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On this rainy DC morning been thinking about this image from the White House Thurs night.
It's like a scene from a movie about a crazy leader, and the spell he's been able to cast over his followers.
No virus. All is fine. It only infects those people. https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1299454769011085323
It's like a scene from a movie about a crazy leader, and the spell he's been able to cast over his followers.
No virus. All is fine. It only infects those people. https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1299454769011085323
These are our leaders, while the rest of us struggle through the daily debilitating impact of a virus they failed to control, acting as if everything's fine. It's the opposite of leadership.
But they're doing something else too - they're breaking the law. https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1299454769011085323
But they're doing something else too - they're breaking the law. https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1299454769011085323
Every federal employee who went to this event last Thur night, everyone who worked on it, broke the law. All of them.
It's not a traffic ticket kind of thing - it's a cheating in an election, betray your democracy, get Impeached for kind of thing. https://www.thedailybeast.com/mark-meadows-loved-the-hatch-actthen-trump-came-along
It's not a traffic ticket kind of thing - it's a cheating in an election, betray your democracy, get Impeached for kind of thing. https://www.thedailybeast.com/mark-meadows-loved-the-hatch-actthen-trump-came-along
What was the message all these senior government officials were sending to us that night?
That laws don't apply to them?
Democracy is for chumps?
Dear leader can do whatever he wants?
It felt like a declaration of war against our democracy. https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/08/28/house-ethics-chair-calls-for-political-activity-ban-on-white-house-grounds-after-rnc/#2cf67fc529a3
That laws don't apply to them?
Democracy is for chumps?
Dear leader can do whatever he wants?
It felt like a declaration of war against our democracy. https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/08/28/house-ethics-chair-calls-for-political-activity-ban-on-white-house-grounds-after-rnc/#2cf67fc529a3
What's so extraordinary about the leadership of the US government following Trump into this orgy of cheating and lawlessness, is that it's exactly what happened in the Ukraine scandal - his illegal scheme was advanced by his Cabinet, senior staff. https://twitter.com/SimonWDC/status/1182290430697689088
But Trump's cheating goes way beyond his illicit appropriation of the WH - he's sabotaging the postal service, creating a straw 3rd party candidate, working w/Putin, whatever Barr and Johnson are up to, wrecking the census...it's an electoral crime spree. https://twitter.com/SimonWDC/status/1298232181203111938
We must fight this cheating and ongoing betrayal of our democracy w/every bone in our bodies. It is what we must do.
But we also need to begin to understand how central cheating has become to today's Republican Party.
It's how a minority can hold on to power in a democracy.
But we also need to begin to understand how central cheating has become to today's Republican Party.
It's how a minority can hold on to power in a democracy.
Consider:
Florida 2000
A decade of illegal redistricting/voter suppression in the states
Ending the Voting Rights Act
Merrick Garland
2016 Trump Russia and its cover up
Comey fiasco
Ukraine conspiracy, Impeachment
Firing ICs, US Attorneys
2020 crime spree https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/08/trumps-weaponization-usps-and-census/615235/
Florida 2000
A decade of illegal redistricting/voter suppression in the states
Ending the Voting Rights Act
Merrick Garland
2016 Trump Russia and its cover up
Comey fiasco
Ukraine conspiracy, Impeachment
Firing ICs, US Attorneys
2020 crime spree https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/08/trumps-weaponization-usps-and-census/615235/
Where this is all headed is an ideology that can perhaps be described as American apartheid - the permanent rule of a minority over a majority. Cheating is one way to achieve it, as we've seen.
But so is ending the democracy all together. https://www.ndn.org/blog/2020/08/taking-trump%E2%80%99s-ongoing-assault-our-democracy-seriously
But so is ending the democracy all together. https://www.ndn.org/blog/2020/08/taking-trump%E2%80%99s-ongoing-assault-our-democracy-seriously
For more on this line of thinking be sure to check out my recent interview with @chaunceydevega in @Salon. And there is a pod too. https://www.salon.com/2020/08/18/democratic-insider-simon-rosenberg-trump-is-being-coached-by-putin-to-seize-power/
Finally, when a majority can no longer remove you from power, a leader need not be worried about whether things they do benefit the country or are popular.
It should worry us that Trump has not chosen to pursue a single major issue w/majority support - it's a sign of autocracy.
It should worry us that Trump has not chosen to pursue a single major issue w/majority support - it's a sign of autocracy.
