I am immobilized with a heating pad on my back, so you're all getting my Sunday night blast of ill-temper about Trump's latest attacks on Vindman and others. Bottom line: We are not required to think well of people who are still defending this. /1
This should be, in any sane country, a bipartisan moment. The President is now committing multiple impeachable offenses every day by demanding laws be broken at his command. Republicans - especially - should have cut Trump loose long ago as a matter of duty. /2
Yes, some support for Trump is "polarization." But it's also something darker: It's a party of opportunists manipulating an ignorant mass of propaganda-addled people. The GOP and its media enablers are as hollow and cynical a group as has ever existed in American politics. /3
"Polarization" implies that people give a shit about policies and ideas. I will fight all day long with @CharlesPPierce or @jentaub on the left, or @JayCaruso on the right, because we disagree about policies and visions for America. That's not this. This is something else. /4
This is what happens when a group of people whose lives are ordinary and full of normal problems spend too much time connected to an internet and a cable box that tells them their lives could be awesome but for the people in the Emerald City. An old story, with new technology. /5
What's also new is that the GOP - once called the party of ideas even by Sen. Moynihan in my lifetime - has now decided that being in power is more important than fidelity to ideas or to the Constitution itself. There is no legal or constitutional red line they respect. /6
Mass communication technology exploited by unprincipled and cynical leaders in wink-wink cahoots with foreign powers, demagogues getting rich by scaring rubes and old people, a sociopath with a cult following. This is something we once would have joined together to stop. /7
Nixon was heading for impeachment for a *fraction* of what Trump has done. Republicans know this. They once prided themselves on being the messengers to the White House that the line had been crossed. No longer. /8
But back to the main point: Our fellow citizens who affirmatively support this behavior do not deserve our understanding or our patient arguments. They are beyond this. They deserve our unyielding - and peaceful - disapproval. There is no obligation to be "understanding." /9
Their support for Trumpism should not produce shouting matches or ruined family dinners. It should produce resolute changing of the subject. Outside of family, it should lead to shunning of friends who insist on arguing over why Trump is right to smear combat veterans. /10
At some point, friendship and comity require shared values. Americans have broken friendships over early Communism, McCarthy, civil rights, Nixon, Vietnam. This was not a tragedy. It was the social opprobrium that is a sign of moral health rather than relativistic anomie. /11
This is another of those times. The President has become a raving paranoid on national television, name calling members of Congress, smearing military officers, promising secret revenge, demanding others in the govt break the law, deriding our intel and LE professionals. /12
There is no "but socialism" or "but abortion" hiccup that is acceptable. None. Republicans did not say "if we impeach Nixon the commies will roll over us and there will be abortions in the streets." They did their duty before the Constitution. The country eventually agreed. /13
I have no interest in debating anyone on why Trump's crimes are not impeachable. We all know better. Sens. Portman and Collins and Romney and yes, even McConnell, all know better. This is not a good-faith disagreement, and it never was. /14
The bright spot here is that this is not "Civil War 2.0" or a fascist movement. That would require commitment and bravery from the Trumpist inner circle. They are led by a cowardly man and they are cowards themselves. The rank and file are groupies, not activists. /15
There is no mass movement party here, no hard central corps of true believers who will advance the cause, because there is no "cause." Trumpism is about people who watch too much TV, who have shown, over three years, they have no real idea what to do with power anyway. /16
But the damage to the legitimacy and the long-term health of our institutions is now, in some cases, deep and irreversible. This will harm everyone long after this idiocy is over, except for the right wing grifters who will take their payday and skip town. /17
If you are still enthusiastically supporting Trump, your politics are morally flawed, or you are lying to yourself. More likely, you know what you're doing, and you're supporting him for the pure opportunism of using an increasingly sick man for your own parochial interests. /18
Either way, the rest of us are not obligated to respect those views, no more than we had to respect the supporters of Joe McCarthy, Father Coughlin, Huey Long, George Lincoln Rockwell, or any of the other hideous Americans who attracted a mass following. Enough is enough. /19x

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More from @RadioFreeTom

Feb 14
Unrelated to the specific kerfuffle in my TL, here's a thought.

If you are inclined to believe that snotty blue checks don't engage people, do not complain when said blue check engages everyone as best he can.

There's one of me, many of you responding. /1
If you're telling me what to answer, what subjects to cover, or that you think I'm just here to "stir the pot" or other accusations of bad faith, I'll just block you to clear out the TL. I've had enough of that, thankyouverymuch.

I do my best to respond as much as I can. /2
My life would be a lot easier and more fun to just respond to the attaboys or just ignore all comments entirely, but that's never been my approach.

If you don't like the subject, then mute the thread, stop following, or turn off Twitter. You are grownups and have that power.
/3
Read 4 tweets
Jan 24
This was a group of very senior guys, GO/FO level some of them, and I snapped off a few shots of them. My man General Crackdown in the middle was not happy, as you can see.
I pulled the fill roll and made my mom stick it in her bra while was approached by an officer. /1
He, uh, told me to hand it over and come with him. I told him I didn't speak Russian. He switched to German. I told him I didn't speak German, either, but probably shouldn't have admitted I knew it was German. /2
My mother had no idea where she was in Moscow but I told her: "Film in bra, head away from me, I'll catch up."
The officer gave up and I started speaking English *loudly* and waving like Gomer Pyle and walked away. Mom and I made it to the Metro. /3
Read 4 tweets
Jan 17
@MelissaJPeltier @ericowensdc @ScottDguy @RachelBitecofer @tonyserrata @djosephdixon @harrisonjaime @DavidPepper What too many people on the left (in my not humble opinion) is that being *right* about a lot of Trump voters is not a platform. Republicans for years have branded themselves as "the party of everyone not specially favored by the Dems" and this was genius.
Trump blew that up. /1
@MelissaJPeltier @ericowensdc @ScottDguy @RachelBitecofer @tonyserrata @djosephdixon @harrisonjaime @DavidPepper And for a time after 2017, the *Dems* were making a great play for "being the party of everyone except this weird rightist coalition." This was the right play: to make the Dems the party of "we'll make everyone's life better."
But it's so hard for them to just keep doing that. /2
@MelissaJPeltier @ericowensdc @ScottDguy @RachelBitecofer @tonyserrata @djosephdixon @harrisonjaime @DavidPepper For those asking "What's the REPUBLICAN platform, huh?!" you're missing the point. They've gone back to being "not identity-driven and boutique issue Democrats who will hector you like self-righteous college students."
They don't need a platform to do that. /3
Read 4 tweets
Jan 13
In this piece, @Jbarro notes my frustration with people who will not vote to save democracy because they're worried about inflation. I take the point, but I have *always* felt this way about voters reacting to stuff that presidents don't control. /1

joshbarro.com/p/obsessing-ov…
In fact, one of the reasons I became a Republican in the late 70s was that I grew up in a blue collar area where people thought it was the responsibility of the President to find a job for every wage-earner, which isn't the way it works. (And I heard that a lot.) /2
I pleaded with people: You have mayors, state reps, governors. State government. You have to vote at the national level for things of national importance and solve local stuff at the local level. But nope. /3
Read 9 tweets
Dec 22, 2021
I read this piece recommended by @JVLast on how participating in the 1/6 insurrection ruined three lives. I read it trying to summon compassion, as he suggested we all do.
And yet, I'm struggling. /1
@JVLast There's a lot in the piece about protecting people from the consequences of free speech, vulnerable and gullible people. But the only way I can agree with that is to just give up on human agency and accept that a paternal state should have kept these people out of trouble. /2
@JVLast I don't know how to do that. I've always lived with pride in a country that never fears free speech, especially not if it's just nincompoopery writ large. (I don't even like hate speech codes.) So to feel compassion, I have to think of these people as no better than children. /3
Read 6 tweets
Dec 15, 2021
I've been busy all day, but catching up on the Great Mask Outrage confirms to me that
- Americans are terrible at risk assessement
- The goalposts for public health mandates have, for some people, now moved from "temporary emergency measures" to "because you might get a cold" /1
The people who are implying I am a heartless cad (which I am, but not on this) weren't here when I was taking rafts of shit from MAGA world about masking up, locking down, and getting vaxed. All of which I have affirmed with vigor.
But emergencies are not permanent. /2
Wear a mask in the shower if you want to. But it is *bad public policy* to create mandates that the public eventually just tunes out, for reasons ranging from symbolism to incoherence. I just drove through four states that all had different requirements, include *town* rules. /3
Read 5 tweets

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