This makes so much more sense than the health care strategy they have been talking about, which is a) a demand that actually helps Republicans politically if implemented and b) is totally untethered from the ongoing demolition of democracy

As @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social likes to point out one of the biggest strategic errors of Trump 2.0 is not following the Orban model correctly, and making your gestures subtle, slow and hard for all but the very plugged in to track... www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

I never thought I'd say these words in this order, but Jimmy Kimmel returning to air is actually a huge win for American democracy

This is a terrific piece by @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social. He explains extremely well, at least IMHO, the logic of competitive authoritarianism, where and how its happening here, and that we still have time to stop it.

This article about how Trump's deportations "most" hurts rich people in DC, and not the actual people reported, is so repellent on so many levels that I struggle to imagine how any editor approved it www.politico.com/news/magazin...

A good way to start this week in America is to catch up on Zack’s piece from Friday: The Trump administration has now shown us all what a fully authoritarian USA under the big guy would look like. 🧵👇

Must-read piece.

Great piece. A reminder: if you’re a journalist who is not using every word you write to raise the alarm bells on Trump’s attacks on democracy, you’re not doing your job.

My 4 year old on the playground: “my pink laser killed Joker” Me, in Batman voice: “We don’t kill Joker“ Her: ”Why?” Me: Uh, well, that’s a good question actually

This @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social piece pulls it all together nicely. www.vox.com/politics/462...

I think it's probably tempting to think that a democracy ends when elections are cancelled. @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social's writing has been really valuable (for my own thinking) in showing how much more there is to think about and watch out for. www.vox.com/politics/462...

At Vox, @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social on the authoritarian playbook and why he thinks there's still time to block some of what Trump, Vance & co. have in store:

"We are where Hungarians were in 2010, where Russians were in 2000, and where Germans were in 1933. Those places’ futures were not inevitable; had elites and even ordinary people made different choices, catastrophes could have been avoided. "Ours still can be too."

I appreciate Zack going through the *how* of how we'd lose our democracy. It's not canceling elections or troops in the streets, it's takeover of media platforms and either buying off or silencing dissenters.

Must-read; important to interpret recent events in terms of how Trump could turn the US into a competitive authoritarian state where the government abuses its powers to undermine the opposition even as elections continue to be held

The past week has shown us something scary — the concrete and specific outlines of a durable authoritarian state in America. Here's what this state would look like, and the precise policy levers Trump is pulling to get there from here. www.vox.com/politics/462...

Well the last time multiple age cohorts were fucked up by a global pandemic was...immediately following World War I. Nothing bad happened in those 30 years, right?

President Trump said most networks only give him “bad publicity” and suggested their licenses may need to be “taken away.” Dominic Patten and @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social Zack Beauchamp join @anacabrera.bsky.social to share their reactions to Trump’s suggestion. www.msnbc.com/ana-cabrera-...

I was born in the US. My partner was born overseas to an American father (and eventual immigrant-to-US mother). My elementary schooler came home upset today b/c he's learned about "ICE Police" taking away the parents of kids at his DC school b/c they have immigrant parents.

Poland's recent experience is a rich case study. This article about the "post-illiberal trilemma" is excellent www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/dem...

This is an evil sentiment, get the hell out of my mentions with this immoral garbage

Hey, I wrote this!

The loser energy that radiates off "it's illegal not to like me" shit like this is palpable bsky.app/profile/zack...

If a single Democrat says that Kimmel is a "distraction" from health care costs I am going to lose my mind

It's not just the authoritarianism — it's how shameless, how *gleeful* this administration is about it

The details of the Jimmy Kimmel situation reveal that Trump has adopted one of Viktor Orbán's most effective weapons against the free press www.vox.com/politics/461...

Whenever I see a TV news clip now, I feel like I'm watching the opening scenes of a zombie movie where the broadcasters are "getting reports of individuals acting in a disturbing fashion" right before the apocalypse breaks out

"There may be no democracy to save a year from now," says a sitting Senator.

Another absolute banger from @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social this morning. The only thing I think I’d add to this piece, which I may have missed on first reading are the myriad examples of prominent right-wingers celebrating or making light of violence against the left. Otherwise, no notes.

The intra-right dispute over Israel is tough, because the Tucker Carlson types who are correct on the immediate policy issue (Gaza) have arrived there because they're antisemites

What Trump is doing right now isn't "cancel culture." It's a modern version of the Red Scare. www.vox.com/on-the-right...

the problem for miller here, imo, is that his work has been focused on immigrants, who are definitionally not protected in the same way as citizens are. he's moving from targeting people trapped in the zone of necropolitics to targeting people/speech at the dead center of constitutional protection

The Stephen Miller factor is really important. He is the White House policy king, and has been previously bending resources towards immigration enforcement in ways that actually undermined their efforts to attack democracy. Post-Kirk, he has openly declared his mission is repressing the left.

What is happening right now is an extinction-level threat to liberalism in America. Act like it.

What if the second Red Scare, but Joe McCarthy was president

Stephen Miler is open about what's coming: a federal law enforcement crackdown on its political opponents

Please join me @velshimsnbc.bsky.social 10a-1p w/ @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social @davids.house.gov @michaelemann.bsky.social @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social @profmmurray.bsky.social @adamsmith.house.gov Jim Cavanaugh #Velshi 1/2

It is possible to recognize the damage Charlie Kirk did in life without lapsing into apologia for his murder www.vox.com/politics/461...

You can see, in real times, two fundamentally opposed narratives about the shooter emerging from the same (very thin!) evidence base

On today's show: - @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social on nat'l politics - NYS State Sen. James Skoufis on live events ticketing reforms - @sophiepedder.bsky.social on France news - How restaurant culture is changing w/tariffs, GLP-1s, etc. Tune in at 10AM, 93.9FM, AM820 & wnyc.org

The polarization of the United States’ political parties and President Donald Trump’s aggressive power grabs put America on shaky ground following the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. More from @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social: voxdotcom.visitlink.me/yQx0ip

Charlie Kirk's murder has plunged us into a democratic crisis www.vox.com/politics/461...

We must stand resolutely against political assassination and political violence of all kinds, and just as resolutely against everyone who exploits acts of violence as the pretext or excuse for political repression of political opponents.

Very, very bad stuff coming from leading right-wingers

1/ Beauchamp is the best political pundit in America. Here, he doesn't invoke Kuhn but I think his argument can be summarized as: the Establishment Dems are acting like Kuhnian normal politics puzzle solvers in the midst of a paradigm shift that has made politics anything but historically normal.

I'm going to say this as many times as it's necessary: you shouldn't kill your political opponents

Awful.

The shutdown debate is really about two competing visions of how to fight Trump — between Team Normal Politics and Team Abnormal. I wrote about why I'm (mostly) on the latter www.vox.com/on-the-right...

In his newsletter, @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social plugs Keidrick Roy’s American Dark Age: “I just loved American Dark Age. . . .I appreciated Roy’s excavation of the Black liberal tradition in American thought—giving voice to a group whose ideas deserve a renewed look in our own anti-democratic moment.”