Birch Smith's avatar

Birch Smith

@birchsmith.bsky.social

52 followers 192 following 335 posts

Philosophy PhD student, working on the role of social and political epistemology in the future of liberal democracy.

Read my public philosophy here: discoursemachine.beehiiv.com/

Birch Smith's avatar Birch Smith @birchsmith.bsky.social
[ View ]

If it's anyone I think it has to be Harris, yeah

1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Birch Smith's avatar Birch Smith @birchsmith.bsky.social
[ View ]

This is just me venting, I'm going to keep doing the right thing, etc. But ffs if some of these people aren't so stupid that they'll toss the incredible benefits of liberal democracy aside for whatever stupid shiny object catches their eye

0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Birch Smith's avatar Birch Smith @birchsmith.bsky.social
[ View ]

I know I should (and tbh I mostly do) care more about who can win, and I know there's lots of people who would suffer under Trump presidency and that's who we're fighting for. But so many people are willing to throw away whatever is good about this place, and god do I despise them.

1 replies 1 reposts 1 likes

Birch Smith's avatar Birch Smith @birchsmith.bsky.social
[ View ]

My darker impulse: if we're going to switch to Harris (unlikely I think, but what do I know about internal party stuff) I think it's gotta be to go full prosecutor mode and just hammer Trump on the crimes and the democracy stuff. If the electorate won't respond to *that*, let them be damned.

2 replies 4 reposts 13 likes

Birch Smith's avatar Birch Smith @birchsmith.bsky.social
[ View ]

0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Reposted by Birch Smith

Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li's avatar Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.bsky.social
[ View ]

what left and the right both understand is that we are approaching a moment of constitutional rupture. what the right understands and the left does not is that extraconstitutional violence is not some magic "i win" button. rather the rupture will proceed through the forms and orders of american law.

1 replies 25 reposts 101 likes

Birch Smith's avatar Birch Smith @birchsmith.bsky.social
[ View ]

I think "look they gave us a new younger candidate!" "Look at them pushing out that nice old man!" and "wow they're sure in chaos over there replacing their candidate, not sure we should trust them" are basically equally likely, along with god knows how many other weird ideas

0 replies 1 reposts 6 likes

Birch Smith's avatar Birch Smith @birchsmith.bsky.social
[ View ]

I keep coming back to my belief that the as-yet undecided voters in this election are so divorced from predictable evidence-based decision processes as to be stochastic fools. We can try to do X or Y thing, but who knows what random idea will pop into their brain on Election day!

1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes

Reposted by Birch Smith

Pwnallthethings's avatar Pwnallthethings @pwnallthethings.bsky.social
[ View ]

Gonna have to reform the curricula a bit. Conlaw is now part of American History. Soviet studies is run by the law school. Journalism is now a minor in sport studies. Computer science is run by the business school, contains no programming, and business majors are dualed with "creative fiction"

12 replies 38 reposts 196 likes

Reposted by Birch Smith

Don Moynihan's avatar Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social
[ View ]

Honestly still in shock that the most crooked American President in history said "I need immunity" and the GOP Supreme Court said "well, it's nowhere in the constitution, but sure, why not? Whats the worst that could happen?"

69 replies 514 reposts 2414 likes

Birch Smith's avatar Birch Smith @birchsmith.bsky.social
[ View ]

Leaving a diamond worth 1,000 gp in a safe so my lawyer can petition for a writ of resurrection after something I said made a Heritage staffer mad

0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes

Birch Smith's avatar Birch Smith @birchsmith.bsky.social
[ View ]

I remember being involved in local Republican politics around the 2012 election (classical liberal/smaller government stuff to lower the temp of politics) and seeing the anti-intellectualism/hostility to compromise and good governance of the Tea Party. I started backing away between then and 2016

0 replies 0 reposts 3 likes

Reposted by Birch Smith

Faine Greenwood's avatar Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social
[ View ]

We are faced with deranged right-wing extremists eager to violently bring about a reign of Christofascist terror, and while we can stop them, we need to start raising the alarm among every sane person we know.

2 replies 60 reposts 240 likes

Birch Smith's avatar Birch Smith @birchsmith.bsky.social
[ View ]

Really well written, thanks to you and Quinta.

0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Reposted by Birch Smith

Birch Smith's avatar Birch Smith @birchsmith.bsky.social
[ View ]

One of my friends made this a few years back and now it lives rent-free in my brain

0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Birch Smith's avatar Birch Smith @birchsmith.bsky.social
[ View ]

Jokes aside I fully acknowledge the warning not to read too much into this. He's much smarter than me about this stuff. But maybe it's a little bit of evidence for my theory!

0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Birch Smith's avatar Birch Smith @birchsmith.bsky.social
[ View ]

it is undignified to take a victory lap it is undignified to take a victory lap it is undignified to take a victory lap it is undignified to take a victory lap it is undignified to take a victory lap it is undignified to take a victory lap it is undignifi discoursemachine.beehiiv.com/p/election-m...

1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Reposted by Birch Smith

Quinta Jurecic's avatar Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social
[ View ]

along similar lines, has anyone actually explained *why* the seal team six hypo is ruled out by the majority opinion? all I've seen is right-leaning law profs mocking everyone who raises the issue. but nobody has explained why a president wouldn't be immune for assassinating a rival

38 replies 57 reposts 362 likes

Reposted by Birch Smith

Popehat's avatar Popehat @kenwhite.bsky.social
[ View ]

Right-wing legal talking heads are focusing on arguing that it is RIDICULOUS to say that a second-term Trump will be empowered by immunity to do horrific things, while carefully preparing to argue in seven months that it is RIGHT that Trump do horrific things which aren’t actually horrific anyway.

36 replies 186 reposts 1051 likes

Birch Smith's avatar Birch Smith @birchsmith.bsky.social
[ View ]

*raises hand wearily in greeting* welcome back

0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Birch Smith's avatar Birch Smith @birchsmith.bsky.social
[ View ]

"gave the Deranged One a high level SPANKING!" is wild

1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Birch Smith's avatar Birch Smith @birchsmith.bsky.social
[ View ]

If somebody tried to start this conversation with me I would straight-up flee the room

0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes

Birch Smith's avatar Birch Smith @birchsmith.bsky.social
[ View ]

People who really love (insert a great, policy-focused Dem governor here) have got to reckon with the fact that we are a very special Type Of Guy, and loads of voters living in PA have no real concrete idea who Whitmer is (vice versa for MI voters and Shapiro, etc).

0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Birch Smith's avatar Birch Smith @birchsmith.bsky.social
[ View ]

My concern is not with Kamala, it's with an accumulation of silly stuff like "a local campaign office accidentally spent their lawn sign funds on lawn signs that had the wrong set of names" and "a low level incoming Harris/X staffer assumed an outgoing Biden/Harris staffer had done Y important task"

0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Birch Smith's avatar Birch Smith @birchsmith.bsky.social
[ View ]

Happy to be proved wrong and obviously if the swap is made I'm all in for Harris

0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Birch Smith's avatar Birch Smith @birchsmith.bsky.social
[ View ]

This, for now, is my basic position. Plus, maybe I'm too pessimistic but I am also unconvinced that the party as an institution is agile enough to swap candidates, bring in a new VP, and (re)form a functioning ground game without stepping on infinite rakes and lighting their pants on fire somehow.

1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Birch Smith's avatar Birch Smith @birchsmith.bsky.social
[ View ]

I'm convinced by the arguments in the piece, but it feels like a separate question whether the Democrats, institutionally, are agile enough to pull off a swap.

0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Birch Smith's avatar Birch Smith @birchsmith.bsky.social
[ View ]

Genuine question because I'm not a campaign operative: how feasible is it, logistically, to swap in/build a functioning retail politics ground game in >4 months? Obviously Harris has a big advantage over any other replacement in terms of integration with the current team, but I'm worried.

1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Birch Smith's avatar Birch Smith @birchsmith.bsky.social
[ View ]

I would also like to go on record that this is bad

0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Birch Smith's avatar Birch Smith @birchsmith.bsky.social
[ View ]

This is a great example of how bad the immunity decision is: Trump is trying to claim that, e.g., phone calls and *social media posts* are officials acts, and SCOTUS doesn't allow officials acts to be used as *evidence.* Impossible to overstate how lawless and disastrous that ruling was/will be.

0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Birch Smith's avatar Birch Smith @birchsmith.bsky.social
[ View ]

Thanks for writing such a well crafted argument!

0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Birch Smith's avatar Birch Smith @birchsmith.bsky.social
[ View ]

I'll fess up to being one of the cautious sorts who was pretty uncomfortable with court packing or other norm-violating sorts of things, because it's hard to see where that cycle stops or what it can't justify. The recent SCOTUS decisions + this argument is probably the tipping point for me.

1 replies 1 reposts 1 likes

Reposted by Birch Smith

Jacob T. Levy's avatar Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social
[ View ]

The Constitution says that in cases of impeachment, "the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment, according to law." It does not except the president. But what impeachable offenses aren't covered by the new doctrine of immunity?

21 replies 70 reposts 345 likes

Birch Smith's avatar Birch Smith @birchsmith.bsky.social
[ View ]

Great piece (Jamelle's done it again)

0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes

Reposted by Birch Smith

Popehat's avatar Popehat @kenwhite.bsky.social
[ View ]

/7 Justice Roberts smug and superior dismissal of the dissents’ concerns seems to come to us via time warp from some time that never knew Trump. The danger of lawlessness he poses are manifest — he and his followers brag of them. Only a liar or fool would dismiss them.

19 replies 233 reposts 1565 likes

Reposted by Birch Smith

Popehat's avatar Popehat @kenwhite.bsky.social
[ View ]

There are two elements to the immunity decision that are particularly extreme in a way that many will miss: (1) motive is irrelevant and (2) immune acts are not just excluded from prosecution, they’re excluded from evidence. /1

50 replies 900 reposts 2424 likes

Reposted by Birch Smith

Stephen Judkins's avatar Stephen Judkins @stephenjudkins.bsky.social
[ View ]

This take is baffling. People were loudly saying this in 2016, large chunks of lefty dissenters maintained it was just a scare tactic, and then the lesser evil lost and the greater evil won and this is the direct result of that. The squishy liberal mind was proven emphatically correct

34 replies 82 reposts 423 likes