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Thomas Zimmer@thomaszimmer.bsky.social |
10653 followers 412 following 3287 posts
Historian at Georgetown - Democracy and Its Discontents - Newsletter: Democracy Americana thomaszimmer.substack.com/ - Podcast: Is This Democracy podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/is-this-democracy
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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A lot of talk right now about Heritage President Kevin Roberts - who lusts for a radical rightwing revolution that would punish those he deems enemies of his “real America” so bad that he must talk about it all the time. I dove deep into the extremist worldview of that guy a while ago:
0 replies 26 reposts 62 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
[ View ] |
A lot of talk right now about Heritage President Kevin Roberts - who lusts for a radical rightwing revolution that would punish those he deems enemies of his “real America” so bad that he must talk about it all the time. I dove deep into the extremist worldview of that guy a while ago:
0 replies 26 reposts 62 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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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
5 replies 39 reposts 73 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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A deep dive into the extremist worldview of Heritage president Kevin Roberts, as it manifests in his foreword to the “Project 2025” policy report: His grievance-driven lust for revenge and desire to dominate his “Un-American” enemies doesn’t allow for restraint or compromise.
1 replies 4 reposts 22 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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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 on multiracial pluralism.
I wrote about his extremist worldview here:
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thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/project-20...
8 replies 146 reposts 288 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
[ View ] |
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
5 replies 39 reposts 73 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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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/
1 replies 5 reposts 44 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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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/
1 replies 13 reposts 52 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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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/
1 replies 5 reposts 43 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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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/
1 replies 4 reposts 35 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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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/
1 replies 5 reposts 35 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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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/
1 replies 6 reposts 43 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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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/
1 replies 6 reposts 43 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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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/
2 replies 15 reposts 60 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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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/
1 replies 8 reposts 57 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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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/
1 replies 10 reposts 65 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
[ View ] |
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 on multiracial pluralism.
I wrote about his extremist worldview here:
1/
thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/project-20...
8 replies 146 reposts 288 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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I’ve had this discussion many times with students who are active military: They were, across the board, horrified and disgusted by Trump’s desire to use troops against protesters - but also, and rightfully, quick to add that democracy is in great peril if it has to rely on soldiers defying orders.
6 replies 29 reposts 114 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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What an utterly bizarre, acutely dangerous, and downright terrifying place this country is in. Because six unelected rightwing operatives said so. And because the Republican Party is united behind the worst person in America to hold this kind of power.
2 replies 14 reposts 78 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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That’s, ultimately, what worries me most about all of this - what I’ve been trying to emphasize in my writing about “Project 2025”: Too many people think a second Trump term would “just” be more of the same. They haven’t been paying attention. It would be something very different.
1 replies 18 reposts 67 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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The Right was hampered by a few factors during Trump’s first term: Public protest, the courts, vestiges of opposition in the GOP, the “deep state” consisting of professional civil servants, experts, lawyers… All of those sources of resistance have been drastically weakened.
1 replies 11 reposts 39 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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An argument I’ve been trying to make about “Project 2025”: A second Trump term would be worse not only because the radical Right would be better prepared, but also because they would be operating under much more favorable circumstances. With a much more extreme Supreme Court, for instance. 1/
2 replies 39 reposts 128 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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That’s, ultimately, what worries me most about all of this - what I’ve been trying to emphasize in my writing about “Project 2025”: Too many people think a second Trump term would “just” be more of the same. They haven’t been paying attention. It would be something very different.
1 replies 18 reposts 67 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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The Right was hampered by a few factors during Trump’s first term: Public protest, the courts, vestiges of opposition in the GOP, the “deep state” consisting of professional civil servants, experts, lawyers… All of those sources of resistance have been drastically weakened. 6/
1 replies 5 reposts 21 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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Finally, resistance to the rightwing regime – not just coming from the Left, but also potentially fueled by whatever skepticism still remains among Republicans – would face a level of violent threat far beyond anything the country experienced during the first Trump presidency. 5/
1 replies 2 reposts 18 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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Beyond Trump, the Right more generally has significantly radicalized. This radicalization has found its manifestation in a fully Trumpified GOP. Prominent Republicans like Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney who publicly objected to violent insurrection have been ostracized. 4/
1 replies 2 reposts 24 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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Additionally, this would not be the same Right that came to power in 2017. That starts with Trump himself. The idea that he has always been the same, just Trump being Trump, is massively misleading and obscures the rather drastic radicalization of the Right’s undisputed leader. 3/
1 replies 2 reposts 24 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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Back in power, the radical Right could count on a reactionary supermajority on the Supreme Court - something they didn’t have during Trump’s first term. Today’s disastrous, truly extreme immunity ruling should be an urgent reminder of what an absolute game-changer that is. 2/
1 replies 5 reposts 46 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
[ View ] |
An argument I’ve been trying to make about “Project 2025”: A second Trump term would be worse not only because the radical Right would be better prepared, but also because they would be operating under much more favorable circumstances. With a much more extreme Supreme Court, for instance. 1/
2 replies 39 reposts 128 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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The Court is spearheading the attempts by a radicalizing minority to install ever more authoritarian forms of minoritarianism in order to secure their status against the will of the majority. And as of right now, these radicalizing reactionaries are succeeding.
1 replies 21 reposts 74 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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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.
8 replies 83 reposts 322 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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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 - and things have only gotten worse: The Rogue Court vs Modern Democracy
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thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-rogue-...
2 replies 82 reposts 289 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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There is no consistent logic or principle beyond ideologically-driven power politics. Yes, the constitution insulates the Court from direct democratic control – but that doesn’t mean we should allow it to simply turn against democracy itself.
1 replies 7 reposts 40 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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Nah, I meant: In a functioning democratic system, people shouldn’t need to know these people and shouldn’t have to keep up with this shit. Obviously, that is not the situation in which we find ourselves.
1 replies 0 reposts 11 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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The way it should be!
2 replies 0 reposts 8 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
[ View ] |
The Court is spearheading the attempts by a radicalizing minority to install ever more authoritarian forms of minoritarianism in order to secure their status against the will of the majority. And as of right now, these radicalizing reactionaries are succeeding.
1 replies 21 reposts 74 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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The idea that those who founded the United States envisioned a super-body composed of unaccountable, all-powerful rulers clad in robes, free to reign entirely outside the structure of institutions that make up the political system, is preposterous. 5/
2 replies 15 reposts 62 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
[ View ] |
There is no consistent logic or principle beyond ideologically-driven power politics. Yes, the constitution insulates the Court from direct democratic control – but that doesn’t mean we should allow it to simply turn against democracy itself. 4/
3 replies 10 reposts 60 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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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/
1 replies 5 reposts 52 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
[ View ] |
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/
1 replies 22 reposts 79 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
[ View ] |
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 - and things have only gotten worse: The Rogue Court vs Modern Democracy
1/
thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-rogue-...
2 replies 82 reposts 289 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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Two immediate thoughts: - Presidents have been able to get away with *a lot*, so to some extent, this codifies the (very, very bad!) status quo - BUT ALSO: To officially codify presidential immunity in this way, with reference to this specific situation (an attempted coup!) is utterly terrifying
4 replies 24 reposts 125 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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From April. Spot on.
1 replies 14 reposts 57 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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I apologize!
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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Nah, no worries - I meant it as: You’re right, this is what’s going on here, and I’m dissecting this stuff in the piece.
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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I talk about this at length in my piece.
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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To be very clear: I am not criticizing “the Left,” which doesn’t exist as a monolithic bloc. My issue is with this specific camp, and as much as they like to pretend they do, they really don’t represent “the Left.” In fact, they hate lefties who disagree with them at least as much as “the Libs.”
6 replies 7 reposts 128 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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The problem is that their devotion to this anti-liberal struggle has led them to propagating positions that are completely untethered from what is happening on the Right – sophistry in defense of a premise that is utterly at odds with empirical evidence.
thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-anti-l...
3 replies 10 reposts 119 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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To them, the fascism talk is intended to make people flock to the liberal cause; to expand power by using tyrannophobia as a way of entrenching liberal rule. It’s all just liberal dishonesty, self-exculpation, and self-aggrandizement that needs to be opposed aggressively.
4 replies 5 reposts 98 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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In their view, Liberals are using the “fascism” bogeyman as a way to distract from their own culpability; to discipline the Left into accepting a popular front under liberal leadership; to reinvigorate the (neo-) liberal project by conjuring fears of the ultimate evil.
3 replies 6 reposts 103 likes