The unofficial #Resistance team of the U.S. Federal Election Commission.
Nov 14, 2018 • 10 tweets • 7 min read
1/ So! 657 days and 50,000 followers into the effort, it's time to close up shop at @alt_fec. The midterms are done and it looks like the Republic just might survive this crisis. We have been called to #resist in other ways.
Two parting thoughts as we ride off into the sunset:
2/ • Our #campaignfinance laws have been fundamentally broken by #SCOTUS. It's not a matter of flipping #CitizensUnited – you have to reach back to Buckley v. Valeo (1976), the case that established that the government has no interest in a level playing field…
Oct 9, 2018 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
THREAD: In Kavanaugh's wake, we've seen a lot of gnashing of teeth about the structural flaw in the Constitution that gives rural red states disproportionate influence in the Electoral College & U.S. Senate. Here's a fairly radical but possible idea for fixing the Senate. 1/9
I'll note at the outset that I'm just throwing this idea out; no details have been thought through other than what you're seeing here. It's also not a new idea.
Just wanted to illustrate that there *are* ways to address the seemingly intractable problem of the Senate. 2/9
Sep 29, 2018 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
A short meditation on white privilege.
Setting everything else aside for another moment, #Kavanaugh's testimony is a virtually perfect illustration of how ugly it looks to ignore your white privilege.
1/6
In dodging Sen. Whitehouse's questions about the 'Ralph Club,' Kavanaugh boasted about getting into Yale, and then Yale Law School. "Worked my tail off," he said.
2/6
“For many years, I've been complaining about the horrible trade deals that our country was making. Our presidents and their representatives were just not treating our workers fairly.”
“They weren't, frankly, treating our companies fairly. Those days are over. Right now, we have companies pouring back into our country. We have fair deals. We have really fair deals, and we have many deals in the works.”
Many people have asked me, why do I meet with foreign leaders? Why do I even waste my time? The fact is, it's very important. I've said for a long time, if you're President, you should meet with foreign leaders.
You have nothing to lose & you have a lot to gain. You look at what happened in Singapore, you look at what happened with Chairman Kim, & all that's taken place, we have the remains back of our great heroes that were lost so many years ago.
We need the wall, we need our immigration laws changed, we need our border laws changed, we need Republicans to do it because the Democrats aren't going to do it. This is one instance of many.
Jun 13, 2018 • 16 tweets • 4 min read
The Democratic Party is considering de-emphasizing or eliminating #superdelegates, which are heavily criticized for being small-d undemocratic, which they absolutely are. But please consider this defense of this essential protection against populist demagogues. /1
Lots of things have changed since the Founders founded, but their deep-seated fear of the damage a populist demagogue could do to a democracy remains absolutely valid. Hamilton's Federalist Papers are riddled with warnings from top to bottom. /2
May 3, 2018 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Now is perhaps as good a moment as any to brush up on the concept of “in-kind contributions.” Under federal law, these are amounts paid to influence an election that don’t go through campaign's bank account. The key word here is "contributions." That's what they are. /1
Let's take a keg of beer at a campaign event. If the campaign paid for it, it has to be reported as an expense. /2
Jan 19, 2018 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
1/ Ignore the salacious details for just a moment. An agent of a federal candidate is reported to have transferred $130k three weeks before an election to kill a story that would hurt the candidate. This gets @alt_fec's attention. wsj.com/articles/trump…2/ Here's 52 USC §30101(8)(A): "The term 'contribution' includes— (i) any gift, subscription, loan, advance, or deposit of money or anything of value made by any person for the purpose of influencing any election for Federal office..."
