11/19/whe…
You think young voters are turned off by Biden? Here's how I felt re LBJ: 2/20
Sep 17, 2023 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Was Cold War liberalism a catastrophe for liberalism? I half-agree with @samuelmoyn that it was. But his new book "Liberalism Against Itself: Cold War Intellectuals and the Making of Our Times" only tells part of the story. (link at end of 🧵) 1/8
Moyn's most basic problem is that he never defines his terms, so his argument never gets off the ground. He also virtually ignores race, a crucial problem Cold War liberalism struggled with. Yet, he captures something important: 2/8
Jun 13, 2023 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
Why is US democracy in a state of crisis that almost no one saw coming? And how can we escape it? @Peter_Turchin DID see it coming & his new book "End Times" has some answers. My @Salon author inteview: 1/10 salon.com/2023/06/13/wel…
Turchin's work is based on model of cyclical demographic processes first proposed in @jgoldsto's 1991 "Revolution and Rebellion in the Early Modern World" routledge.com/Revolution-and…
& tested more widely in Turchin's 2009 co-authored "Secular Cycles" bookshop.org/a/2464/9780691… 2/10
May 28, 2023 • 15 tweets • 6 min read
Following up on "Laboratories of Autocracy" @DavidPepper's "Saving Democracy" provides a bottom-up citizen's handbook, based on a long-view understanding of the battle we're in. My @Salon author interivew: 1/15 salon.com/2023/05/28/sav…
"It’s a bottom-up guide for saving democracy from below. Whatever else you may read about saving democracy—history, political science...etc.—this book is essential in terms of translating a necessary diversity of understanding into coherent, unified (not uniform) action." 2/15
Apr 2, 2023 • 14 tweets • 5 min read
🧵Is a rightwing populist wave responsible for destabilizing democracy--both here & abroad?
Or is it corrupt, incompetent & exploitative elites?
It's Door #2 says Larry Bartels in "Democracy Erodes From The Top"
My @Salon author interview here: 1/14 salon.com/2023/04/02/wha…
Most notably, Bartels explains that neither Hungary's Fidesz nor Poland's Law and Justice party [the go-to examples of rightwing populist take-over] came to power as populist parties, much less authoritarian ones; they remade themselves as such after the fact. 2/14
Oct 1, 2022 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
As shocking as the destruction of a fundamental right in Dobbs may be, more radical changes may lie ahead, @AndrewLSeidel warns in his new book, "American Crusade: How the Supreme Court Is Weaponizing Religious Freedom." My @Salon interview: 1/8 salon.com/2022/10/01/how…
"As Seidel notes, 150 years ago the Supreme Court warned that weaponized religious freedom would 'permit every citizen to become a law unto himself,' so there's much more at stake here than 'just' the First Amendment. 2/8
Jun 12, 2022 • 12 tweets • 6 min read
Some wonder if Trump's losing his grip on GOP. But that's almost irrelevant since Trumpism has transformed it & the Lost Cause narrative is perhaps the best explanation of how--AND also how to fight it. 1/12 salon.com/2022/06/12/tru…
Trump's oft-repeated Big Lie about the stolen 2020 election has been called the new "Lost Cause" but it's only one facet of a broader victimhood mindset that has moved to the center of GOP politics:
2/12
Jan 30, 2022 • 11 tweets • 6 min read
Manchin & Sinema's narcissistic centrism is profoundly dangerous to American democracy, coupled with broader collecctive narcissism & archaic, paleo-democratic institutions. New thinking is desperately needed. 1/11 salon.com/2022/01/30/the…
Blaming progressives for Biden's problems is ludicrous, as @AOC noted:
"Biden has governed pretty much exactly the way they have asked him to. But the problem is that the way they have asked him to govern has been to slow down, not do too much...." 2/11
For 40 years conservatives have weaponized a reactionary view of the Constitution, paving the way toward potential destruction of US democracy. To save democracy we need to reclaim its true promise. The Guarantee Clause is key, per law prof @cshaplaw: 1/8 salon.com/2021/12/05/the…
Against state-level voter suppression laws, partisan gerrymandering & other power grabs, @cshaplaw argues: "Fortunately, the Guarantee Clause allows—indeed, requires—Congress to address these antidemocratic state-level practices." It's not just a Congress power. It's a DUTY. 2/8
