Another interesting article! A couple of thoughts - I agree it was foolish and cowardly for Twitter to do this now. That's the difficulty with having different standards for public leaders and the public. Many of his posts violated the rules in ways that would have gotten any of us kicked off permanently. Maybe a commission is necessary, or maybe they should just consistently enforce their standards.
I think that you are denying Trump supporters agency in blaming the majority of their actions/reactions on the left. At some point, as with the left, they MUST take responsibility for their actions.
As far as the campaign financing race goes, unfortunately, because of the electoral college and the extreme gerrymandering in "Red" states, Democrats have to raise much more to overcome the inherent Republican advantage. If you have to get 4% more of the vote to eke out a win nationally or can still lose a legislature by 60+% of the seats while having a clear majority of the votes cast, that's a sign that something is seriously out of balance. I think that Republicans were able to get by with less fundraising because Trump is a once in a lifetime figure. Of course, this is all due to Citizen's United, which, if Republicans would assent, could be done away with (although given the conservative lean of the Supreme Court, probably not). During the campaign, many Democrats were in favor of breaking up these companies, with some Republicans now coming on board.
I think you are seriously understating what went on at the Capitol. These people did not just go in to break a few things. They went in to go after the Vice President and the Democratic Leaders and a relatively large number of Republican leaders were cheering them on. Additionally, there have been several armed intrusions by right-wing militias recently - Michigan and Oregon in particular.
I also think you are downplaying the effect that race plays in all of this. Certainly, the hardcore left DID take advantage of the Protests this spring and summer to do VERY bad things, but this was started in response to a very good and important issue of discussing the interaction of policing and race. I found an interesting non-partisan group that researches violence on the far-left and right: https://networkcontagion.us/. It was very illuminating. I continue to believe that race is a larger problem in the US than class, because class can be reasonably fixed by leveling the economic playing field (providing that there is the will to do so), whereas to fix racial inequality, you have to somehow overcome all of the societal racial issues in addition to the economic issues.
When you referred to lowering the increase of accepted ballots were you meaning to refer to the lower rejection rate?
Do you genuinely not see what an absurdly false equivalency it is to liken storming the Capitol in a bid to help overturn the results before Biden has become president with peaceful marches which took place after Trump was inaugurated?
The idea that the storming of the Capitol would have happened without Trump is preposterous. The notion of it being rigged would have remained far more fringe without the president to both set the tone and repeatedly amplify it.
You say that anyone rational would have an issue with the way mail-in ballots were utilised. I'd counter that anyone rational should see that the amended way of doing things was an extremely sensible way of running an election during a pandemic.
Your concerns about the power of big tech undoubtedly have some validity to them but, for me anyway, they get utterly lost amongst your deluge of basless sweeping statements.
Another interesting article! A couple of thoughts - I agree it was foolish and cowardly for Twitter to do this now. That's the difficulty with having different standards for public leaders and the public. Many of his posts violated the rules in ways that would have gotten any of us kicked off permanently. Maybe a commission is necessary, or maybe they should just consistently enforce their standards.
I think that you are denying Trump supporters agency in blaming the majority of their actions/reactions on the left. At some point, as with the left, they MUST take responsibility for their actions.
As far as the campaign financing race goes, unfortunately, because of the electoral college and the extreme gerrymandering in "Red" states, Democrats have to raise much more to overcome the inherent Republican advantage. If you have to get 4% more of the vote to eke out a win nationally or can still lose a legislature by 60+% of the seats while having a clear majority of the votes cast, that's a sign that something is seriously out of balance. I think that Republicans were able to get by with less fundraising because Trump is a once in a lifetime figure. Of course, this is all due to Citizen's United, which, if Republicans would assent, could be done away with (although given the conservative lean of the Supreme Court, probably not). During the campaign, many Democrats were in favor of breaking up these companies, with some Republicans now coming on board.
I think you are seriously understating what went on at the Capitol. These people did not just go in to break a few things. They went in to go after the Vice President and the Democratic Leaders and a relatively large number of Republican leaders were cheering them on. Additionally, there have been several armed intrusions by right-wing militias recently - Michigan and Oregon in particular.
I also think you are downplaying the effect that race plays in all of this. Certainly, the hardcore left DID take advantage of the Protests this spring and summer to do VERY bad things, but this was started in response to a very good and important issue of discussing the interaction of policing and race. I found an interesting non-partisan group that researches violence on the far-left and right: https://networkcontagion.us/. It was very illuminating. I continue to believe that race is a larger problem in the US than class, because class can be reasonably fixed by leveling the economic playing field (providing that there is the will to do so), whereas to fix racial inequality, you have to somehow overcome all of the societal racial issues in addition to the economic issues.
Thanks for another thoughtful article!
Hello, we've been debating on Matt Taibbi's latest thread. I thought you might find this article interesting. It's very relevant to that and your article here. https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/corporate-power-protests-and-the
When you referred to lowering the increase of accepted ballots were you meaning to refer to the lower rejection rate?
Do you genuinely not see what an absurdly false equivalency it is to liken storming the Capitol in a bid to help overturn the results before Biden has become president with peaceful marches which took place after Trump was inaugurated?
The idea that the storming of the Capitol would have happened without Trump is preposterous. The notion of it being rigged would have remained far more fringe without the president to both set the tone and repeatedly amplify it.
You say that anyone rational would have an issue with the way mail-in ballots were utilised. I'd counter that anyone rational should see that the amended way of doing things was an extremely sensible way of running an election during a pandemic.
Your concerns about the power of big tech undoubtedly have some validity to them but, for me anyway, they get utterly lost amongst your deluge of basless sweeping statements.