Thomas Zimmer

Historian at Georgetown - Democracy and Its Discontents - Contributing Opinion Writer Guardian US - Podcast: Is This Democracy https://anchor.fm/is-this-democracy - Newsletter: Democracy Americana https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/

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Last Notes

2024-09-19 00:10:01

Blood and Soil
The Right is committed to preserving America as a white Christian homeland. They are determined to purge the nation and radically redraw the boundaries of the body politic.
Inciting a pogrom in Springfield, Ohio is part of that project.
New piece:
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/blood-and-soil

2024-09-15 13:05:30

Trump is trying to incite a pogrom.
Mere weeks before the election, he has about a 50:50 chance to get back to the White House.
As president, he could then use the racist frenzy he and Vance caused as justification for mobilizing the federal government to “cleanse” the nation.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/141/712/606/997/231/original/2f6d37bd1d1e4584.jpeg

2024-09-10 11:44:15

Cheney’s vision is incompatible with egalitarian, multiracial, pluralistic democracy. But there is *some* line she’s not willing to cross to impose it on the country.
A devastating indictment of the Right that this actually distinguishes her.
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/liz-cheney-and-the-problem-of-the

2024-09-08 23:44:32

Writing a long piece about Liz Cheney and the place of anti-Trump Republicans in the broader political conflict. Worried about the response, to be honest. This situation requires grappling with some cognitive dissonance (The Cheneys are good now but also still bad, basically) - what could go wrong…

2024-08-27 18:13:27

These “respectable” conservatives are building and perpetuating a permission structure that allows people who don’t think of themselves as supporters of rightwing extremism to support rightwing extremism nonetheless.
That is the role they are playing. That’s their legacy.
https://mastodon.social/@tzimmer_history/113034941962546462

2024-08-17 16:20:37

Openly and aggressively contesting the idea that reactionaries “naturally” get to define the nation is certainly better than preemptively conceding ground to the Right’s claims that they deserve disproportionate power as representatives of “real” America. https://mastodon.social/@tzimmer_history/112977255669569899

2024-08-17 13:01:59

“Don’t be weird” is *not* a call for conformity. The trick is precisely to demand a new “normal” that affirms pluralism and diversity - and reject as “weird” the Right’s insistence on a white Christian patriarchal default America.
https://mastodon.social/@tzimmer_history/112977255669569899

2024-08-17 12:03:55

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Since the late 1960s, Republicans have successfully weaponized the idea that they represent the norm that should define the nation. This assertion (in)famously crystallized in the “silent majority” notion Richard Nixon popularized early in his presidency. 3/

2024-08-17 12:03:01

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The “weird” messaging messaging crystallizes a central fault line – who gets to define “normal” America? – and catalyzes a significant shift in how the Democratic Party handles (and finally rejects!) Republican assertions of representing “real America.” 2/

2024-08-17 12:01:53

Weekend reading
I wrote about why the “These guys are weird” messaging is significant: It rejects the claim of “real American” white Christian conservative “normalcy,” and with it the Right’s justification for minority rule.
This week’s piece:
🧵1/
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/what-is-weird-and-what-is-normal

2024-08-03 12:03:06

MAGA on the Beach Redux
On an encounter with enraged Trumpers - and the difficult road ahead for a society in which conspiracies, extremist iconography, and political violence have become ubiquitous.
New piece:
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/maga-on-the-beach-redux

2024-07-25 13:10:54

Whether or not it makes sense electorally, the Right will aggressively fling racist and sexist dreck at Kamala Harris.
The reactions to Ketanji Brown Jackson offered an instructive example of what happens when Black women rise to power.
I wrote about this here:
1/
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/kamala-harris-may-force-a-reckoning

2024-07-25 12:05:09

ICYMI - I wrote about the meaning of Kamala Harris in this particular moment in American history.
Her story as VP reflects the post-George Floyd racial reckoning that never came as well as the racial and social retrenchment since 2020:
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/kamala-harris-may-force-a-reckoning

2024-07-24 13:18:25

Kamala Harris May Force a Reckoning
Harris emerged as VP in the summer of 2020 when it seemed the country might finally deal with its defining demons. But as the reactionary counter-mobilization triumphed, she was sidelined. Until now.
Some thoughts from my new piece:
🧵1/
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/kamala-harris-may-force-a-reckoning

2024-07-23 23:19:53

Kamala Harris May Force a Reckoning
Harris emerged as VP in the summer of 2020 when it seemed the country might finally deal with its defining demons. But as the reactionary counter-mobilization triumphed, she was sidelined. Until now.
New piece:
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/kamala-harris-may-force-a-reckoning

2024-07-19 16:40:31

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I’m not even advocating for a pro-democracy stance. I don’t need the media to say “Trump bad” all the time, but I’d like them to cover and assess politics as precisely and adequately as possible. But all the “Trump’s new tone” and “Republicans so unified” shit clearly fails on that front too. /end

2024-07-19 16:38:52

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This perfectly captures why the “Should the media defend democracy?” discussion is so pointless. They obviously are not taking a normative pro-democracy stance. Instead, they got willfully and enthusiastically swept away by fascistic spectacle and illusions of national “unity.” 2/

2024-07-19 16:37:42

As a reward for eight years of purging anyone who dared to resist Trumpism - and extensive self-purges due to violent threat - the Republican Party gets effusive praise from establishment media for presenting a “united front.” Not surprising, I guess, but still quite remarkable. 1/

2024-07-16 13:16:29

I got to talk to Molly Jong-Fast about “Project 2025”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUJSEvYIiy8
The radical Right wasn’t ready for Trump’s first presidency. In 2025, they will be.
What should people know about these plans for an authoritarian takeover of government? Some thoughts:
🧵1/
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/what-makes-project-2025-so-dangerous
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/796/354/896/304/567/original/96f5c55f76073036.jpeg

2024-07-16 12:07:43

I got to talk to Molly Jong-Fast about “Project 2025,” the Right’s radical plans to use government as an authoritarian tool to impose a reactionary vision on America.
I know there’s been *a lot* of talk about “Project 2025” lately, but I think we do a good job cutting through the noise:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUJSEvYIiy8

2024-07-15 19:47:21

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Some people say stuff like this because their brain has been poisoned by “both sides” narratives and empty “unity” gospel. Many on the Right simply understand that this kind of bullshit lets them shift the blame onto Democrats and “the Left.” Either way, it’s disqualifying.

2024-07-15 19:45:44

“Democrats calling Trump a threat to democracy is as dangerous and as much the cause for violence as Trump himself” is an utterly deranged and brutally disingenuous thing to say about the openly authoritarian leader of a radicalizing movement that has gleefully endorsed violence.

2024-07-13 12:10:20

Weekend Reading: I wrote about Trump’s relationship to Project 2025 and why these radical plans represent the self-mobilization of a “conservative” establishment that is fundamentally in agreement with the extremist Right.
Allies Against Democracy:
🧵1/
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/allies-against-democracy-trump-and

2024-07-11 18:26:29

I had a great conversation with The Tent about “Project 2025,” how it builds on long-standing anti-democratic ideas and tendencies on the Right while also representing a significant radicalization in recent years, and why a second Trump regime would be so much more dangerous.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thomas-zimmer-on-project-2025/id1477878444?i=1000661890307

2024-07-10 13:06:41

Allies Against Democracy: Trump and Project 2025
Trump is not the mastermind behind Project 2025. It’s worse: The rightwing establishment has radicalized to the point where their plans are entirely in line with his vengeful desires.
A thread, based on my new piece:
🧵1/
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/allies-against-democracy-trump-and

2024-07-09 23:20:04

Allies Against Democracy: Trump and Project 2025
Trump is not the mastermind behind Project 2025. It’s worse: The rightwing establishment has radicalized to the point where their plans are entirely in line with his vengeful desires.
New piece:
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/allies-against-democracy-trump-and

2024-07-03 21:51:04

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Unfortunately, this is not just the abstract manifesto of a feverish mind. It comes with concrete plans and a detailed strategy of how to take over and transform government into an autocratic revenge machine that can impose a reactionary vision against the will of the majority. /end
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/project-2025-promises-revenge-oppression

2024-07-03 21:49:33

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Much of this sounds like Marjorie Taylor Greene might have said it to rile up the base. “This is Heritage, you know, not some fringe group on the right,” Roberts said in a New York Times interview. He is correct: This is what defines the center of conservative politics today. 11/

2024-07-03 21:48:38

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It is difficult to convey to people who don’t pay much attention to politics how much the power centers of conservative politics have been taken over by anti-democratic extremism. Meanwhile, rightwing leaders are maximally clear about the reactionary vision they want to impose on the country. 10/

2024-07-03 21:47:36

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Analytically, this is complete nonsense. But such an understanding of the enemy is pervasive on the Right. It provides the basis on which Republican Party, conservative establishment, and reactionary intellectual sphere have all given themselves permission to radicalize. 9/

2024-07-03 21:46:57

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There is, in Kevin Roberts’ view of the world, really only one enemy, one devil, that seeks to destroy America, this once great nation of freedom and virtue: Communism, fascism, progressivism, “wokeism,” it is all just the same, all just different disguises of socialism. 8/

2024-07-03 21:45:34

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According to Roberts, the domestic “woke” agenda is connected to America’s foreign enemies. He sees only two underlying dangers that are constantly colluding and conspiring to bring America down: Totalitarian China abroad and totalitarian “woke” elites at home, working together. 7/

2024-07-03 21:44:37

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There is, in this view of the world, no room for compromise, no justification for restraint: “Time is running short. If we fail, the fight for the very idea of America may be lost.” 2024, according to Roberts, is the “last opportunity to save our republic.” And destroy the “woke” Left. 6/

2024-07-03 21:43:27

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The Right’s plans for a return to power are driven by a desperate sense that nothing short of a reactionary counter-revolution will suffice to save nation from the onslaught of fundamentally anti-American woke,” “globalist” forces - and that there is very little time left to pull it off. 5/

2024-07-03 21:42:26

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“Project 2025” isn’t just about power in Washington. The Reactionary Right’s goal is to re-establish political, societal, and cultural dominance in all spheres of life and turn the clock back to before what Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts calls “the Great Awokening.” 4/

2024-07-03 21:40:34

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Kevin Roberts is not some moderate imposter who pretends to be hardcore so that he can blend in with the MAGAs because that is the direction the wind is blowing. He is a reactionary Catholic and part of the Religious Right – a true believer in the reactionary political project. 3/

2024-07-03 21:39:33

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I took a deep dive into the “Promise to America” Heritage president Kevin Roberts has offered in his foreword to the "Project 2025" report: It perfectly captures the siege mentality, self-victimization, and grievance-driven lust for revenge that are fueling the Right's plans. 2/

2024-07-03 21:38:37

Kevin Roberts believes he’s a noble defender of “real America” against a totalitarian “woke,” “globalist” assault from without and within.
“Project 2025” is his declaration of war against multiracial pluralism.
I wrote about his extremist worldview here:
1/
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/project-2025-promises-revenge-oppression
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/724/719/265/947/551/original/b787eb3e198e9d23.jpeg

2024-07-01 18:09:53

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The reactionary majority has gone rogue, occasional tactical restraint notwithstanding. The main reason why this Court has lost its legitimacy is not even how this majority came to be, but the way it has been asserting judicial supremacy in service of an extremist cause. 3/

2024-07-01 18:07:12

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We need to see the Supreme Court’s disastrous rulings in the context of the Right’s larger project to uphold traditional hierarchies of race, wealth/class, gender, and religion - all part of the attempt to halt the drive towards egalitarian, multiracial, pluralistic democracy. 2/

2024-07-01 18:03:53

America can accept this Supreme Court as legitimate and its rulings as the final word - or it can have true democracy and a functioning state. But not both.
Wrote this a year ago: The Rogue Court vs Modern Democracy
1/
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-rogue-court-vs-modern-democracy

2024-06-30 22:31:58

There it is: A position completely untethered from empirical evidence, as ridiculous analytically as it is dangerous politically, propagated by anti-liberal leftwing intellectuals who are solely animated by their disdain for “the Libs” and have abandoned any regard for accuracy.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/707/942/085/412/142/original/bd35eb410ea8cdf7.jpeg

2024-06-29 12:06:47

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Mafioso John Gotti became a folk hero because he stood for a weirdly comforting form of “gangster patriarchy” and personal mob rule. All three, as Ganz puts it, offered a version of “national coherence that was based on exclusive, strong leadership.” 5/

2024-06-29 12:06:09

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David Duke and Pat Buchanan represented the ethno-nationalist vision of “real America” as a white Christian homeland; Ross Perot offered “billionaire populism,” combining celebrity, wealth, and anti-establishment furor. 4/

2024-06-29 12:05:26

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What makes Trumpism so potent, what distinguishes Trump from the rightwing populists that came before him who, at the end of the Cold War, were ultimately kept in check? In Ganz’s interpretation, the insurgency figures of the early 90s embodied different promises. 3/

2024-06-29 12:04:42

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Based on Ganz’s brilliant book, I reflect on the nature of Trumpism and how to situate it in the American Right’s recent history; the role of the rightwing intellectual sphere; the challenge of how to approach, research, interpret, and tell the pre-history of the present. 2/

2024-06-29 12:02:24

Weekend Reading: I wrote about the pre-history of Trump’s rise, the nature of Trumpism, and the radical politics of white despair – based on John Ganz’s masterful “When the Clock Broke”
The Origins of Trumpism and the Birth of the Present.
Some thoughts based on this week’s piece:
🧵1/
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-origins-of-trumpism-and-the-birth
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/699/804/300/837/315/original/c96ec3a8fdd11d60.jpeg

2024-06-27 16:00:01

The one constant in my conversations about “Project 2025” is that almost everyone is taken aback by what’s in these plans, even people who really pay attention to politics - if not by how radical it is, then by how far-reaching, detailed, and aggressively explicit it is. 1/

2024-06-25 13:25:29

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In his foreword to the "Project 2025" report, Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts offers his “Promise to America”: It perfectly captures the escalating siege mentality, self-victimization, and grievance-driven lust for revenge that are fueling the Right's plans. 3/

2024-06-25 13:24:49

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Part I focuses on the worldview of the people behind “Project 2025.”
They see themselves as noble defenders of “real America” against a totalitarian “woke,” “globalist” assault. “Project 2025” is their declaration of war on multiracial pluralism: 2/
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/project-2025-promises-revenge-oppression

2024-06-19 13:17:28

Why the Right Has a Problem with Juneteenth
This, from last year, certainly holds up: Today’s Republican Party is dominated by reactionaries who stand in the political, ideological, and spiritual tradition of the (neo-) Confederacy.
Some thoughts - with an added voiceover option:
🧵1/
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/why-the-right-has-a-problem-with

2024-06-16 13:09:56

Sunday Reading: The Right’s Politics of Revenge
The responses to the Trump verdict offer an instructive - and alarming - reminder of what defines the American Right today: They are out for bloody retaliation, all dressed up as patriotism.
Thoughts from my new piece:
1/
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-rights-politics-of-revenge

2024-06-16 12:02:35

The Right’s Politics of Revenge
The responses to the Trump verdict offer an instructive – and alarming – reminder of what defines the American Right today: They are out for bloody retaliation, all dressed up as patriotism.
New piece:
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-rights-politics-of-revenge

2024-06-08 13:08:50

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In a functioning system, citizens should be able to trust the institutions that are nominally tasked with upholding democracy. In America, the rightwing supermajority on the Supreme Court acts as the spearhead of a reactionary mobilization against multiracial pluralism. 2/

2024-06-08 13:07:56

Weekend reading: As the Right is using the Supreme Court to re-impose a reactionary order on the country, I exchanged letters with Madiba Dennie about the dangers of judicial supremacy – and how to get out of the Originalism Trap.
This week’s piece:
🧵1/
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-originalist-supreme-court-vs

2024-06-04 13:18:57

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2024-06-04 13:17:42

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Over the weekend, Madiba and I talked about her book, the past and present of the Supreme Court, the role of the Reconstruction Amendments in American history, the rise of “originalism” since the 1950s, and the struggle to establish egalitarian democracy. 2/

2024-06-04 13:15:27

The “Originalist” Supreme Court vs Democracy
As the Right is using “originalism” to re-impose a reactionary order on the country, I exchange letters with Madiba Dennie about the dangers of judicial supremacy – and how to get out of this trap
Some thoughts from my new piece:
🧵1/
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-originalist-supreme-court-vs
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/558/533/750/357/536/original/c39317f556bdf46b.jpeg

2024-05-31 17:02:29

“I proudly know nothing about the matter, but I will nevertheless weigh in to scold both sides for being so extreme” not only gives you about all you need to know about Friedersdorf - it’s also the pure essence of vacuous, arrogant centrist punditry. A piece of art.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/536/777/202/836/315/original/48445aab9e6ca340.jpeg

2024-05-23 13:15:37

Fascism in America?
The fascism debate rages on: Here is why it matters, what the main contentions are, and why the arguments of the Skeptics are increasingly untethered from what is happening on the Right.
Some thoughts from my new piece:
🧵1/
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/fascism-in-america
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/490/586/552/532/793/original/ca2119433a4f9291.jpeg

2024-05-11 12:13:46

Weekend reading: I wrote about how mainstream commentators constantly raise the specter of 1968 to denounce the student protests - willfully ignoring the long pattern of leftwing student movements acting as an indispensable corrective.
Some thoughts from this week’s piece:
🧵1/
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-students-have-never-been-the
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/422/395/739/164/161/original/56368f409507f53f.jpeg

2024-05-10 13:01:45

The Students Have Never Been the Enemy
Student protest movements have historically functioned as an indispensable corrective for America and the West. That is the legacy of 1968 we should be talking about.
A thread, based on my new piece:
🧵1/
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-students-have-never-been-the
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/416/922/079/342/982/original/16c8ae0518429f06.jpeg

2024-05-09 23:57:22

The Students Have Never Been the Enemy
Student protest movements have historically functioned as an indispensable corrective for America and the West. That is the legacy of 1968 we should be talking about.
New piece:
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-students-have-never-been-the
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/413/837/780/385/739/original/a7dbadffb1b4ee13.jpeg

2024-05-06 17:53:30

What really stands out about this interview with New York Times executive editor Joe Kahn is this pervasive sense among centrist elites that by the summer of 2020, “woke” radicalism had been allowed to advance too far - and people like Kahn see it as their mission to stem the tide. 1/
https://www.semafor.com/article/05/05/2024/joe-kahn-the-newsroom-is-not-a-safe-space
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/395/420/093/381/802/original/666c64823370a557.jpeg

2024-04-27 12:03:25

Weekend reading: Student Revolt and the Curtailing of Critical Speech
The violent crackdown on campus protests reveals an alliance between the Right and mainstream elites who are driven by reactionary impulses and status anxieties.
A thread, based on this week’s piece:
🧵1/
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/student-revolt-and-the-curtailing
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/343/082/729/854/802/original/1f9a8ff3210ad56b.jpeg

2024-04-23 17:52:15

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In the United States, Republicans are undoubtedly more supportive of the state of Israel than the Left, certainly than the Democratic base. Crucially, however, that does not necessarily entail affirmation and support for American Jews. In fact, it often means the opposite. 8/

2024-04-23 17:51:29

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If you think Elise Stefanik - or any other major figure in today’s Republican Party - is leading an honest fight against antisemitism, if you actually think that’s the Right’s political project, I must assume you are either incredibly uninformed and naive or simply full of shit. 7/

2024-04-23 17:50:37

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Mainstream institutions helping Far-Right politicians who have been instrumental in laundering the most extreme, violent antisemitic conspiracy theories launch a full-on new McCarthyism under the umbrella of “fighting antisemitism” - we are far down the road to a very dark place. 6/

2024-04-23 17:49:29

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Elise Stefanik is obviously not interested in an effort to fight antisemitism. She is engaged in a cynical attempt to use Jews to suppress speech reactionaries don’t like, advance the antiliberal “counterrevolution,” and punish those the Right sees as the enemy within. 5/

2024-04-23 17:48:42

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Her “friend” Donald Trump subscribes to all the usual antisemitic stereotypes and has long been pushing antisemitic tropes about Jews only liking money, only being loyal to Israel. He has no discernible conception of American Jews as Americans, only as “them” rather than “us.” 4/

2024-04-23 17:47:31

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After pretending to be really upset about campus antisemitism during the congressional hearings in December, Stefanik ran off to meet “her friend,” the leader of a fascistic movement, the guy who is raging against immigrants “poisoning the blood of our country.” 3/
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/321/786/480/772/448/original/766d879e8409ac03.jpeg

2024-04-23 17:45:50

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We have reached a truly bizarre place in our political discourse when supposedly serious people want us to believe that the party of Trump, QAnon, and “Great Replacement” is the bulwark against antisemitism in America. 2/
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/321/779/918/305/887/original/46724307e5ee6632.jpeg

2024-04-23 17:44:35

What an absolute disaster that Republicans are still successfully playing their disgustingly cynical game of exploiting fears over antisemitism in order to advance their reactionary crusade – and mainstream institutions keep willfully playing along.
I wrote about this a while ago here:
🧵1/
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/we-are-falling-apart
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/321/774/997/022/574/original/ac6d34dea1dc5df9.jpeg

2024-04-13 12:03:23

Weekend reading: I wrote about the disingenuous and dangerous folly of anti-anti-Trump conservatism.
How “respectable” conservatives normalize Trump, rage against a caricature of “the Left,” and accommodate rightwing extremism.
A thread, based on this week’s piece:
🧵1/
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/anti-anti-trump-conservatives-are
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/263/810/232/171/846/original/945e8137d4754a3c.jpeg

2024-04-07 16:47:26

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The claim that Trump voters represent “authentic America” manifests, for instance, in the pervasive “heartland” idea, which isn’t a place as much as it is a heavily ideological concept implying real Americanism for some people in certain regions, but not for others. 4/

2024-04-07 16:46:15

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The idea that Trump and his base deserve special deference from mainstream political and media institutions is based on the assumption that Trump embodies and gives voice to a populist uprising of “regular folks” who had supposedly been unfairly ignored by arrogant elites in 2016. 3/

2024-04-07 16:44:44

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Grappling with this ideology of “real Americanism” is crucial, as it provides the foundation for the Right’s anti-democratic radicalization, forms the basis of its normalization in the mainstream political discourse, and helps explain why the response to the authoritarian threat has been lacking. 2/

2024-04-07 16:42:31

There is also an element of Volkish ideology here - the assumption that rural white people with certain reactionary sensibilities do, in fact, represent “real America” and therefore command deference - while the groups that make up most of the pluralistic Democratic coalition constitute a deviation.
1/
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/230/933/969/337/736/original/1576922a7c31b638.jpeg

2024-03-30 12:04:24

ICYMI: What the Right Plans to Do With Power
All three parts of my series about “Project 2025” are out.
Almost 15,000 words on what these radical plans would do to America and how to explain the Right’s open embrace of state authoritarianism:
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https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/what-makes-project-2025-so-dangerous
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2024-03-23 12:03:24

Weekend reading: I wrote about how “Project 2025” fits in the history of modern conservatism, how it captures the Right’s radicalization – and why it is so dangerous.
The third and final part of my deep dive into “Project 2025.”
A thread, based on this week’s piece:
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https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/what-makes-project-2025-so-dangerous
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2024-03-16 20:36:18

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In the United States, that party is re-nominating the guy who tried to end constitutional government via an auto-coup, the criminal leader of a fascistic, violent, conspiratorial movement of followers, for the presidency - and basically has a 50:50 shot at getting back to power.

2024-03-16 20:29:48

In a country with a functioning democratic system and a somewhat healthy political culture, anyone uttering such dangerous nonsense would be shunned and ostracized, a party elevating them would not be considered a viable option by anyone but an extremist fringe.
America, however, evidently has neither.
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2024-03-14 17:46:33

What life at the start of the Covid pandemic was like:
I posted this on Ex-Twitter on March 12, 2020 - my most, ahem, viral tweet ever…
The next day, in the afternoon, I started feeling sick.
By the morning of March 14, I had a high fever, brutal cough, could not stand on my feet… Covid!
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/095/290/310/885/609/original/208f8869e50c356b.jpeg

2024-03-13 13:07:11

What Does “Defend Democracy” Actually Mean?
Biden’s State of the Union hinted at a key shift in the liberal imagination: From a merely restorative to a potentially more transformative vision for America.
A thread, based on my new piece:
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https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/what-does-defend-democracy-actually
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2024-03-09 13:06:38

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One of the key challenges since the start of the Trump era has been to communicate effectively to the American public that something other than “politics as usual” is going on, that the threat of authoritarianism – that is embodied, but not caused by Trump – is real. 4/

2024-03-09 13:05:46

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Most people will regard the Supreme Court’s decision in Anderson v. Trump as yet more evidence that whatever Trump’s transgressions, they don’t amount to something that merits a mobilization of the system and a properly robust response.
That’s a disaster.
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2024-03-09 13:04:43

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The Supreme Court has made sure that Trump is basically guaranteed to escape serious legal consequences before the election; few people are even aware of what the Right is planning to do if they return to power, or of Trump’s most aggressive authoritarian threats. 2/

2024-03-09 13:03:40

Weekend reading: I wrote about the system-wide failure to hold Trump accountable and mount an effective defense against the onslaught of authoritarian minority rule.
The Much Vaunted Guardrails Are Failing
A thread, based on this week’s piece:
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https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-much-vaunted-guardrails-are-failing
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/065/866/381/973/571/original/7829ad45ee160a3d.jpeg

2024-03-07 16:53:54

System-wide failure
Sparked by the recent Supreme Court decisions that basically guarantee Trump will escape serious legal consequences before the election, I reflect on the institutional failure and/or unwillingness to mount an effective defense.
A thread, based on my new piece:
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https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-much-vaunted-guardrails-are-failing
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/055/447/092/129/527/original/5a3b6bb1debf8fc8.jpeg

2024-03-05 22:34:13

Exactly! All this “let the people decide” talk is remarkably backwards. The people decided in November 2020: Trump lost, and attempted an auto-coup in response. That is the sole reason why the insurrection clause came into play at all: January 6 was the anti-democratic part. 1/
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2024-03-04 19:04:58

The key question about Trump and January 6 - one most pundits celebrating the Court’s decision are arrogantly dismissing - concerns the demands and limits of democratic self-defense in the face of extremism.
Re-posting this, in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling:
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https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/militant-democracy-vs-donald-trump
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2024-03-04 14:21:25

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We are certainly past the point where I would still consider it a reasonable, good-faith position to reject the use of the fascism concept outright and to deride anyone who does, who emphasizes fascistic tendencies on the Right, as ridiculous and “alarmist.” It’s not serious. /end

2024-03-04 14:19:58

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At some point during the Trump presidency, most good-faith observers crossed the line from “Not sure, maybe go easy on the fascism claims” to “Trumpism clearly qualifies as a specifically American, specifically 21st-century version of fascism.”
It’s gotten way worse since. 13/

2024-03-04 14:18:30

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The latest research on the history of modern U.S. conservatism and the American Right very much emphasizes those importance of domestic far-right extremist and fascistic traditions, and most serious historians agree that Trumpism needs to be situated in that context. 12/

2024-03-04 14:17:18

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Applying the fascism concept is not the same as using facile historical analogies to Hitler. Rather than just referencing the rise of the Nazis and fascism in Europe’s interwar period all the time, we should investigate domestic traditions of fascism and rightwing extremism. 11/

2024-03-04 14:15:42

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It’s also important to debate the place of Trumpian fascism in relation to other factions on the American Right, its specific role in the context of the broader rightwing counter-mobilization against egalitarian, multiracial, pluralistic democracy. 10/

2024-03-04 14:14:56

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It’s certainly worth reflecting on the exact nature of Trumpian fascism in comparison to both the phenomena that arose in Europe’s interwar period as well as previous iterations of the more specifically American fascistic tradition. 9/

2024-03-04 14:14:09

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But it does not follow that whoever speaks of fascism in America must be ignorant of fascism’s history. All too often, those who vehemently oppose the use of the term in a U.S. context betray an inadequate understanding of the actual state of conservative / rightwing politics. 8/

2024-03-04 14:13:20

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Yes, it’s important to emphasize the specific historical circumstances that led to the rise of fascism in Europe’s interwar period, and it’s crucial to keep those in mind when using the term in any political context. 7/

2024-03-04 14:12:38

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The fake-indignation over people applying the term “fascism” to factions on the Right is just silly – as is denying the fact that making common cause with extremism has fully moved to the center of conservative politics, which constitutes an acute threat to American democracy. 6/