Alexandra Erin Profile picture
Jul 17, 2018 27 tweets 5 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
I try not to make absolute predictions and the last thing I want is anyone looking at me (or anyone) like an oracle, but I am feeling pretty pleased with myself for this short thread yesterday.
There is a lot of panic among the people on the right who were trying to ignore anything about Trumpism that could have troubled them because they were interested in the rest of it.

There is panic among those just waking up to the truth of the warnings we've been sharing.
But for those of you who have been following what's happening, then there is no need for you to panic. The danger has not increased, it has just become more obvious. And in moving into the open with it, Trump has alienated many of his allies and created new opponents.
There's a lot of self-interest in the GOP politicians who are making statements now, whether they're about Russia but not Trump, or the need for "clarification", or even a stronger denunciation.

But sincere or insincere, their existence matters. They are a useful barometer.
And maybe it seems disheartening that it took this to get people mobilized, when family separation with children in cages didn't, when attacking gay and trans rights didn't, when a cabinet of corruption didn't, etc.

But trust me: it's not one thing, it's everything.
People are reaching their breaking point. Politicians who already felt the weight of being associated with Trump and his policies dragging them down but put up with it because they feared going against him would sink them even faster are changing their minds on that math.
Remember that the way the GOP found to defend Trump's border policies was to portray it as a matter of national security, and to insist that Trump was Good On National Security and Democrats were Bad on it.

How do you think that plays, after Helsinki?
In one day, Donald Trump blew up the narrative that he puts America First, that he cares about national security. Any and all of the things his allies use to justify their support, he undermined, if not caved in.
This is not necessarily a fatal blow to his regime. The way they work the media machine, all they need is basically a day with the pressure off on this issue and they can change the subject.
Which is why I say that it's not a time for panic but a time for action. Keep making noise. Keep asking questions. Keep following the news.

If you can protest, protest.
It's coming up on noon on the east coast here and... the news cycle hasn't really moved on. Twitter hasn't, either. The other big story that might have stolen focus is Maria Butina and the NRA, but for once people finally seem to be connecting that it's all the same story.
If you're in DC or the metro area and you have the ability to get there and can do so with relative safety, I am going to urge you, urge you, to please check the #OccupyLafayetteSquare hashtag and get to the protest tonight at 7 PM.

I say this knowing I can't be there.
I'm close enough to DC that it feels tantalizingly close, but I don't have a car and the metro line doesn't come nearly far enough, and I'm not sure I'd have the stamina for the July heat, even in the evening.

But I feel like this protest... I feel like it's pivotal.
If I say that I suspect it could be the most important protest of Trump's rule, I don't want to sound like I'm ranking the *causes* for the protests. Because I'm not.
But I feel like we're at an inflection point. I feel like people are reaching their breaking points. I feel like, regardless of the proximate cause, a spontaneous public protest in the metaphorical front yard of the White House could have a huge impact right now.
If you can get there tonight, please get there tonight. If you can't, think about tomorrow. People have wondered what is it going to take to get us to flood the streets.

Let's stop wondering and do it.
I have been saying this... well, I have been saying it since the Shakespeare in the Park "scandal", because it's an oblique reference to Julius Caesar. But I'm going to keep saying it: cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of civic participation.
I mentioned a right-wing blogger calling us "citizen tyrants" earlier today. We're not tyrants, that's an absurd inversion. But the phrase originates in fear that belies a powerful truth: that we the people do have power.
And there are more people reaching their breaking point, more people reaching their waking point, more motivation to oppose the Trump regime, more will to bring it down, than there has been at any moment since he took power.
Donald screwed up. That's what happened yesterday. His dominant character defect, that he *must* double down, *must* test boundaries he's told not to cross, made him move too far, too fast, too openly. He screwed up and he gave us an opening and we

MUST

NOT

HESITATE.
If we miss this chance, if it slips by us... it won't be the last opening, because again, Trump can't help himself, but the next one might be more dangerous.
Don't listen to anyone who tells you that protests and a massive backlash are "what Trump wants" or "what Bannon wants" or "what Putin wants". If they wanted protests, they'd have been throwing them themselves all along.
They'll say "If you protest, you'll give him an excuse to seize power!"

He's not waiting for an excuse. He'll take whatever pretext he can get, which means it doesn't matter what we do, not on that score. So there's no downside to fighting.
It is time to fight. Call your electeds and ask them why they haven't made a statement. If they have made a statement (check first), tell them that it didn't go far enough (check first, but I promise you it didn't).

And ask what they are going to DO.
Don't let this die down. Don't let them change the subject. Don't let the conversation move on. Don't let this chance slip away.

DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NEWS CYCLE.
Remind Washington who they work for. Remind them who has the power. Demand they protect Mueller. Demand they protect our elections from interference, foreign and not. Demand they protect us from Trump.

Now more than ever, CRY HAVOC AND LET SLIP THE DOGS OF CIVIC PARTICIPATION.
(And if you have the means and the inclination, tip your weird politics mom friend. She's not doing this for her health. paypal.me/alexandraerin)

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Alexandra Erin

Alexandra Erin Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @AlexandraErin

Oct 8, 2018
So, electric kettles. Let me see if I can't convert some other white US-born people over.

Here are some reasons:

1. You can set specific temperatures, not just heat things to a boil. Get closer to the ideal temperature for your tea, spend less time waiting for it to cool.
2. If you need boiling water to pour into or over something, not just like a single serving for instant whatever, you've got it in a nice kettle with a spout and an insulated handle.
3. You never have that thing where surface tension has stopped the water from actually boiling even though it's at temperature, and when you move it and disturb the water it explodes all over your hand (Google it, if you don't know this thing.)
Read 10 tweets
Oct 8, 2018
Twitter's specific policy on Dehumanizing Speech is better than I had feared; it's more specific, covering only comparisons to animals (vermin, pests) or tools for a specific purpose. You can give feedback here. Mine focused on implementation. blog.twitter.com/official/en_us…
The Dehumanizing Speech policy being specific is important because if (let's dream big here) it is enforced as written, you can avoid getting suspended for talking about TERFs by saying their beliefs are garbage or their actions are garbage.
My feedback focused on the unequal way in which Twitter's existing policies have been supported. White guys making clear references to genocide, murder, stalking children, etc., get "We have to look at context, this was clearly not serious" replies while their victims get banned.
Read 6 tweets
Oct 7, 2018
For the record, I do hope Brett Kavanaugh's life is ruined. I hope his marriage has been irreparably strained. I hope his social life is in the toilet. I hope he feels no joy at his win. I hope he only stops waiting for the other shoe to fall when it does, like a guillotine blade
My ~*preference*~ would be that he suffer some sort of institutional consequences, even if it was merely not being confirmed to a lifetime position on the highest court in the land, where he will have power over millions.

But the right decided that's off the table.
I hope anyone who comes before the SCOTUS who is even tangentially liberal, left, or Democratic makes an issue out of his participation in the case so that he has to spend his whole career justifying and defending his presence on the bench.
Read 8 tweets
Oct 7, 2018
Well, @RadioFreeTom thinks saying "No problem." implies there's a problem so forgive me if I'm not crowning him a king of situational analysis. What he's calling Trump's "rhetorical excess" is largely projection. The idea that we win by *not* pointing out what they're doing...
...just gives Trump and his party the full benefit of that projection, in that they get to smear their opponents while being insulated from accurate accusations. We've been ceding control of the narrative to them for decades now and it hasn't worked.
The reason @RadioFreeTom wants the Democrats to settle down and be good little children is because up until two hours ago HE WAS A REPUBLICAN and when this is all done he hopes there's a slightly more couth and presentable version of the Republican Party that's still in charge.
Read 6 tweets
Oct 7, 2018
We've got GOP voters talking about drinking liberal tears with their beers, we've got a GOP president lying his backside off to his rally and then telling Jeanine Pirro he wants to hold women "liable" for talking about rapes... I don't see the centrists asking them to be civil?
Isn't it weird how absolutely no pundit wrote an editorial saying that Lindsey Graham's fire and brimstone sermon isn't going to win over the middle? Isn't it strange that no one tells Chuck Grassley that his angry interruptions are going to hurt his party?
There was a lot of talk about whether or not Kavanaugh's vitriolic testimony would hurt him but I didn't see a lot of neutral or centrist-identified people saying that it *should*.
Read 5 tweets
Oct 7, 2018
So let me tell you another reason we need to not back down, not sit down, not be quiet: coward that he is, Donald Trump is at his most dangerous when he feels like he's on top of the world.
The horse race headlines are saying that Donald Trump had his best day as president, and I'm sure he felt it. He just came through a knock-down, drag-out fight and won a battle that people had been telling him to drop for weeks, so right now no one can tell him anything.
If he gets it in his head that maybe he should fire Rosenstein? No one's going to be able to talk him out of it. He might even do it just to extend the high, or see how far he can take it.
Read 8 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(