https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1566920540069117952.html
The context for Trumpism is that exurban white religious conservatives believe they have a God-given mandate to rule forever, and a divine sanction to do so by any means necessary.
They see democracy itself as an insurrection against a white male supremacist God. /1
They are allied with rich, mostly white objectivists who believe they have superior IQs and genetics, and see equity as an affront to God and nature. They believe they have a right to take everything by right of social Darwinism, by any means necessary. /2
This is the intersection of Donald Trump, Peter Thiel, Leo Strauss, Jerry Falwell and QAnon.
You cannot negotiate or argue with this, and it will not be placated. You either crush it by ardent protection of democracy and social rights, or it takes over with an iron fist. /3
Because the truth is they have no right to rule. Donald Trump does not have “good genes.” Tucker Carlson didn’t build civilization, and neither did his ancestors. Jesus wasn’t a white supremacist and didn’t write the constitution. Men have no inherent right to rule over women. /4
The rich are far more lucky than they are skilled, and the wealth they have stolen far, far exceeds any value they provide to society.
None of these people has an inherent right to rule anything, or deserves to have their votes count more than the rest of us. /5
They see social and demographic changes as itself cheating them out of their birthright, such that any insurrection and fascism is a justified response.
They have no birthright, none beyond the same citizenship as the rest of us, and the basic rights we all have as humans. /6
Nothing has been taken from them, because none of it ever belonged to them in the first place.
Insofar as equity feels like oppression to them–too bad. Their prior advantages existed & exist not by right but by theft.
The fact that they have lost the culture is their problem.7
The fact that most people live in cities is their problem. The fact that almost everyone under 45 hates them is their problem. The fact that the pews are emptying is their problem. The fact that not even corporate America or pro sports likes them anymore? Their problem. /8
What “Make America Great Again” means is “give us our hegemony back and hurt all the people we fear and see as a threat.”
Too bad. We all exist in this big country together. With equal rights, social protections and equity.
They are owed nothing more than the rest of us. /9
They see their fascist insurrection as a necessary counterreformation to re-establish their genetic, chromosomal and God-given birthright.
They have no genetic, chromosomal or God-given birthright to rule. They never have.
The very notion deserves maximum scorn. /10
And we have no obligation to treat it with kid gloves. Give them no ground. Their fascist insurrection is just that–a fascist insurrection.
A young atheist woman of color in a big city is just as American as they are, and deserves to have their vote just as much. Too bad. /11
They can whine, they can wail, they can insist that they are “real” Americans with an inherent right to rule, and that generational and demographic change are an unfair, socialist or Satanist plot.
Whatever. Those arguments deserve mockery and scorn. They are unAmerican. /12
This period of intense partisan conflict will end when they finally understand they have no inherent right to rule.
Or when they implement a fascist regime.
But we aren’t going to let them do it. We see it coming, and are prepared to stop them.