Thomas Zimmer

7 Monate her

Thomas Zimmer
7 Monate her

Sunday reading: A MAGA Feeding Frenzy Is Ravaging the Constitutional Order

The assault is coming from different angles: Project 2025. The feudal tech barons. The America First nativists. Less a single master plan – and more comprehensive chaos.

This week’s piece:

thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/ma…

MAGA Feeding Frenzy Has Caused a Constitutional Crisis

The assault is coming from different angles: Project 2025. The feudal tech barons. The America First nativists. It’s not a single master plan – it’s comprehensive chaos

^{Thomas Zimmer (Democracy Americana)}

Thomas Zimmer hat dies geteilt.

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Thomas Zimmer

Als Antwort auf Thomas Zimmer 7 Monate her

The assault is coming from several directions. There are the reactionary elites mostly aligned with Heritage and Project 2025; there are the America First nativists; there are the Musk-led tech broligarchs. There is also Donald Trump with his personal obsessions and thirst for domination.

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Thomas Zimmer

Als Antwort auf Thomas Zimmer 7 Monate her

I think we need to resist the temptation to boil the situation down to that one thing, identify the one master plan, or the one analogy (“just like Orbán in Hungary”). We want certainty – if we know the *one* playbook, we think we know what’s coming. But that’s not quite what is happening.

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Thomas Zimmer

Als Antwort auf Thomas Zimmer 7 Monate her

Take the idea that the Trumpists are following Orbán’s playbook: Orbán actually mostly stuck to what experts call “autocratic legalism” – while much of what the Trump regime is doing is blatantly illegal; Orbán also never gave free rein to a wannabe CEO-King who wants to wipe away the system.

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Thomas Zimmer

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The different MAGA factions have been let loose. It is unclear how much coordination there is between them. The way this assault on the constitutional order is unfolding tells us something important about the inner workings of the MAGA coalition, and what to expect going forward.

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Thomas Zimmer

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One of the biggest questions about the MAGA movement has been: Who would be in charge once they take power? Would the different factions get along and be able to cooperate within the regime – or would infighting and rivalries constitute a serious impediment to Trumpist rule?

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Thomas Zimmer

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The answer, as of right, seems to be: They all get to enact their agenda and act out their fever dreams. All at the same time. They have all been given the green light to go berserk on the system. This helps explain the remarkable speed and aggression we have been witnessing.

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Thomas Zimmer

Als Antwort auf Thomas Zimmer 7 Monate her

This is a dynamic that often characterizes authoritarian regimes: They integrate different factions via escalation – by ramping up the fearmongering against a real or perceived enemy, for instance, and by channeling internal discontent or friction into outward aggression towards that enemy.

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Thomas Zimmer

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Instead of trying to bring the different factions in line, they have been told to rage against their common enemies – against vulnerable groups who deviate from the white Christian patriarchal order as much as against the constitutional order itself. The result may be chaotic, but it is comprehensive.

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Thomas Zimmer

Als Antwort auf Thomas Zimmer 7 Monate her

What we are faced with is a rightwing “counter-revolution” unleashed – and in this moment, no one on the Right cares all that much what form it takes, or what script it follows, or who is in charge: Just be maximally radical and ruthless, destroy the enemy.

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Thomas Zimmer

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I don’t think any of this is sustainable as a governing strategy – or even as a long-term strategy to integrate the different MAGA factions. It works right now because they all feel a sense of radical excitement and euphoria. But the insurgency will inevitably slow down, there will be setbacks.

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Thomas Zimmer

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Right now, however, this feeding frenzy is unleashing an incredibly destructive potential. It has already done severe harm to both the system of constitutional government and the civil rights order. Unless it is stopped very soon the damage might be irreparable.

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Thomas Zimmer

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We are witnessing an unprecedented autocratic power grab. If the different MAGA factions can just dissolve whatever parts of the government they don’t like and functionally suspend the constitution, then democratic self-government is over.

thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/ma…

MAGA Feeding Frenzy Has Caused a Constitutional Crisis

The assault is coming from different angles: Project 2025. The feudal tech barons. The America First nativists. It’s not a single master plan – it’s comprehensive chaos

^{Thomas Zimmer (Democracy Americana)}

Kuecki Eben hat dies geteilt.

Als Antwort auf Thomas Zimmer

Andrew Benedict-Nelson

Als Antwort auf Thomas Zimmer 7 Monate her

I read a lot about the Spanish Civil War and one of the things that always surprised me is the diversity of factions on the fascist side. Trump has a lot of Franco in them but certainly not his skill in balancing the factions. There may not even be a single regime at this point eh?

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Andrew Benedict-Nelson

Als Antwort auf Thomas Zimmer 7 Monate her

For sure. Everyone drafting a thinkpiece should delete it.

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NoctisEqui 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇪🇹🏳️‍🌈

Als Antwort auf Thomas Zimmer 7 Monate her

They will destroy the entire administrative state created by FDR. They have been wanting this since their ‘Business Men’s Plot’ to overthrow US in 1933. Well it seems they have now succeeded.Welcome to your New country: The Untied Stassi Staats of Amerikkkanistan! USSA! USSA! USSA! FIGHT THE RIGHT!

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Stargeezer Smith

Als Antwort auf Thomas Zimmer 7 Monate her

That's kind of what I noticed. All of the MAGA attackers are greedy beyond measure, but don't have the same goals. Trump wants to avoid justice and get even. Musk is all about smashing government agencies that are in his way. Some are ideological (and warped thus) like Vance. Some are racist.

It's a grab bag of greedy people without ethics. But lying and dishonesty is innate to all. Given the different nefarious goals and characteristic dishonesty, I'm not sure how they can trust one another for long.

⇧

Thomas Zimmer 7 Monate her • •

Thomas Zimmer
7 Monate her