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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 1h

"How To Read This Chart" has long been on the short list of newsletters I always read, and always try to read right when they come out. I'm so glad @pbump.com, who is unfailingly incisive and enlightening, is bringing it back.

I know there are So. Many. Newsletters. But I highly recommend this one.

Philip Bump @pbump.com · 3d

Back when I was at The Post, every Friday at 10pm I'd plug my data/visualizations/jokes newsletter.

Well, it's back. In 12 hours, the all-new How To Read This Chart lands in mailboxes. Sign up for free!
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How To Read This Chart

37% data. 42% visualizations. 210% jokes.

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Reposted by Thomas Zimmer

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 2d

a key thing about vought — and all of these guys — is that they have a totally top down and hierarchical vision of the world. they believe that the cultural changes they hate can be turned off by destroying the federal government because they can’t imagine that they emerged bottom-up in society

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 2d

What he’s railing against is a profound shift in culture, status… He’s obsessed with the idea that America is controlled by a leftist “ruling elite” - but “elite” isn’t defined socio-economically or by political power, it means something like: Getting to define “real America” and who gets to belong.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 1d

This is also what holds the different Trumpist factions together for now – the feudal techbro right, the America First nativists, the Christian nationalists: Whatever comes after, what matters in this moment is the “counter-revolution” against the Left – it must be ruthless, it must be radical.

We need to talk about Russell Vought – But Properly

Why certain mainstream outlets insist on sanitizing Vought as a devout “small government” conservative – and what actually animates his war against pluralistic democracy

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 1d

It is impossible to understand the rage and furor that is fueling the Trumpist project without grappling with this first: They really believe the “leftist” revolution has successfully taken over the institutions which are now being used to subvert the “will of the people” and destroy “real America.”

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 1d

He fundamentally does not believe liberalism or "the Left" could authentically exist in America without some sinister "globalist" elites propagating these essentially foreign ideas from the institutions (federal agencies, universities...) they have taken over and turned into "leftist" power centers.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 1d

The main reason why Vought is so angry is that he is not just after political power in a narrow sense but obsessed with status and cultural domination. He believes there is a “natural” order of white male Christian domination in all spheres of life – and America is supposed to follow it.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 1d

Vought’s end goal is not to shrink the federal government. He is less concerned about the actual size of government and more about cutting and curtailing the parts that he thinks are aiding “the Left” – while weaponizing the coercive powers of the state to impose a reactionary order.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 1d

A vast conspiracy. Enemies everywhere. Un-American forces have overtaken “every last institution” and especially the state. Radical countermeasures are urgently needed. It is the permission structure that governs rightwing politics and fuels Vought’s desire for “counter-revolution.”

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 1d

All the leftist subversion, Roberts is certain, is orchestrated and funded by the government. The goal, therefore, has to be to “bring the Administrative State to heel, and in the process defang and defund the woke culture warriors who have infiltrated every last institution in America.”

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 1d

Heritage president Kevin Roberts, in a truly revealing passage of his Foreword to the Project 2025 policy agenda, states that the project of “dismantling the administrative state” is not about the actual size of government at all:

The goal is to cut “the secret lifeblood of the Great Awokening.”

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 2d

a key thing about vought — and all of these guys — is that they have a totally top down and hierarchical vision of the world. they believe that the cultural changes they hate can be turned off by destroying the federal government because they can’t imagine that they emerged bottom-up in society

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 2d

What he’s railing against is a profound shift in culture, status… He’s obsessed with the idea that America is controlled by a leftist “ruling elite” - but “elite” isn’t defined socio-economically or by political power, it means something like: Getting to define “real America” and who gets to belong.

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Reposted by Thomas Zimmer

Alfie Kohn @alfiekohn.bsky.social · 2d

Read this thread about Russell Vought, whose power is comparable to Stephen Miller's. He believes he's "fighting a noble war to defend his 'real America' of white Christian patriarchal rule" by "bending the entire government machine to Trump's will" - while mainstream media whitewashes his evil.

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 2d

Sunday reading:

I wrote about the aggrieved extremist who is currently firing thousands of federal workers and ravaging state capacity based on conspiratorial nonsense - and about mainstream media’s infuriating tendency to sanitize Russell Vought and the regime he serves.

This week’s piece:

We need to talk about Russell Vought – But Properly

Why certain mainstream outlets insist on sanitizing Vought as a devout “small government” conservative – and what actually animates his war against pluralistic democracy

steady.page

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 1d

Donald Trump, American Fascist

Trumpism is what a specifically American, twenty-first century version of fascism looks like. And in November, fascism is on the ballot

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Reposted by Thomas Zimmer

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 2d

Sunday reading:

I wrote about the aggrieved extremist who is currently firing thousands of federal workers and ravaging state capacity based on conspiratorial nonsense - and about mainstream media’s infuriating tendency to sanitize Russell Vought and the regime he serves.

This week’s piece:

We need to talk about Russell Vought – But Properly

Why certain mainstream outlets insist on sanitizing Vought as a devout “small government” conservative – and what actually animates his war against pluralistic democracy

steady.page

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 1d

I think when a thread is so clearly an abstract / teaser of a longer piece, it’s not too much to ask that people take a quick look before they state, with conviction, that something essential is missing from an interpretation.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 1d

Vought’s Christian nationalism is a key point in the piece, spelled out at great length.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 1d

🙏

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 2d

As Vought sees it: The "natural"/divinely ordained order manifests in sharp hierarchies of race, gender, religion, and wealth; this "natural" order was enshrined in the nation's founding; therefore any attempt at leveling hierarchies is unnatural, un-American, and fundamentally illegitimate.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 2d

He fundamentally does not believe liberalism or "the Left" could authentically exist in America without some sinister "globalist" elites propagating these essentially foreign ideas from the institutions (federal agencies, universities...) they have taken over and turned into "leftist" power centers.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 2d

Democracy Americana is a publication solely funded by readers. If you find pieces like this one helpful, you can subscribe for free – or, better yet: If you can, consider becoming a paid member. As an independent writer, I fully rely on your help to make this work possible. Thank you!🙏

Democracy Americana

A newsletter on U.S. politics and history - and the ongoing struggle over how much democracy, and for whom, there should be in America

steady.page

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 2d

There have been a lot of racist thinkers and extremist intellectuals. Every authoritarian regime in history comes with a whole host of them - people who are on a mission to either lay the ideological groundwork for the regime or find ideological justifications for what the regime is already doing.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 2d

Oh no! That obviously shouldn’t happen. I’ll look into it right away! Will email you directly.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 2d

The Daily’s credulous/willfully ignorant/deliberately misleading portrait of Vought matters because it is indicative of a much broader tendency to normalize the assault on the constitutional order - to sanitize those who are responsible for it and the extremist ideas that are animating them.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 2d

Vought is at war with large swaths of the population, with the very idea of a society defined by democratic pluralism. If you have correctly identified that this guy is now in a really powerful position, that people like him are in control of the government, how is that not the main story?

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 2d

Vought’s ideology of “radical constitutionalism” captures the defining sensibility on the Trumpist Right: “The Left,” he believes, has command of America, there is nothing left to conserve, nothing short of a radical “counter-revolution” can now save the nation.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 2d

Vought is not interested in “normal” democratic politics: He seeks to “traumatize” civil servants, use the military to suppress protests, and sees Trump as an agent of God’s will. He is convinced to be fighting a noble war to defend his “real America” of white Christian patriarchal rule.

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