Reflections on the Midterms, Arrogant and Entitled White MAGA Men, and more

I. Reflections on the 2022 Midterms

Before the election, we were hit with a barrage of warnings that we were in for a red wave. This was from 538:

In fact, as of this writing, the Democrats:

• Are holding the Senate and may pick up an extra Senate seat,
• As of tonight, it looks like Republicans will take the House, but with a razor-thin margin that will give them enough power to make a lot of noise, create spectacle, but accomplish nothing. The Republicans know how to be an opposition party, but they don’t know how to govern. Even when Trump had a trifecta, they couldn’t repeal Obamacare, and that was part of their platform.
• The election deniers in key states (Nevada, Arizona, and Pennsylvania) lost. The only election denier who won a significant race was for Wyoming Secretary of State, where he ran unopposed.
• Candidates who Trump endorsed lost (or, in the case of Herschel Walker, failed to win).

Had the Democrats kept the House and added 2 Senate seats, Democrats would have been able to:

• End the filibuster and make Washington D.C. a state, thereby adding 2 Senators,
• Add Supreme Court justices, thereby undoing McConnell’s court-packing. (The Constitution gives Congress the power to add Supreme Court Justices),
• Pass sweeping election reform; for example, requiring all voters to receive mail-in ballots and the ability to drop them off easily at designated offices. (The Constitution gives Congress the power to regulate national elections),

(Sinema and Manchin prevented these things after 2020.)

On the other hand, a red wave would have enabled the Republicans to pass widespread voter suppression laws. Election deniers would have been poised to hand the election to the Republicans in 2024. A Republican-held Senate would have blocked Biden’s judicial nominees. (There are currently 85 district and appellate judge seats for Biden to fill.)

Instead, we’re treading water. Even if the Republicans take the House, they won’t have enough power to do real damage (other than withholding money from Ukraine). The Democrats don’t have enough power to make rapid progress.

The Democrats can, however, continue making some progress: Judicial nominations will move forward. Biden controls foreign policy. The DOJ will continue taking an active role in monitoring the elections and dismantling white supremacy groups.

I think we can all breathe a sigh of relief and start looking to the Georgia runoffs and 2024.

II. Arrogant Entitled MAGA Men

Arrogant Entitled MAGA man #1: Stewart Rhodes

Oath Keeper’s founder Stewart Rhodes took the stand earlier this week in his own defense against charges of seditious conspiracy. He is a Yale law graduate. After presenting himself to the jury as a serious constitutional law scholar, he testified that in his view, everything he did on January 6 was perfectly legal. He didn’t deny that he tried to reach Trump to advise him to invoke the insurrection act. (I followed Adam Klasfield with Law and Crime live tweeting from the courtroom.)

I had a hard time wrapping my mind around his defense. “I was brainwashed” would have been a more sensible defense. Instead, he basically said: “I am a Yale law scholar who was armed and ready for Civil War, but I had no intention of disrupting the election, even though I believed the election was invalid. I was simply there to provide protection from Antifa.”

None of it makes sense. He seemed to be supremely confident all he had to do was talk and the jury would understand and agree.

Arrogant Entitled MAGA man #2: Donald Trump

Donald Trump will evidently announce himself as a candidate for president soon. The conventional wisdom is that he is trying to get ahead of an indictment to inoculate himself.

I don’t believe Trump actually thinks he’ll innoculate himself from prosecution by declaring himself a candidate. I believe it’s a way to keep himself at the center stage of the GOP by presenting himself as the target of left-wing radical hatred.

It will be his rallying cry. He will try to use the prosecution to present himself as a victim to keep the spotlight on himself and make it harder for someone like DeSantis to replace him. And yes, of course, he will use it for fundraising.

A meme that has always struck me wrong about Trump is that he files lawsuits as a delay strategy. It seems to me that attributing a motive like that to Trump is to assume that Trump thinks rationally. When people say, “He filed that lawsuit as a delay strategy,” they are projecting their own normalcy onto him. Example: Instead of complying with the January 6 committee subpoena, Trump filed a lawsuit against the committee. Instantly all the pundits said he was trying to get out of testifying and trying to run out the clock. The reality is that the committee is wrapping up soon, and nobody expected him to testify. At best, if forced, he’d walk in and take the Fifth, as he did in New York. The committee issued the subpoena as a ploy to force him to refuse so that he would look bad for refusing.

When Nixon resigned, a group of diehards, including Roger Stone, wanted Nixon to keep fighting. Trump is their fighter. He files these lawsuits to show he’s tough. It’s a way of posturing and flexing his muscles. He wants to show that he takes a combative stand toward anyone who crosses him.

Arrogant Entitled MAGA man #3: Elon Musk

One of Elon’s first Tweets after he took over Twitter was to amplify an ugly, homophobic conspiracy theory about the attack on Pelosi’s husband. When advertisers pulled back, he indicated that it would be a good idea to shame, boycott (and try to harm) advertisers who left Twitter:

No surprise—that failed to reassure advertisers. (Most Twitter revenue is from advertisers.) Then, right before the election, Musk endorsed Republican candidates, another move likely to drive away advertisers.

Next, Musk decided that “power to the people” meant that anyone should be allowed to pay $8 for a verification badge. So he started selling verification badges for $8 despite warning from all sides that this was a stupid idea.

Twitter verified Jesus Christ, who marveled at the fact that he had more than 12 followers. Jesus reassured people that it didn’t hurt, and he told his father that not everyone should have to endure the kind of childhood he had:

Twitter also verified George Washington. The Twitter algorithm suggested I should follow George Washington, presumably because Twitter has curated my feed and knows I’m interested in American history and politics.

Then the mischief began. Someone impersonated Nintendo and posted obscene material. Because the blue verification badge has always indicated that the account was real, people became confused. The real Nintendo tweeted “That’s not us. This is us.”

Elon Musk responded in public that he thought selling verification for $8 was a good money-making strategy:

Musk declared himself a proponent of free speech and humor . . . until people like Kathy Griffith started impersonating him, like this:

Elon then got mad and permanently banned Kathy Griffith’s account. Evidently, humor and satire are okay unless someone is poking fun at Musk.

A person impersonate Ely Lily and posted this:

In response to comments, the impersonator tweeted this:

Eii Lilly posted this:

About this time, Elon Musk smugly tweeted that at least twitter wasn’t boring. Then Eli Lilly’s stock tumbled and the company lost billions:

 

I expect all of these companies to sue Elon Musk for damages.

Satire accounts began posing as the real account denouncing the satire:

Chaos online wasn’t the only chaos. Layoffs were clumsily handled, resulting in multiple state law violations. One person, when told to lay off his staff, threw up in a trash can. The head of Twitter safety resigned.

With the safety crew and other key personnel gone, Twitter was reported to be in violation of FTC regulations. The FTC isn’t like the SEC. The FTC doesn’t hesitate to impose criminal penalties. Musk’s answer: I put rockets into space. I’m not afraid of the FTC.”

Well, he should be afraid. We are in unchartered territory: A billionaire who appears to have something wrong with his brain purchased a company worth about $20 billion for $44 billion and appears to be doing everything possible to destroy it.

Ella Dawson, who worked for 5 years at Ted Talks, had this to say about Musk:

Elon Musk is not a genius. He passes off the work of others as his own, he treats his employees like garbage, and he has the impulse control of a teenager.

I call out TED directly for lionizing Musk because I worked there and I was complicit in it. I helped script the social media videos of his four (four!) TED Talks during which he made ridiculous false claims of his “inventions.” Remember his tunnels that would end traffic?

TED continued to uphold and celebrate Musk long after he started engaging in batshit public behavior, from calling people “pedophiles” to peddling transphobic jokes. TED ignored the stories of racial and gender discrimination coming out of Tesla and SpaceX.

She also called out TED owner (who is also Musk’s friend) for continuing to defend Musk as recently as October 5.

As Elon Musk drives Twitter into a ditch, I’m struck by the sheer loss: People losing their jobs. Running a company into the ground. Putting people in jeopardy and stress. Billions lost. Think what good could be done with that money. It’s just sad.  Civil rights lawyer Sherrilyn Ifill wrote about how Twitter enabled communities of civil rights activists and women (particularly Black women) to have a voice.

Basically, Elon Musk is doing to Twitter what Trump did to the US government: He’s causing the place to lose all credibility and descend into chaos.

Future of Social Media

If Twitter falls, something will take its place. This is getting long, so next week, if time permits, I’ll write about a social media model for creating a true public sphere.

And now I’m sure you need some Kitty Content

This kitty has the confidence of a white MAGA man:

One difference is that when an arrogant white billionaire fails and takes down a company, he wreaks a lot of havoc on others.

Also, arrogant white billionaires are not cute.