The era in the United States when abortion was illegal was an unmitigated disaster for women in this country. The GOP is trying to return us to it. washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/… The GOP want to force pregnancies, roll back gay marriage, obstruct votes, overturn election results it doesn’t like, demonize LGBTQ+ people, sunset Social Security and Medicare, and look the other way when loyalists are implicated in corruption or sexual trafficking.

1. A lot of white voters do not understand racism and when they vote emotionally - against uncertainty, against risk to their way of life, against what they perceive to be unlevel playing fields - they reward campaigns using dog whistles. 2. It’s important to understand why this works sometimes and why sometimes it doesn’t.

Trump’s failure in 2020, Youngkin’s success in 2021, and Trump’s success in 2016 are all data points in the analysis.

Clutter, noise, and confusion benefit opposition parties, particularly when that party is the GOP.

Everything the GOP does moving forward will be to accentuate those three things while they offer simplistic, declarative “solutions”.

Democrats need to let Biden lead. The GOP strategy to stoke resentment over COVID restrictions created noise and confusion.

The GOP strategy to flood school boards over CRT created noise and confusion.

The congressional Dem strategy to negotiate legislation through the media created clutter.

Campaigns run on stoking fears and fake controversies will continue to be the model for the GOP as long as they win and as long as the media keep taking those talking points at face value. - CRT is not being taught in school
- There isn’t a groundswell of resignations in the face of sound public health measures during a pandemic
- Dr. Seuss wasn’t canceled
- Migrant caravans aren’t taking your jobs or spreading diseases
- ISIS isn’t targeting NoVa

THREAD: If you’re a white leftist, let me give you some advice. When an unarmed black man is brutally murdered by a police officer, it’s not your turn to pitch anarchy or socialism or prison abolition or Medicare For All or anything at all, really. 2. The platforms created by black voices are there to highlight police brutality and to advocate for justice and accountability.

If you want to be an ally, your job is to support and signal boost those black voices. Full stop.

THREAD: There’s a reason Russian disinformation campaigns often center on dated allegations of sexual violence or sexual deviancy. The association of those claims with your name taint every story about you, even the positive ones. 2. Debunking those allegations well enough to stop coverage of them is extremely hard. They do not go away so long as someone who can impact the news cycle wants to mention them. That’s why it’s a favorite tactic in the Russian play book.

It’s clear to me that the 2016 trauma of Hillary losing has spooked too many voters into discarding hope candidates of color or women can win. The biggest crime Russians committed aided and abetted by Trump and the GOP was taking away that hope. Because I believe she won. 1/25 But the election tampering, voter suppression, disinformation campaign, Comey letter, and Bernie’s scorched earth rhetoric against “The Rigged System” combined to sow doubt that any candidate who wasn’t a white male could win again. Even though it wasn’t the candidate. 2/25