(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
GNR - 7 Reasons Why Reports of Democracy's Demise are Premature - Saturday April 12 [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-04-12
Good Day, Good Newsers! I am sitting in for Goodie this morning.
If you’re like me, you’ve been having a hard time finding reasons to hang on to a belief in the possibility of pulling something good out of this era, in the face of the utter chaos that this regime is causing.
We’ve been reminded repeatedly that the chaos and confusion is how these bad actors hope to defeat us — by exhausting us and sapping our hope and strength. We know it, and yet we can’t stop our very normal and human response to such galloping evil.
Things are pretty bad and it’s OK to acknowledge that. In fact, we must acknowledge it and sit with that knowledge. Then, we can stop wishing it wasn’t happening, accept that it is despite our best efforts to avert it, and prepare ourselves to not just survive the sh*tshow, but to be ready to build something much better after the dust clears.
Today I want to remind you of some ways that we know that the regime is not all-powerful. It is, in fact, brittle and shaky as most authoritarian regimes are. And although we are bombarded with stories about powerful people who seem to be bending the knee, plenty of others are standing up. In the end, it won’t be those who have enjoyed power and wealth (and only want to protect it) who will form the bulwark against dictatorship. It will be ordinary Americans like you and me. And some elected and other institutional figures who will emerge as the new leaders.
1. The “strongman” is weak, unstable and spiraling.
Welcome to Autocratic Backfire, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Lucid, April 9, 2025.
Autocratic backfire occurs when narcissistic leaders have insulated themselves from criticism by surrounding themselves with sycophants and loyalists. No one will tell them the truth, and religious collaborators tell them they are in office by divine will, and so they also end up believing their own propaganda about their invincibility, genius instincts, and infallibility. Then the stage is set for them to make momentous decisions on the basis of erroneous beliefs or personal ideological obsessions. Normally the cycle of leaders amassing power and creating an echo chamber that leads to faulty policy takes years to develop, but America has accelerated this cycle.✂️ Trump’s insistence on barreling forward with the tariffs, despite warnings from many economists that they could inflict huge harm to the American and global economy and to world trade, is a another example of how autocratic intransigence and unwillingness to listen to others create real-world misery —misery that has political consequences in the long run. Yet for the strongman, safe in his bubble of narcissistic willfulness and fantasy, being able to impose his unorthodox and highly personal policies on the world is what matters. When Trump writes that the tariffs are “a beautiful thing to behold,” I hear his satisfaction at forcing dozens of foreign countries to experience his power. But I also hear the sound of another case study of autocratic backfire in the making. While the form it will take and the timing are uncertain, if history is any guide, a reckoning will come. .
Trump’s Own Aides Keep Him in State of Delusion About Tariff Fiasco, Greg Sargent, The New Republic, April 10, 2025.
It’s true that Trump’s most loyal voters among the white working class might think tariffs will protect them. But if his advisers are telling him this means working-class voters more broadly support them, then they may be operating from a nostalgic, outdated picture of the working class—one that is also likely seductive to Trump. All of which may give Democrats an opening. Trump’s win was driven in part by his ability to win over low-propensity, nonwhite, working-class voters who were alienated by the cost of living crisis. So the tariff fallout could give Democrats a way to appeal to those voters again, especially if and when prices rise. Why would any of this get better for Trump over time? If anything, the media scrutiny of his tariffs continues to intensify as the specifics come out and the true depths of incoherence and recklessness on display here are laid bare. The global uproar continues to mount as other nations announce reciprocal tariffs. National headlines continue to blare forth news of markets collapsing. This is exactly the sort of atmosphere of crisis that has the capacity to pierce through people’s information silos. Well, with the exception of one person’s information silo, anyway: that of the Audience of One.
Trump blinks on tariffs in face of GOP resistance — but hasn't given up his cult-leader dreams, Amanda Marcotte, Salon, April 10, 2025.
There have been various failed efforts, both from White House spinners and pundits, to sane-wash Trump's choice to torch the economy as some kind of "strategy." In a Tuesday speech before the National Republican Congressional Committee, Trump made clear that he's just a malignant narcissist whose only goals are self-worship and imposing increasingly baroque loyalty tests on his cult followers, i.e., the entire Republican Party. "I see some rebel Republican, some guy who wants to grandstand, say, 'I think that Congress should take over negotiations.' Let me tell you, you don't negotiate like I negotiate," he groused as the crowd nervously laughed to please Dear Leader. He pretended foreign leaders are "calling us up, kissing my a**." “They are dying to make a deal. 'Please, please sir, make a deal. I’ll do anything sir,'” he claimed, in a moment suggestive of how late-stage cult leaders experience a total collapse between reality and their grandiose fantasies. "BE COOL!" he barked on Truth Social Wednesday, promising, "Everything is going to work out well. The USA will be bigger and better than ever before!" Then came this confusing and chaotic "pause." It all feels like the final stage of cult decay, when the leader's frantic efforts to retain control result in escalating dictates and prophecies that become increasingly hard for even the most devoted followers to make sense of. "There is no grand plan or strategic vision, no matter what his advisers claim — only the impulsive actions of a mad king," explained Jamelle Bouie in the New York Times on Wednesday. "Trump’s tariffs are not a policy as we traditionally understand it," he continued, but an expression of Trump's inability to "conceive of any relationship between individuals, peoples or states as anything other than a status game, a competition for dominance."
2. The tariff tax turmoil and general chaos is tearing the GOP cabal apart.
Trade Catastrophe Could Be the Thing That Finally Tears the GOP Apart, Chris Lehmann, the Nation, April 10, 2025.
Trump’s hostile takeover of the GOP managed to patch over many of the deeper rifts between the two right-wing camps—which is why, on the strength of massive tax cuts, and a long train of corrupt bargains with big-money backers, the GOP’s financial elite has been so accommodating to Trump’s immigration inquisitions, assaults on free speech and free association, and even his penchant for tampering with the bottom lines of private universities and law firms. In the mindset of the big-ticket investors who back the Republicans, these are all just heightened forms of the original Faustian bargain their Reaganite forebears struck with the conspiratorial speculators and righteous inquisitors of the original evangelical right. But on the other side of the political bargain, it’s always been incumbent on Republican leaders never to transgress against the basic market prerogatives of the investor class. So Wall Street’s rejection of tariffs isn’t so much an unwarranted expression of surprise at Trump fulfilling his campaign pledge to come down hard on trading partners that he believes, without any intelligible evidence, are “ripping off” the United States. No, it’s a broader and deeper expression of shock over the Trump administration’s casual disregard of the tacit social contract that’s governed right-wing politics in America for nearly half a century.✂️ It’s far from clear whether any of the present jousting in the courts or the Senate will succeed in even minimally walking back the GOP’s greatest self-imposed economic calamity since the Great Depression. But the tariff battles have already exposed cracks in the Republican coalition that won’t respond to the usual incantations of superior deal-making prowess and economic score-settling ritually invoked by the party’s self-enamored maximum leader. The Republican Party is being reminded, in the rudest possible fashion, that its venerated standard-bearer is a veteran of six personal bankruptcies, including for a casino empire that, under remotely rational management, would have functioned as a license to print money. For all the swagger of the MAGA power elite on Pennsylvania Avenue, its counterpart on Wall Street knows all too well that the new tariff interregnum isn’t going to fix anything for very long. x Pause or no pause, a GOP tariffs crack-up looms: my latest for @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/econ...
[image or embed] — chrislehmann (@chrislehmann.bsky.social) April 10, 2025 at 11:23 AM
Rightwing group backed by Koch and Leo sues to stop Trump tariffs, Robert Tait, the Guardian, April 7, 2025.
The New Civil Liberties Alliance filed a suit against Trump’s imposition of import tariffs on exports from China, arguing that doing so under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) – which the president has invoked to justify the duties on nearly all countries – is unlawful. The group’s actions echo support given by four Republican senators last week for a Democratic amendment calling for the reversal of 25% tariffs imposed on Canada.✂️ “This statute authorizes specific emergency actions like imposing sanctions or freezing assets to protect the United States from foreign threats,” the alliance said in a statement. “It does not authorize the president to impose tariffs. In its nearly 50-year history, no other president – including President Trump in his first term – has ever tried to use the IEEPA to impose tariffs.” The alliance also argues that power to impose tariffs lies not with a sitting president, but with Congress, and warns that those imposed by Trump could run afoul of US supreme court rulings.
Tensions arise over Speaker Mike Johnson's efforts to bring Rep. Elise Stefanik back into the fold, Melanie Zanona, Scott Wong and Ryan Nobles, NBC, April 11, 2025.
The conundrum for Johnson is that he has to either remove a Republican who currently sits on the high-profile Intelligence Committee, which could cause strife among existing members, or be forced to change House rules to add a member. House rules dictate that the committee may be made up of no more than 25 members with a maximum of 14 from one party, which is how many Republicans are currently on the panel. Adding a member would increase the size of the committee, which some members have already complained is too bloated. It could also force Johnson to allow House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., to add another Democrat. In a statement to NBC News, Johnson’s office said the speaker and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford, R-Ark., are committed to finding a solution to accommodate Stefanik in the coming weeks.
x I'm thinking about the line from the Princess Bride: "I’ve got my country’s 500th anniversary to plan, my wedding to arrange, my wife to murder and Guilder to frame for it; I’m swamped.” They've bitten off more lawlessness than they can chew... — Cathy Gellis (@cathygellis.bsky.social) April 11, 2025 at 10:01 AM
3. The reality of the incoherent lunacy of trump’s tariff taxes is beginning to sink in with voters.
Consumer sentiment tumbles in April as inflation fears spike, University of Michigan survey shows, Jeff Cox, CNBC, April 11, 2025.
The University of Michigan consumer survey’s mid-month reading on sentiment fell to 50.8, down from 57.0 in March and below the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 54.6.
Respondents’ expectation for inflation a year from now leaped to 6.7%, the highest level since November 1981 and up from 5% in March.
The survey’s mid-month reading on consumer sentiment fell to 50.8, down from 57.0 in March and below the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 54.6. The move represented a 10.9% monthly change and was 34.2% lower than a year ago. It was lowest reading since June 2022 and the second lowest in the survey’s history going back to 1952.
The current economic conditions index fell to 56.5, an 11.4% drop from March, while the expectations measure slipped to 47.2, a 10.3% fall and its lowest since May 1980. On an annual basis, the two measures dropped 28.5% and 37.9%, respectively. Stocks turned negative following the report and Treasury yields added to gains. “Consumers have spiraled from anxious to petrified,” wrote Samuel Tombs, chief U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
4. Congressional Democrats are Opposing Republicans
Burnout hits Senate GOP after furious 2025 workload, Stef W Kight, Axios, April 11, 2025.
Thirteen weeks in session, 213 votes, 55 confirmations, two vote-a-ramas and a final 2am vote — Senate Republicans could not be more ready for a two-week recess. Why it matters: Republicans demanded that their new leader get the Senate working hard again. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) answered the call, but Republicans are feeling the effects of the Democratic opposition. Thune had to constantly haggle with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on vote times, and delays from Democrats have been particularly draining, Republicans told Axios.
Senate staffers also had to stay nimble, needing to reschedule meetings or media appearances over the past few weeks.
Tomorrow will mark the 100th day of the 119th Congress. Hopes for a Thursday afternoon fly-out were spoiled by Democratic holds on President Trump's nominee for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
5. Democrats are meeting the people where they are, and people are turning out to see them.
Democratic Party 'doubling down' on town hall meetings targeting Republican-held districts, Oren Oppenheim, ABC, April 10, 2025.
The Democratic National Committee -- continuing its push to host town halls in Republican-held districts -- is announcing a new set of town halls focused on the Republican-led budget bill and featuring high-profile officials such as Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., ABC News has learned exclusively. These "People's Town Halls," which will be held during Congress' two-week April recess that begins next week, comes as Democrats look to hammer Republicans and the White House and to reach out to voters over economic concerns and affordability.✂️ The Democratic town halls will be held during the recess on April 13 in Arizona's 6th District, on April 22 in Pennsylvania's 8th District, on April 24 in Colorado's 8th District and North Carolina's 9th District, and on April 25 in Missouri's 2nd District. Two of those districts -- Pennsylvania's 8th, represented by Rep. Robert Bresnahan, and Colorado's 8th, represented by Rep. Gabe Evans, were flipped by Republicans in the 2024 election.
Idaho: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joining Bernie Sanders in Nampa during 'Fighting Oligarchy' tour
NAMPA, AB — U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) is set to join Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) in the Treasure Valley in mid-April to host a rally. The event is part of the "Fighting Oligarchy: Where We Go From Here" tour, a national campaign in which Sanders is holding discussions across the United States on how he believes the country should move forward. "Oligarchs and corporate interests who have so much power and influence in this country," Sanders' website states.✂️ "This is how we fight back," Ocasio-Cortez said on Instagram. "Block by block. Neighbor to neighbor, cutting through the division sown by the ruling class."
Montana: AOC to join Bernie Sanders for Fighting Oligarchy rally in Missoula
MTN confirmed Wednesday evening that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, known as AOC, will join the Vermont lawmaker on April 16 for his Fighting Oligarchy rally at the Adams Center. The two Democrats have held rallies across the country to oppose what they characterize as "oligarchy" and "authoritarianism" under the Trump Administration. The tour consists of rallies and town halls that have drawn large crowds to hear Sanders challenge President Donald Trump's policies and economic disparities in the U.S. To RSVP for the tour, click here.
California: Bernie Sanders, AOC move ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ tour to Folsom, Sacramento Bee, April 9, 2025.
Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will appear next week in Folsom after they moved their ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ tour stop from Auburn. The outspoken progressives have traveled across the western U.S. since March, speaking to thousands about President Donald Trump’s rapid disassembling of the federal government and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk’s unprecedented power to dismantle social programs like Social Security and Medicare. ✂️ Sanders spokesperson Anna Bahr said in an email the event moved to accommodate a larger-than-expected crowd as the tour has drawn tens of thousands of attendees. The duo was originally slated to speak at the Gold Country Fairgrounds.
6. State Democrats are showing courage and mettle.
‘Triggered chaos’: Trump Department of Education sued by 16 states after $1 billion in funds suddenly yanked from schools, Elura Nanos, Law and Crime, April 11, 2025.
New York Attorney General and longtime Donald Trump foe Letitia Jamesbanded together with 15 other attorneys general and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro to file a lawsuit against the Trump administration for cutting off over $1.1 billion in funding meant to help low-income students and address long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The case, filed in federal court in New York, requests a declaratory and injunctive relief to stop the Department of Education (DOE) from ending access grants — that were approved by Congress — from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).✂️ James said in a press release that the funds in question not only support critical repairs and improvements to school buildings, but also the purchase of additional library books and playground equipment, as well as the addition of wheelchair-accessible buses. Joining James and Shapiro in the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, and the District of Columbia. x New York Attorney General Letitia James, along with 15 other state attorneys general and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, has filed a lawsuit against the Trump admin for cutting off over $1.1 billion in funding meant to help low-income students and address long-term effects of COVID-19. — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1.bsky.social) April 11, 2025 at 2:25 PM
7. Courts are standing up for the rule of law.
x “While the language the Supreme Court majority used in its ruling was carefully chosen, make no mistake, the message was clear: the Trump administration must abide by the rule of law and Mr. Kilmar Abrego García must be returned to his family," says @vcardenas.bsky.social.
[image or embed] — America's Voice (@americasvoice.bsky.social) April 11, 2025 at 2:10 PM
x Upshot of today's hearing: the DOJ went in front of the judge and said, in essence, "I've got nothing for you and I don't think we can give you anything until next Tuesday." Judge's response: You're going to give me daily updates starting tomorrow.
[image or embed] — Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) April 11, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Mixed blessing here, but more good than bad — NC supremes reject effort to disqualify most of the ballots they wanted to throw out, but still said several thousand must be “cured”.
x 🚨BREAKING: North Carolina Supreme Court rejects Republican effort to disqualify more than 60,000 votes in close judicial election. However, GOP dominated court rules 4-2 that several thousand other ballots must be "cured" to be counted. Democratic candidate will continue legal fight in Fed court.
[image or embed] — Marc Elias (@marcelias.bsky.social) April 11, 2025 at 4:38 PM
x HUGE WIN: A federal judge just issued a lengthy TRO prohibiting the Trump administration from freezing federal funds to Maine over their policies protecting transgender youth. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
[image or embed] — Alejandra Caraballo (@esqueer.net) April 11, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Bits and Pieces
Chart: In a first, clean power beat fossil fuels on US grid last month, Dan McCarthy, Canary Media, April 11, 2025.
For the first time, fossil fuels accounted for less than half of U.S. electricity production across an entire month as clean power generation surged in March. Last month, fossil gas and coal made up just over 49% of power generation, while solar, wind, hydropower, biofuels and other renewables, and nuclear met 51% of demand, new data from think tank Ember shows. The data point is a striking example of how far the U.S. energy transition has come in recent years. A decade ago, the U.S. got nearly two-thirds of its power from fossil fuels. But after years of building mostly solar, wind, and batteries, the country has started to close that gap. Just last month solar and wind generation jumped by 37% and 12% respectively, compared to March 2024. Meanwhile, fossil-fuel generation fell by 2.5%.
x YouTube Video
Here’s a musical couple who are traveling the world busking and using some of their earnings to plant trees:
Thanks to you guys for the month of September we were able to plant an incredible 3,680 trees with our music. That makes a new total of 36,080 trees planted with our album sales. As a thank you we went out in the cold yesterday and shot a music video of one of our favorite classical pieces “Canon in D”. Our fingers were a bit stiff but we really hope you enjoy our rendition. x YouTube Video
x YouTube Video
⚡️ Lightning RoundUp ⚡️
⚡️ How To Ride It Out; Plain talk and comfort for anyone with tariff-induced trauma, David Roeder, Chicago Sun Times, April 10, 2025.
⚡️ The Damage Done: Tariffs, the Demolition of the Liberal World Order, and Opportunities, Jared Yates Sexton, April 11, 2025.
⚡️ More Great News That’s Terrible For Trump and Republicans, Scott Dworkin, The Dworkin Report, April 11, 2025.
⚡️ Yes, they voted for this, Stephen Robinson, Public Notice, April 11, 2025.
⚡️ Understanding what we’re up against: The Painful Logic of Collective Action in the Global Political Economy, Daniel Drezner, Drezner’s World, April 10, 2025.
⚡️ How to prepare for a possible recession, according to an expert, Julia Yohe, NBC, April 8, 2025.
⚡️ This Is Why Dictatorships Fail, Anne Applebaum, the Atlantic, April 10, 2025.
⚡️ Don’t overestimate the goodness of the American people, John Stohr, The Editorial Board, April 9, 2025.
⚡️ A Defense Against Gaslighting Sociopaths, Arthur C Brooks, the Atlantic, April 10, 2025.
🎧 Is Trump’s America a FAILED STATE? (w/ David Frum), the Bulwark, April 11, 2025.
🎧 Madness and Zero Method, Rick Wilson, The Lincoln Project, April 10, 2025.
🎧 ‘He’s an economic moron’ | Scott Lucas slams Trump team claim tariff pause ‘brilliant master plan’, Times Radio.
🚧 🩷 ❣️ How Can You Help Build a Better World? ❣️ 🩷 🚧
I’m going to share some of the excellent links and suggestions from GoodNewsRoundup and chloris creator. Repetition is good!
🎩 GOODNEWSROUNDUP:
There are many ways to get involved. Everyone can find something that works for them.
Here are some ideas.
🎩 CHLORIS CREATOR:
I know it’s tough to see the path forward. And I can’t guarantee that there is a path forward. But people who are smarter and braver than I have seen ways to move ahead.
Their (the maladministration’s) plans really are dark, but many of them are also dumb, in the sense that they don’t make sense. So many of them cannot succeed. Here are some quick hits. Stay involved. Yeah, that’s tough. I want to look away too, but by taking simple actions you can make a difference. Keep contacting your representatives, both in DC and at home.
Support causes that will fight. Send money if you can. Also, spread their news with clicks and conversation.
Slow them down. Oppose and block at every turn.
Make tRump unpopular. Doing this weakens him. And it should not be that difficult. The GOP made a lot out of Biden is old and eggs cost too much. Well, tRump is older than Biden was at the beginning of his term and tRump has no policies that are going to bring down inflation. And a host of other problems, like he’s a convicted felon.
Divide the GOP from each other. They are a coalition based on contradictory promises, so there’s plenty to work with.
Keep telling the truth and showing love.
Make sure to pace yourselves in this marathon and to practice self-care.
Other Actions
‼️ Check your voter registration ‼️ ← Seems obvious, but super important.
Postcards I have written for Wisconsin SC election 📞 Call your Congress critters and register your concerns!
(202) 224-3121 is the main switchboard number for Congress. They will ask for your city and state or your zip code and connect you with your representatives. It’s easy and it does make a difference.
Jessica Craven at Chop Wood, Carry Water provides scripts to help you if you worry about what to say.
📪 Write postcards to help Democratic candidates and progressive judges get elected: Postcards to Voters
3️⃣ Check out Third Act Actions page — there might be something there that you can do.
⚖️ Support the ACLU! 🧵 Share your favorite news sites, podcasts or vloggers in the comments! The GNR comments section is a bonus reason to read GNR every day!! 💙 RoundUp WindDown 💙
That’s it for this Saturday. Goodie will be back next week and I will return with CG a week from Tuesday.
Take good care of yourselves and try to put aside the endless, wearying news for some R&R.
Happy Saturday, Gnuville!
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/12/2314763/-GNR-7-Reasons-Why-Reports-of-Democracy-s-Demise-are-Premature-Saturday-April-12?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
