"Why Support for Political Violence Is Not as High as It May Seem" www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/u...

"the proudest boast of our free speech jurisprudence is that we protect the freedom to express 'the thought that we hate.'" -- noted leftist Justice Alito

I gave a campus talk last night on Trump's first 100 days for the WUD Society & Politics group. A student asked me if I thought that, at some point, we might start to describe the US as a competitive authoritarian regime. I said that we were already there, it's just that most folks haven't noticed:

It's true as a matter of perspective, political violence can be much worse than current levels in the US. But neither is it an irrational panic, it's grounded in the less visible but much more widespread reality that getting bombarded with death threats is much more common now than it used to be.

supreme irony that the party of lincoln is now the party of taney

"What made Omaha a weird city in 2024 was that its diversity was visible. To fix our failing politics, America needs an electoral system that makes our diversity visible everywhere."

I spent last summer in the weirdest city in politics. Omaha voted Democrat for President, Independent for Senate, Republican for House. @leedrutman.bsky.social and I explain why places like that are going away, and what we can do about it, in the latest Ripon Forum. riponsociety.org/article/is-t...

it won't happen automatically. but there is very obviously an opportunity for ambitious types who want to quite literally save the American republic to have their names written in history. crowns are in the gutter waiting to be picked up

I’d be really interested in seeing recruitment and retention data for the National Guard over the next couple of years.

Congress is too old! It's not a mystery why that is! Here is my new report about it!

The whole confederacy is getting in on it.

“American leadership is older today than at any other time in history.” Oscar Pocasangre and @dustinwahl.bsky.social explore the depth of the age divide in a NEW REPORT co-published by @protectdemocracy.org and @newamerica.org protectdemocracy.org/age-divide

bat signal for @fixourhouse.bsky.social

what this makes me think about - with regard to right now - is how so much of the information about Trump and Epstein that’s resonated in recent weeks is old stuff, widely and publicly reported. but a lot of it didn’t break through to lots of ppl in their information environments

With Colton's conviction, that makes FOUR pardoned January 6th insurrectionists who have faced charges for solicitation of a minor or child sex abuse of some kind.

"Mr. Murdoch stated that he would take care of it" 👀 Can we take a moment to appreciate how THAT RIGHT THERE is what, in any other age, would have been a presidency-destroying scandal???

straightforward Trump appeasement. a bribe from a company wanting regulatory approval variety.com/2025/tv/news...

Earlier today I talked to Andrew Doty and @dustinwahl.bsky.social about the communication ethics of advocating for political reform. A very interesting conversation and a lot of food for thought. Check it out. www.ethicsinpoliticalcommunication.org/video-conver...

Scoop: Attorney General Pam Bondi has fired her personal ethics chief, Joseph Tirrell. Without explanation, she removes DOJ's career ethics office director who advised the most senior political appointees (such as Todd Blanche, Kash Patel) on conflicts. news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

We’re releasing the Epstein Files day one. There are no Epstein Files. Here’s video proof nothing happened. Ok we had to edit it. There are no Epstein Files. There are Epstein Files, but the Democrats made them. Why do you care so much about this Epstein guy? What are “Files”?

The Project on Ethics in Political Communication's occasional conversation series is back - on July 15 we're talking about ethics and political reform with Andrew Doty and @dustinwahl.bsky.social. Details and registration here: www.ethicsinpoliticalcommunication.org/blog/ethical...

Hard to overstate how much I respect MGP www.compactmag.com/article/mari...

Kilmar Abrego Garcia is back in U.S. custody after being illegally deported and will now face federal human trafficking charges in Tennessee.

Exciting new project for “technoprogressives” from @ezup.bsky.social technoprogressives.substack.com/p/welcome-to...

Can't help but feel we're living through an increasingly existential war between spectacle and substance with spectacle winning battle after battle after battle.

The process of inoculation in the 1700’s was scraping smallpox pus out of open lesions from infected patients, making an incision in the person being inoculated, and stuffing the infected pus into the incision. Yet even this was preferable to smallpox. Our vaccines are a million times safer.

New from @protectdemocracy.org: Donald Trump is governing by emergency, pushing both national security and the military to dangerous new levels of politicization. This leads to a dark and scary place. www.ifyoucankeepit.org/p/55-years-a...

NYT Page One: “.. a blitz of moneymaking ventures capitalizing on their father’s name and power, each seemingly trying to outdo the other.” @nytimes.com

Lots of talk about America going in the direction of Hungary. Ironically, one of Orbán’s first big steps toward authoritarianism was making Hungary’s election system *more like America’s.* www.chicagotribune.com/2022/08/03/f...

These guys are about to kick millions of people off their health insurance and they don't have the faintest idea of how these programs work, just throwing out numbers in an incoherent jumble. It's like a football coach saying "We've got a 10-yard redzone in our offside flea flicker so we'll be good"

If you really want to fight for democracy in America, you need to acknowledge that winner-take-all elections are really poor instruments of democracy. @fairvote.bsky.social is out with its Monopoly Politics report, and it's a must read. fairvote.org/report/monop...

Seems like a good time to remind everyone that maintaining our unpopular two-party system is a choice, and we can make a choice to have more choice: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Turns out you can shape the agenda with dramatic action and maybe even shift public opinion. Crazy.

Four Russian journalists have been convicted of extremism and jailed for working with an anti-corruption group founded by the opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, highlighting the perils of independent journalism amid an intensified Kremlin crackdown on freedom of expression.

What a visual! @vanhollen.senate.gov proving a fundamental law of politics: you have to *act*, not just react. This is how it's done!

I never get tired of pointing this out: Alcee Hastings's selfish decision to run again in 2020 while too sick to even campaign sparked a Dem discussion about how too many members were dying in their seats. And nothing changed! The old, sick candidates kept running! www.politico.com/news/2021/06...

"History moves in cycles, and we might soon see not just a reactive resistance to a destructive government but also reforms that could revitalize our democratic institutions, both locally and nationally." www.newamerica.org/the-thread/l...

Trump wants to send citizens merely accused of crimes to foreign prisons where he can claim the U.S. has no jurisdiction to bring you back, even after the judiciary orders it. Once that happens even a single time, nothing will stop ICE from doing the same thing to you that they did to Abrego Garcia

I think Brian points to something important: pop culture representations of Nazism showed it as something existing outside of history and politics, which did a massive disservice to understanding it as a political force that could emerge in other polities.

Trump's plan is the same as it always has been -- always start a fight and bet on doing better under chaos.

Shoutout to the boomers today. You guys did your thing

1) Fox News is for real not showing stock-market ticker during this week's collapse. 2) Its economic news is "strong jobs report." 3) Every time I've checked in today, the coverage has been "illegal immigrants committing new crimes." This is state propaganda, on a par with North Korea or PRC.

Elected officials across America are canceling town halls, dodging questions, and barricading themselves from the very people who put them in office. A revealing new op-ed explains why they can ignore you and still comfortably keep their jobs: www.al.com/politics/202...