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Thomas Zimmer@thomaszimmer.bsky.social |
10620 followers 412 following 3273 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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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 112 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
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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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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.
9 replies 84 reposts 320 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
1/
thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-rogue-...
2 replies 82 reposts 288 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
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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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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
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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. 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 288 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!
0 replies 0 reposts 9 likes
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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.
0 replies 0 reposts 21 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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I talk about this at length in my piece.
1 replies 0 reposts 24 likes
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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 6 reposts 127 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
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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That’s also why this camp of leftwing intellectuals is stubbornly refusing to engage seriously with the fascism argument and the radicalizing tendencies on the Right. Their overriding concern is a political struggle against what they believe is the real enemy: The (neo-) liberal elites.
4 replies 7 reposts 143 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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I wrote about a this particular camp of prominent leftwing academics who are allowing their singular, disdain-driven focus on (neo-) liberalism to completely distort their perspective on the Right and on politics in general:
thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-anti-l...
9 replies 43 reposts 230 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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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.
56 replies 123 reposts 741 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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A reflection on the nature and appeal of Trumpism, the role of the rightwing intellectual sphere, the relationship between radicalism and conservatism, and reactionary 90s nostalgia - based on John Ganz’s brilliant “When the Clock Broke”
0 replies 2 reposts 13 likes
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Paul Rosenberg
@paulrosenberg.bsky.social
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This is VERY good!
0 replies 4 reposts 13 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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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 new book “When the Clock Broke”
The Origins of Trumpism and the Birth of the Present.
🧵1/
thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-origin...
3 replies 18 reposts 51 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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In the early 90s, the counter-revolutionaries still existed mostly on the margins of mainstream politics, and Buchanan did not win the Republican nomination. Today, the lust for militant radicalism is the Right’s defining characteristic.
0 replies 1 reposts 13 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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For the rightwing protagonists of “When the Clock Broke,” democracy – any attempt to level what they insisted were natural hierarchies of race, gender, wealth – was the enemy. To the hard Right, liberal democracy wasn’t the “end of history,” it was the end “real America.”
0 replies 4 reposts 13 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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Donald Trump, Ganz argues, represents the synthesis of the white nationalist, the billionaire populist, and the gangster patriarch – elements that were still scattered in the early 90s. This, to me, is the most compelling paradigm of the nature and appeal of Trumpism yet.
0 replies 2 reposts 26 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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In case you are looking for a little respite from the debate panic and reactionary judicial supremacy, but still want to grapple with how we got to this miserable place: On the nature and appeal of Trumpism, the historical significance of the early 90s, and the history of now.
0 replies 2 reposts 12 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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Finally, I discuss the recent wave of 90s nostalgia that often has a reactionary political valence – and doesn’t hold up to the kind of precise, sincere assessment of the period’s historical significance John Ganz offers.
Please consider subscribing:
thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-origin...
0 replies 0 reposts 12 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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This approach allows us to trace continuities, but also significant radicalizations: In the early 90s, the counter-revolutionaries still existed mostly on the margins of mainstream politics. Today, the lust for militant radicalism is the defining characteristic of even the rightwing mainstream. 14/
1 replies 0 reposts 6 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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Such frustration with the conservative establishment is indeed a constant feature of the modern Right that is best approached as a coalition of forces in which more extreme voices have always been advocating for a more radical response to the “threat” of multiracial pluralism. 13/
1 replies 0 reposts 7 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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The parallels to what is happening on the Right today are striking. The general sentiment that it is “no longer enough to be conservative,” that traditional conservatism needs to be replaced by a much more radical form of politics, is currently being echoed across the Right. 12/
1 replies 0 reposts 8 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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One thing that really stands out about the early 1990s: All the protagonists on the Right in “When the Clock Broke” were convinced that it is not enough to be conservative, that a more radical politics was necessary to stem the tide of leftism, and globalism, and liberalism. 11/
1 replies 0 reposts 8 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
[ View ] |
For the rightwing protagonists of “When the Clock Broke,” democracy – any attempt to level what they insisted were natural hierarchies of race, gender, wealth – was the enemy. To the hard Right, liberal democracy wasn’t the “end of history,” it was the end “real America.” 10/
1 replies 0 reposts 12 likes
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Thomas Zimmer
@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
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“When the Clock Broke” powerfully dissects how the end of the Cold War opened the door for those who emphatically rejected liberal democracy, even as an aspiration, to move closer to the mainstream, and make their case to a mainstream audience more explicitly. 9/
1 replies 1 reposts 9 likes