Tom Nichols doesn’t need fireworks on July 4th. Not when you can easily burn yourself from your own hot shots.
Look what he wrote yesterday:
People on the left ask me how the left contributed to where we are. That’s a long answer that includes “read Mark Lilla”, but I would add:
– Much of postmodernism was and is a weakening of basic knowledge and reason.
– reformulate everything in politics in terms of race / gender– Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) July 4, 2021
– years of obsession with the White House combined with ignoring local and state politics
– a campus-bred intolerance that has escaped mainstream Democratic politics that alienates normals
– cult that in many cases is almost as bad as Trumpism/ two
– Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) July 4, 2021
Wait … is he really admitting that the left has really screwed things up? Have you had an awakening?
Not:
But with all that said, the center-left has a kind of rules-based base of good governance that I prefer to the warriors of right-wing culture who win at all costs. I have said repeatedly that Democrats are the best administrators of the Constitution now.
/ 3– Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) July 4, 2021
“But with all that said.” Although the left is rubbish, the Democrats are still the best administrators of the Constitution now.
But there is * an authoritarian streak on the left that has a pedigree that goes back and is endemic to leftism, which generally believes in the ability of government to accelerate the perfectibility of human beings, always a terrifying thought. / 4
– Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) July 4, 2021
Democrats ignore this at their own risk. But the Republican Party and the right wing is now openly a seditionist and unconstitutional movement, and I am with the Democrats as a coalition partner. President Biden is not the leader of the Young Socialists of some liberal university, and it is stupid to combine them. / 4x
– Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) July 4, 2021
Democrats suck, but at least they suck a well road! Left-wing authoritarianism is dangerous, but it’s not like we have to worry about it, even though the Democratic Party is full of would-be left-wing authoritarians! Joe Biden won’t let the squad gain too much influence!
Washington Examiner editor-in-chief Jay Caruso has done it before with Tom Nichols, and doing it again is probably not how he wanted to spend his time today. But with Nichols saying something so incredibly stupid and deliberately ignorant, Caruso apparently feels a responsibility to call him out.
And when that happens, it sucks even more than usual to be Tom Nichols:
If this is what you think, Tom, I think you’re wrong. If you are trying to convince others, you are cheating.
From @charlescwcooke https://t.co/3PAJKcQANJ https://t.co/7x6bLOP1TQ pic.twitter.com/4evQOKIzjj
– Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) July 5, 2021
Surprisingly, I draw on the available evidence of who has been attacking liberal democracy the most consistently and dangerously. Yesterday I took a lot of shit for saying that the left has an authoritarian streak, but they are much less dangerous than the entire institutional right.
– Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) July 5, 2021
Poor guy.
You took a comment on the center-left and said that you are wrong to quote a comment on progressives, but the “center-left” and “progressives” are generally seen as two different groups, not as synonyms for each other.
– Nicholas Grossman (@ NGrossman81) July 5, 2021
I did nothing of the kind. I disagreed with this: “I have repeatedly said that the Democrats are the best administrators of the Constitution now.”
– Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) July 5, 2021
This is the typical move of people on the right now, to juxtapose the hypothetical dangers of the left as a way of trying to deflect the concrete and real damage that the right is doing. / 1
– Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) July 5, 2021
Of course, there are people on the extreme left who are a threat to democracy. But they do not control the institutional Democratic Party. The unconstitutional madmen on the right control the institutional Republican Party. Therefore, Democrats are better administrators right now. / 2x
– Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) July 5, 2021
A year and a half later, the institutional Republican Party continues to support insane efforts to reverse a democratic election, but the real danger is critical race theory and DC statehood and stuff.
– Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) July 5, 2021
This boy, man.
It’s not hypothetical, Tom. The House passed DC’s statehood bill in April. There is continued pressure on Manchin and Sinema to end filibuster, and Democrats promise to spend trillions of dollars in spending through reconciliation, which they have already done.
– Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) July 5, 2021
None of those things is a threat to democracy; none of them come anywhere near the threat to the Constitution posed by the Republican Party. The behavior of Senate Republicans in particular has eviscerated my ability to continue to advocate for obstructionism.
– Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) July 5, 2021
Tom is blaming the Senate Republicans for the fact that he is a trashy liberal pirate who got away with posing as a committed conservative for so long. How ending obstructionism is not a threat or a threat to the Constitution?
Anyway:
You are now moving the goal posts. This was a discussion on “constitution administrators” and the comparison between motte and Bailey here does not interest me. What the Democrats are actively trying to do goes against our constitutional order. You can’t just reject it.
– Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) July 5, 2021
But you can try!
I do not agree that they are against our Constitution, but even having this discussion allows them to divert their attention from the real attacks on our system supported by a Republican Party that refuses to accept the outcome of the democratic process.
– Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) July 5, 2021
Who is diverting, Tom? Caruso has been utterly critical of Republicans (and definitely critical of Trump), but his criticisms are rooted in reality, in opposition to a pathological need to reject conservatism for the sake of owning Trump and Trump supporters.
Adding states / Not having an obstructionism / spending money excessively has nothing to do with the ‘constitutional order’ jfc.
– Tobi (@MrTobiasA) July 5, 2021
They certainly do. “It is allowed” or “it is legal” is not necessarily within the limits of the constitutional order. JFC yourself. You would think that after the last 4 years people would go through their heads. I guess some people fell asleep.
– Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) July 5, 2021
Tom apparently did.
Also, “Democrats want to make DC a state,” which has been true for decades, is not on the same level as “Republicans have created a party litmus test that requires covering up the seditious.”
That is why the conversation is going nowhere and is meaningless.– Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) July 5, 2021
It doesn’t make sense because you keep coming back to this notion that we’re in a “who’s worse” contest.
Rougned Odor is a below-average baseball player. If I say that, it doesn’t mean I’m saying that Tyler Wade is better than him.
– Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) July 5, 2021
Intellectual consistency is a very difficult concept for many people, even self-proclaimed Experts ™ like Tom.
“Biden said something and therefore the state legislatures are not doing what they are doing” is also not a model of intellectual honesty.
You think Democrats are more dangerous than Republicans; I think that in 2021 that statement is not susceptible to rational discussion.– Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) July 5, 2021
The whole GOP project has come down to entrenching and institutionalizing minority rule for its own sake.
– Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) July 5, 2021
This is a bullshit. You know very well the basis of the Senate in the sense that it has nothing to do with the population. You live in Rhode Island with two members of the House and two senators despite having a smaller population than Montana.
– Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) July 5, 2021
Which fully explains the efforts to limit the rights of others to vote in all other states. Instead of deciding to create a larger coalition years ago, Republicans have decided to simply give up democracy and stay in power by all means possible.
– Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) July 5, 2021
“Which fully explains the efforts to limit the rights of others to vote in all other states.”
Where are those rights being limited? Be specific because what you said is a topic of conversation, not fact.
– Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) July 5, 2021
No thanks, Jay. If you think these are just empty talking points, so be it. I am not willing to spend an afternoon of the kind of gaslighting that you are quick to accuse others of.
– Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) July 5, 2021
Of course not. I mean, according to Joe Biden, the new Georgia laws are similar to “Jim Crow,” so I wouldn’t expect an intellectually honest answer.
– Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) July 5, 2021
“Biden said something and therefore the state legislatures are not doing what they are doing” is also not a model of intellectual honesty.
You think Democrats are more dangerous than Republicans; I think that in 2021 that statement is not susceptible to rational discussion.– Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) July 5, 2021
You said the laws “limited the voting rights of others.” I asked you for a specific one and you refused. Biden’s comment was a steroid-like version of you in the sense that it’s not true. And I am not defending the Republicans. I ask you to defend the things you say.
– Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) July 5, 2021
It looks like it will be a difficult pass from Tom:
I decline the invitation. At some point, when surrounded by the obvious, “trying this obvious thing” is just a drift routine. You think I’m wrong I understand your objection.
– Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) July 5, 2021
Tom declines the invitation to defend what he says because he cannot defend what he says.
The left may have Tom Nichols. He is all of them. Now it is your problem.
.