Notices by Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social), page 2

I dive into the concept of "competitive authoritarianism" in the piece. Whatever the exact label we use, we need to fully grapple with the fact that America has now crossed into territory that is no longer democratic, not even "flawed" or "in peril." America is something else now.

This is not a victory for "centrists" or "moderates" over "the Left" or the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. This is a faction of accommodationists, people entirely incapable of imagining anything but politics-as usual, and outright collaborators sabotaging those who wish to fight back.

Yesterday, ten Democrats in the Senate collaborated to advance the Republican spending bill.

Accommodation and acquiescence. Learned helplessness and preemptive surrender. Retreat and complicity.

In the midst of an unprecedented assault on the constitutional order, the nominal opposition party fails to use the one key tool in its arsenal to push back. What a disaster.

Utterly unconscionable – though hardly surprising – for the New York Times to print such vile fabrications, completely untethered from empirical reality, and to keep platforming a man who would spread such extremist propaganda as one of their most prominent columnists.

I know I am repeating myself, but: I have lost all patience for any version of “just Trump being Trump” nonsense. This is real. And it is an emergency.

The authoritarianism, the grievance-fueled desire to exert dictatorial power, the lust for imperial hemispheric domination - that is all real.

It feels overwhelming sometimes how dumb and dangerous this all is. And every day it gets dumber and more dangerous.
https://www.threads.net/@aaron.rupar/post/DHJjKelJjp-

The idea that Musk might be engaged in a good-faith effort to reform government relies entirely on a) not knowing anything about Musk and the forces enabling him and b) not spending even a minute listening to what Musk himself says, which is just conspiracy theories stacked on top of each other.
 
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lk2gjtunuu2w

We then talk about the Supreme Court intervening this week, siding against the Trumpist regime’s egregious attempt to freeze all foreign aid funding and simply not pay the government’s bills. The good news: The Court narrowly held that the rule of law and the constitutional order still somewhat matter.

Similarly, the Democratic (non-)response offered a window into America’s nominal opposition party: Split between those who still cling to politics-as-usual, dreams of bipartisan “unity,” and impotent collaboration – and those who understand the emergency we face.

In his speech, Trump didn’t say anything he hasn’t said many times before. But the whole spectacle revealed so much about Trumpism as a political project, fueled by grievance and lust for domination – and about a Republican Party that is entirely defined by its devotion to it.

The Precarious State of the Union

The fallout from Trump’s bizarre speech in Congress, the Supreme Court’s relationship with MAGA, and what it all adds up to 47 days into the Trumpist regime.

Some thoughts from the new episode of Is This Democracy:

🧵
 
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/40-the-precarious-state-of-the-union/id1652741954?i=1000698243703

I have been asked the same question over and over again: Don’t the Trumpists understand how much they are weakening America at home and abroad?

The most plausible answer: What they are doing to America is not an accident or an unintended consequence. They really mean it.

Finally, One Big Thing we have been thinking about: Lily brings up the pushback Republicans have been getting from their base in town halls. Could this frustration actually weaken Trump’s hold over the base? Is a reverse-Tea Party a possibility? We’ll believe it when we see it…

The bad news: This should not have been close at all, and yet it was. And, crucially, we must resist the temptation to legitimize John Robert’s idea of judicial supremacy – even when he occasionally tells the most extreme rightwing forces to knock it off (for now). John Roberts will never be democracy’s savior.

Bonus: Here is that Exploding Heads segment I quote:

The opposition leader: “Historians will forever remember when we held up very small signs.”

The anchor: “It seems a bit weak. Someone said you’re like Wes Anderson characters who haven’t realized you’re in a Tarantino movie.”

Lol. Tough but fair.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5ZbiR0003Q

And when Donald Trump, who has very consistently sided with Putin and foreign autocrats, and JD Vance, who channels the broader NatCon, nativist, and ethno-nationalist desire for a new world order, try to publicly humiliate and delegitimize Zelensky, it is pretty much exactly what it looks like.

I am not telling you there is no need for nuance and complex analysis. The above is indeed not the be-all and end-all of our situation.

But too often, the polite discourse isn’t actually looking for nuance, it demands we sanitize and obscure. It’s a big reason why we got here. It needs to stop.

When a bunch of rightwing extremists marched in Charlottesville yelling “Jews will not replace us,” waving swastika and confederate battle flags, and they all put their hopes in Donald Trump who declared there were actually some “fine people” among them, that was what it looked like.

When the Trumpist regime purges women and people of color from all the major institutions and all positions of influence and power, declaring their presence fundamentally illegitimate, all under the banner of “meritocracy” and fighting back against “DEI,” it’s exactly what it looks like.

When Elon Musk and leading figures on the Trumpist right – people who have a long track record of racist, eugenicist positions, who have been propagating extremist conspiracy theories – repeatedly greet adoring crowds with Nazi salutes, that is exactly what it looks like.