TZ
Thomas Zimmer
@tzimmer_history
Historian. Democracy and Its Discontents.
Historian at Georgetown - Democracy and Its Discontents - Contributing Opinion Writer Guardian US - Podcast: Is This Democracy - Substack: Democracy Americana https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/is-this-democracy/id1652741954
176 Posts
I wrote about why the phalanx of elite opinionists who pretended to be all riled up about the “free speech crisis” on college campuses for years has had nary a critical word to offer about the violent suppression of speech happening right now. Weekend reading: Student Revolt and the Curtailing of Critical Speech
The violent crackdown on campus protests reveals an alliance between the Right and mainstream elites who are driven by reactionary impulses and status anxieties. From Reagan to Trump
📢 PODCAST From Reagan to Trump A Conversation about “Landslide” and the Transformation of American Politics since the 1970s – with Ben Bradford and @sethcotlar (Part II) New episode of Is This Democracy: It’s politically irrelevant that leading conservatives “don’t like” Trump as long as they insist on presenting any meaningful opposition to Trumpism as deranged hysteria and categorically declare that the anti-Trump Liberals and Lefties are the bigger threat to America. Anti-Anti-Trump Conservatives Are Paving the Way for Authoritarianism
Weekend reading: I wrote about the disingenuous and dangerous folly of anti-anti-Trump conservatism. How “respectable” conservatives normalize Trump, rage against a caricature of “the Left,” and accommodate rightwing extremism. 📢 PODCAST “Landslide” How the Radical Right Took Over the Republican Party and Transformed American Politics in the 1970s – with Ben Bradford and Seth Cotlar (Part I) New episode of Is This Democracy: Highbrow conservative commentators are giving themselves and their readers permission to support Trump by portraying “liberal hysteria” as the real threat: A case study of National Review New piece: Anti-Anti-Trump Conservatives Are Paving the Way for Authoritarianism
Highbrow conservative commentators are giving themselves and their readers permission to support Trump by portraying “liberal hysteria” as the real threat: A case study of National Review New piece: What the Right Plans to Do With Power
ICYMI: All three parts of my series about “Project 2025” are out. Almost 15,000 words on what these radical plans would do to America and how to explain the Right’s open embrace of state authoritarianism. Here is the third and final part: The Right’s striking renunciation of the supposed pillars of modern conservatism manifests most clearly in the open rejection of “small government” principles: The people behind “Project 2025” don’t fear the authoritarian state, they want to mobilize it against their enemies. What makes “Project 2025” so dangerous
Weekend reading: I wrote about how “Project 2025” fits in the history of modern conservatism, how it captures the Right’s radicalization – and why it is so dangerous. The third and final part of my deep dive into “Project 2025.” With “Project 2025,” the American Right manifests its aggressive embrace of state authoritarianism
The “counter-revolutionary” consensus on the Right entails a strikingly open renunciation of the supposed pillars of modern conservatism. New piece: What Makes “Project 2025” So Dangerous
Will the Right be able to implement these radical plans? Is Trump on board? What happened to traditional conservatism? Let’s tackle some of the key questions surrounding “Project 2025” New piece - the third and final part of my deep dive into “Project 2025”: 📢 PODCAST What Today’s Republican Party Is Made Of – A GOP Primary Post-Mortem New episode of Is This Democracy: What does Joe Biden mean when he vows to “defend democracy”?
Weekend reading: I wrote about how ideas of what it means to “defend democracy” have shifted in Joe Biden’s major speeches. Is the liberal center embracing the idea of transforming America rather than just restoring pre-Trump “normalcy”? Is the call to defend democracy just a fig leaf behind which a coalition of restoration is determined to merely reinstate the pre-Trump “normal”? Or is the resistance to Trumpism tied to a transformative vision that could actually move us beyond the deeply deficient status quo an All people are created equal?
“We’ve never fully lived up to that idea, but we’ve never walked away from it either,” Joe Biden said in his State of the Union. This sentence is worth unpacking, as it hints at a shift in the liberal imagination of democracy’s past and present. New piece: What Does “Defend Democracy” Actually Mean?
Biden’s State of the Union hinted at a key shift in the liberal imagination: From a merely restorative to a potentially more transformative vision for America. New piece: The Much Vaunted Guardrails Are Failing
Weekend reading: I wrote about the system-wide failure to hold Trump accountable and mount an effective defense against the onslaught of authoritarian minority rule. This week’s piece: System-wide failure
Sparked by the recent Supreme Court decisions that basically guarantee Trump will escape serious legal consequences before the election, I reflect on the institutional failure and/or unwillingness to mount an effective defense. New piece: