Happy New Year šŸŖ…šŸŽ‰šŸ„³

Goodbye 2020 and good riddance.

Thank you all for sharing the journey with me. Thank you for the questions, comments, gifs. We got through 2020. 2021 will be better.

2021 will be the year to Make Democracy Cool Again.

How about a few resolutions?

#1: Run for Something

(or help someone else run for something)

Want to really make a difference in politics and government? Donā€™t just march, @runforsomething.

Make sure things are done right. Be the person in charge.

https://t.co/gGCVWFnUo7
#2: If you canā€™t run for something, find someone you know who would be terrific, and encourage that person to run.

You can alsoĀ volunteerĀ to help Run for Something screen candidates.
#3: Be a Community Organizer

Do you have a talent for organizing? If so, democracy needs you. One reason the Tea Party was successful was that they organized locally and put pressure on local officials.
#4: Register New Voters

Start now. It's not too early.

In some states, you can become an official volunteer voter registrar. James Williams in Maryland told how he did it in his state. https://t.co/mv1PtliBuV
#5: Be An Institutionalist

Our democratic institutions are under attack. So what should you do? Defend them.

Defend Institutions is #2 on @TimothyDSnyder's list in his book, On Tyranny.

What's an institutionalist and how do you become one? See: https://t.co/GhtIDHIs6D
#6: If you are a teacher consider an assignment requiring students to advocate on behalf of an issue of their choice, or allow / encourage your students to substitute an assignment with a civic engagement activity of some kind.

They are the future. Empower them.
#7: Also, if you're a teacher, assign novels and stories about real-life young people who step and do what the adults seem unable to manage.

#8: Become a Social Engineer.
What do I mean? See: https://t.co/uEVsJwFaQ5
#9: Help People Become Citizens

Support low-cost immigration services, volunteer at an organization such as @CUNYCitizenship, or at organizations that tutor English and civics for the naturalization test.
#10: Subscribe to local newspapers and national journals that do good investigative reporting.

If everyone does this, lots of money will get pumped into news reporting. We need good reporters.
#11: Take lots of mental health breaks. You can't help save democracy if you are worn out and stressed.

Here is a photo from my mental health break today ā¤µļø

JJ is working hard though, keeping me safe from seagulls.
It's a never-ending cycle:
We push forward. The reactionaries push backward.

If the universe is unfolding as it should, Trump awakened enough people from complacency and spurred us to treasure our democracy and take the necessary steps to preserve it.
https://t.co/F8RzeQpGaP
This thread is now a blog post, here: https://t.co/V2fu3J0AYv

More from Teri Kanefield

It looks like 45 Republican Senators voted against holding an impeachment trial for Trump.

I hope nobody had high hopes that the GOP would do the right thing.

The GOP remains the Party of Trump and is hardening into an extremist anti-democratic

They are the anti-rule of law, anti truth party.
https://t.co/e6EME39xNn
Fortunately, they're outnumbered.

Not by much, but they're outnumbered.


Hi, everyone.

A lot of these doomsday comments are annoying me.

Have you all learned nothing over the past few years?

You might want to duck because, I'm about to go on a tear . . .

The same people telling me we're doomed and democracy is dead are probably the same people who told me (1) Trump would make himself dictator (2) The Supreme Court would keep him in office and (3) he would never leave the White House.

Nobody owes you a democracy . . .

My mantra the past 4 years: democracy will survive if enough people want it to, and are willing to do the work.

Did the doomsday people happen to see that the vote was 55-45 in favor of holding a trial?

I think the problem is there has been so much peddling of hope porn. . .
January 6th will be a freak show. Biden will become president because the only way to stop it would be for the House to agree, and that won't happen.

Going forward, the GOP becomes even more dangerous and radicalized.


A few hopeful points:

The GOP could very well lose control of the Senate.

Because these GOP Senators will force a vote, the GOP may fracture, with moderates forced out. While this radicalizes the party, they lose


A few reasons. As @ProfBrianKalt points out, refusing to seat them because they say the election wasn't valid gives credence to the lie that the election wasn't valid.

Moreover, there's no authority to refuse to seat an elected rep for telling lies. .


. . . which is what refusing to seat them would amount to.

The Democrats say, "You are doing really bad things so we won't seat you."

See the problem with that?

(1) It's illegal. The House doesn't get to decide who is seated. The states send their own reps.

moreover . . .

(2) If you say, "The House gets to refuse to seat a person who tells a lie about the election," where does that lead?

If things continue this direction, the political divide will not longer be liberal v. conservative.

The divide will be pro- democracy v. anti-democracy. . .
KM asks why the GOP leadership is terrified of losing.

(Both Lindsay Graham and Matt Gaetz said if the GOP loses this election, they'll never win again.)

GOP is a minority party. If they lose power, they lose the ability to manipulate systems to keep minority control.

1/


The fear is also explained by Richard Hofstader, who wrote the classic workā¤µļø

Hofstadter reviewed American politics from before the founding of the nation through McCarthyism. He noticed a pattern among an impassioned minority on the fringes of the political spectrum.

2/


He called their behavior the ā€œparanoid styleā€ in politics.

Those embracing the paranoid style of politics believe that unseen satanic forces are trying to destroy something larger in which they belong.

3/

According to Hofstadter, the ā€œsomething largerā€ to which they belong is generally phrased as ā€œthe American way of life.ā€

They ā€œfeel dispossessedā€ and that ā€œAmerica has been largely taken away from them and their kind.ā€

4/

They therefore adopt extreme measures. They will stop at nothing to prevent what they see as an impending calamity.

Remember, Hofstadter published this in the early 1960s.

5/

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