LaffyApr 9, 2023

“A wild week reveals the stakes for U.S. democracy.

The expulsion of two Black #Tennessee lawmakers capped a dangerous week when Democrats won elections and the GOP waged war on democracy.

Democrats are winning at the ballot box, and the right cannot abide

The GOP is waging an asymmetrical guerilla war on #democracy from Nashville to Amarillo. The next 19 months are critical.”

If @willbunch wrote it, you should read it©️… and I thread it. 1/… 🪡

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/republicans-tennessee-expulsion-anti-democracy-20230409.html

GOP wages an asymmetrical war on democracy because it can’t get the votes

The expulsion of two Black Tennessee lawmakers capped a dangerous week when Democrats won elections and the GOP waged war on democracy.

The Philadelphia Inquirer
Show threadLaffyApr 9, 2023
2/ “Anyone doubting Republicans’ impeachment bluster in #Wisconsin could take a look around to #Nashville, Tenn., where white GOP lawmakers stunned the nation by expelling two #Black colleagues and disenfranchising their roughly 140,000 predominantly African American constituents because the men had, from the floor of the Capitol, joined a thousand or so young people protesting gun violence. (A white female Democrat who also protested kept her seat by one vote.)”
Show threadLaffyApr 9, 2023
3/ “ The Tennessee expulsions, tinged with a #racism that echoed from 1960s civil rights protests with deep roots in Nashville’s once-segregated lunch counters, showed America just how far Republicans are willing to go to hold power — by nullifying the votes of Black and brown voters and drowning out the voices of young people who thoroughly reject Republican dogma around AR-15 assault rifles, #transgender athletes or banning #abortion.”
Show threadLaffyApr 9, 2023
4/ “What’s more, this political counterrevolution in legis corridors is taking place as conservative movement’s grand project of 1/2-century—ruthless, multimil-$ crusade to install lifetime rt-wing judges across fed bench—is coming to fruition. Decision by Kacsmaryk, Trump appointee rooted in ultra-conservative networks, seeking to undo approval of abortion drug mifepristone after 23 yrs on the market is huge end run around democracy in nation where a majority of voters support abortion rights”
Show threadLaffyApr 9, 2023
5/ “…Blockbuster report from ProPublica that Justice #ClarenceThomas has accepted and not reported hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of luxury travel from a Texas billionaire with a right-wing agenda shows the moral depths of an unaccountable Supreme Court — lacking an ethics code and apparently for sale — that is thwarting the popular will on issues ranging from abortion to climate change.”
Show threadLaffyApr 9, 2023
6/ “Tumultuous events of last week call to mind Lenin’s observation that “there are decades where nothing happens; & there are weeks where decades happen.” Decades, indeed. Over these 7 days in April, we watched rt-wing dead-enders of “Reagan Revolution” mount legis & judicial coups against rising youth of 2020s in battle waged w all the moral intensity of 60s. But we should also see it as moment of clarity for a chaotic America — revealing exactly what we are fighting for & the massive stakes”
Show threadLaffyApr 9, 2023

7/ “Democrats are waging conventional warfare on political frontlines — at ballot box, trying to get votes with the power of their ideas — and in much of America they appear to be winning…

Republicans are responding with an asymmetrical civil war against democracy, constantly looking for the weak points to deploy their IEDs of autocracy, determined to blow up the American Experiment if that’s what it takes to retain power by any means necessary. Their tactics are working well, unfortunately”

Show threadLaffyApr 9, 2023
8/ “Darth Vader’s Death Star had just 1 opening to exploit, but democracy has many — gerrymandering, filibuster, Electoral College, undemocratic makeup of Senate, statehouse power plays against home rule for Black or brown or progressive-minded communities, take-no-prisoners hijacking of judiciary. The only shock of next-level expulsion of 2 duly-elected Black lawmakers in Nashville was proof that — as Republican ideas become more unpopular — there is no bottom to how low this movement will go”
Show threadLaffyApr 9, 2023

9/ “Targeting of these two young Black activists — Reps. Jones & Pearson of Memphis — should have removed any lingering doubts around what GOP’s war on democracy is ultimately all about: white power…

The conserv movement doesn’t really believe in liberties laid out in Decl of Independence, U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It believes in the divine right of its preordained hierarchies — white supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia, xenophobia, etc. — & will stop at nothing to maintain them”

Show threadLaffyApr 9, 2023
10/ “The fact that the 45th president has so far managed to evade any accountability for mounting an attempted coup against the peaceful transfer of power to Biden, and is running for a second term to pardon the insurrectionists of Jan. 6, 2021, cannot be overstated here. His survival is the symbol that has emboldened the expellers, the impeachers, the judicial dictators — the guerilla fighters against our freely cast votes.”
Show threadLaffyApr 9, 2023

11/ “The Nashville travesty made clear that the next 19 months, between now and the 2024 presidential election, in which Trump remains front-runner for the GOP nomination, are likely to be the most fraught time for America since 1860-61, and perhaps even more perilous than that prelude to our Civil War…

And yet there is also reason for great hope. America’s young people“

Show threadLaffyApr 9, 2023

12/12 “Their moral authority, and their rising power at the ballot box from Eau Claire to Memphis, is why a decrepit GOP is lashing out. History will surely remember what happened in Tennessee as an affront to democracy — and the last throes of a dying movement.”

Please read the entire column.

Show threadLeisureguyApr 9, 2023

@GottaLaff

People can read it here: https://archive.ph/ims4Q

Show threadMike McGrawApr 9, 2023
@Leisureguy @GottaLaff
And there’s a signup link for Will Bunch’s newsletter.
Show threadLeisureguyApr 9, 2023

@Radaghaz

Wait! I thought I had signed up, but now I think I didn't and I can't find the link.

Could you please provide the link?

Show threadMike McGrawApr 9, 2023

@Leisureguy
This should work. I did “decline” to opportunity to sign up via Google and that revealed a direct signup box.

https://www.inquirer.com/newsletters/will-bunch/sign-up/?utm_source=print&utm_campaign=mktg_editorial_bunch_leadgen&utm_medium=print&utm_content=&utm_term=&int_promo=

Will Bunch

Go inside Will’s world with insights into what he's reading, watching, listening to, and thinking about.

Inquirer.com
Show threadLeisureguy
@Radaghaz Thank you. I didn't see it because I couldn't see the Inquirer (because non-subscriber).
Apr 9, 2023 at 6:06pmWeb