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   Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Nov-2024 05:58:55 JST Thomas Zimmer

   Why the Stakes in this Election Are So Enormously High
    
   Democracy itself is on the ballot. If Trump wins, the extreme Right will be in a much better position than ever before to abolish it.
    
   New piece:
    
   https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/why-the-stakes-in-this-election-are

   • Rocketman repeated this.
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     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Nov-2024 05:58:54 JST Thomas Zimmer

     in reply to

     Consider this my closing argument: As of right now, only one of the two major parties in the United States, the Democratic Party, for all its many flaws, is a (small-d) democratic party. The other one is firmly in the hands of a radicalizing ethno-nationalist movement.

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     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Nov-2024 06:55:41 JST Thomas Zimmer

     in reply to

     And a second Trump presidency would be working with a fully Trumpified GOP, a reactionary super-majority on the Supreme Court, and with the omnipresent threat of escalating political violence intimidating anyone who dares to dissent.

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     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Nov-2024 06:55:42 JST Thomas Zimmer

     in reply to

     The fault lines in the struggle over whether or not the democratic experiment should be continued map exactly onto the fault lines of the struggle between the two parties. Democracy itself is now a partisan issue. Therefore, in every election, democracy itself is on the ballot.

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     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Nov-2024 06:55:42 JST Thomas Zimmer

     in reply to

     We are here because of a system-wide failure to hold Trump accountable and mount an effective defense against the onslaught of authoritarian minority rule. And so, we are left with an election as the desperate last stand of a democracy under siege.

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     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Nov-2024 06:55:42 JST Thomas Zimmer

     in reply to

     The idea that a second Trump presidency would basically just be more of the same, a kind of rerun of the first, is diagnostically not plausible at all, and it is politically dangerous. Both Trump himself and the rightwing forces around him have drastically radicalized.

     Robert Link repeated this.