It's Also the Authoritarianism, Stupid
The Long Twilight Struggle is a newsletter focusing on the long twilight struggle against authoritarianism, Christian nationalism, and the influence of tech broligarchs. I also share links and commentary about sports, efforts to combat false accusations and wrongful convictions, and other stories I find interesting.
“It might be helpful for you to know that you are not alone. And that in the long, twilight struggle which lies ahead of us, there is the possibility of hope.” “The Long Twilight Struggle.” Babylon 5, created and written by J. Michael Straczynski, Season 2, Episode 20, 1995.
Leading Off
I was on the verge of giving Democratic elected officials credit for doing more to fight back after taking repeated swings at them in this space.
House Democrats forced an early recess by pushing votes on the Epstein files. Senate Democrats did not agree to expedite nominations before its recess. Texas Legislative Democrats broke quorum and raised awareness about gerrymandering with help from people like Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. Democratic Attorneys General have had results in the courtroom fighting the Trump Regime.
Governor Gavin Newsom will be asking California voters to respond to the Texas gerrymander by temporarily allowing partisan Congressional districts in his state until the 2032 election. Newsom’s social media team has been outstanding recently in trolling the president and mocking the way Trump posts on social media. (And let’s be clear: it is possible both to be thankful that Newsom is doing this while also refusing to support him in 2028 because he platformed fascists on his podcast and betrayed the trans community.)
But we haven’t heard much from our Democratic Congressional leadership while the Trump Regime federalizes Washington, D.C., and lies about a crime emergency there. The Wall Street Journal reports that the National Guard soldiers deployed in D.C. will start carrying weapons later this week, increasing the possibility of a violent or deadly confrontation with protestors. Pro-Regime Governors of Ohio, West Virginia, and South Carolina plan to send troops to D.C. for this fake emergency. The Trump Regime appears to want an incident that can go viral on social media to justify its anti-Constitutional actions.
So why did I wake up this morning while all of this is happening in D.C. to see this post from the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives:
Are you fucking kidding me here with this?
Look, Trump lied about caring about the grocery prices during the campaign. His immigration and tariff policies are inflationary. We do deserve better.
But remember how there are federal troops on the streets of the nation’s capital today? This is not 1992. “It’s the economy, stupid” is no longer the answer to every messaging issue, regardless of what consultants may be telling our leaders.
In late July, a series of polls came out that showed Congressional Democrats with record-low approval ratings. Not great! But when one looks at the data, as G. Elliott Morris explains, a factor driving this disapproval is liberal and very liberal voters who want to see more fight from the Democratic leadership. These voters disapprove of the party leaders, but still plan to vote for Democrats in the midterms.
It is bad enough that Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are not using every tool at their disposal to fight this authoritarian takeover by the Trump Regime. But when did they start ignoring the lessons told by polling data? I keep waiting for political self-preservation to take over. Don’t more Democrats want to be the recipients of the celebrations people like Newsom and Pritzker have been getting?
Democrats should be forcefully responding to what is going on in D.C. right now. They should continue to demand the release of the Epstein files. Jeffries and Schumer also face another moment of truth next month when the current budget continuing resolution expires on September 30. How are they going to respond?
Democrats will lose many legislative battles right now because they are the minority party. But try, damn it! You lose every battle you don’t try to fight.
People want to see Democratic leaders’ actions match their rhetoric and fundraising messages. Failing to visibly fight back now will continue to demoralize the strongest allies and volunteers a political party needs to win the next election.
Tabs I Closed Above
- More National Guard Soldiers Head to D.C. and Prepare to Carry Weapons (Vera Bergengruen, Lara Seligman, and Micah Maidenberg, The Wall Street Journal, Link to Article)
- The Democratic image is underwater — but they're not losing (G. Elliott Morris and Mary Radcliffe, Strength in Numbers, Link to Article)
- Congressional Dems’ Approval Hits Record Low (Ryan Bort and Nikki McCann Ramirez, Rolling Stone, Link to Article)
- The Democratic Party’s Brand Is Cooked (Naomi Lachance, Rolling Stone, Link to Article)
- Undaunted: The State Attorneys General (Jennifer Rubin, The Contrarian, Link to Article)
- Three Republican-led states to send hundreds of National Guard troops to Washington (The Associated Press, Link to Article)
Authoritarianism
- August 18, 2025 (Cup of Coffee, Craig Calcaterra, Link to Article)
I may have started reading Calcaterra because of his baseball coverage, but I also love his political commentary. Today he made a vital point about how too many media outlets are normalizing what the Trump Regime is doing in D.C. by merely stating that Trump is “pushing the boundaries” of the law when he’s breaking it. As Calcaterra writes:
If one digs down into that article and looks at the law in question, one quickly learns that the law is actually quite clear and non-debatable. The deployment of federal troops on U.S. soil for law enforcement purposes is only permissible when the country “is invaded,” when “there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government,” or when the president is otherwise unable “to execute the laws of the United States.” None of which apply here in even the most remote or abstract ways and none of which anyone has even bothered to argue is the case. If it's a "debate," as the AP passively put it, it's a debate no one is actually having apart from media outlets who do not believe in right or wrong but who, rather, believe everything that happens should lend itself to a two-sided argument in which neither side can be said to be wrong.
Whatever the case, the plain text of the law in question should begin and end the analysis of the president's actions with respect to Washington, D.C. and that text should not be buried in the 17th paragraph of a story which frames this as some complicated and nuanced "debate" about the meaning of what is actually a very, very clear law. The same goes for news stories, seen often, in which Trump's lawlessness is described as him "pushing the bounds"of laws or norms or whatever, which suggests a mere stretching of the limits of power as opposed to the utter disregard for legal limits. At its most basic, the Associated Press and anyone else playing this obfuscating game may as well just say that this is a debate over whether words and laws actually mean things or if we, in fact, live in a dictatorship. And if we do, hey, who's to say that's not OK? Wouldn't that simply mean that a "debate has emerged" regarding the power of the executive? - The Week in Abortion (Jessica Valenti, Abortion, Every Day, Link to Article)
As Valenti explains, forced birth activists had a busy week in the states. As she explains, “the anti-abortion movement played its part—shepherding fascism along at the state and local levels: targeting abortion providers, trying to exert control over the pro-choice laws in blue states, and coercing companies to block access to abortion pills.” This newsletter is a great way to get caught up on all of the Republican and religious extremist attacks on reproductive health care. - This column on U.S. concentration camps is the one I hoped I’d never write (Will Bunch, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Link to Article)
Yes, concentration camps have come to the United States. We should be clear about that fact. Bunch discusses how we got here with Andrea Pitzer, the author of One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps.
Christian Nationalism
- How the ‘Seven Mountains Mandate’ Is Linked to Political Extremism in the US (Art Jipson, Talking Points Memo, Link to Article)
The political assassinations in Minnesota are the latest political terror incident linked to the Christian Nationalists who adhere to the Seven Mountains Mandate. Here’s a quick explanation of that concept. - IRS Rules Churches Can Endorse Candidates. A Progressive Pastor Says That’s Great (Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone, Link to Article)
Progressive churches need to use this new rule that was designed to let right-wing Christian nationalists influence politics without losing their tax-exempt status. - Fire, Brimstone, and Hegseth: Idaho Christian Nationalists Establish a DC Beachhead (Josh Kovensky, Talking Points Memo, Link to Article)
The Trump Regime’s Secretary of Defense is a member of an aggressive Christian Nationalist sect that believes “worship is warfare,” rejects many of the actual teachings of Jesus by embracing right-wing policies, and insists upon patriarchal family structure. It is not a coincidence that Secretary Hegseth has systematically removed women from top-level military positions since taking office.
Tech Broligarchs
- The Public Is Catching on About Private Equity (Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, Flaming Hydra, Link to Article)
After Peter Thiel destroyed Gawker Media Group, a private equity firm purchased the remnant publications and destroyed them through mismanagement. This led the former Deadspin Editor in Chief, Megan Greenwell, to research a book about how private equity is destroying companies, communities, and the American dream. It’s a great conversation about a dynamic ruining many of our institutions and communities.
Other Things I Find Interesting
- Damn You All to Hell! (Tom Nichols, The Atlantic, Link to Article)
While he was still teaching undergraduates, Nichols had a class where he tried to explain how the constant worry about nuclear war impacted people living during the Cold War. Nichols explains how the movies released during the Cold War explore the horrors of potential nuclear war, an outcome that today is not as remote as we may wish. And, yes, seeing Threads once was quite enough for me—and as Nichols notes, it makes The Day After seem almost optimistic by comparison. - Private Equity Now Owns More Than 40 Minor League Baseball Teams, And The Number Keeps Growing (Jen Ramos Eisen, Defector, Link to Article)
A company backed by the private equity firm Silver Lake has purchased 45 Minor League Baseball teams across the nation since 2021. Given how private equity often destroys the companies it purchases (like so many newspapers), I have been watching this trend with skepticism. But for now, conditions have improved at those teams. It appears that Silver Lake is interested in developing the real estate around the ballparks and in coordinating entertainment tours to create more days when the stadia are in use. There is no crisis yet, but I don’t trust private equity to make the long-term benefits of these minor league teams and communities a priority. - Oregon Appeals Court Says Bullet Cartridge Matching Is Just More Junk Science (Tim Cushing, Techdirt, Link to Article)
People have been wrongfully convicted based on the use of this junk science. States need to outlaw its use as evidence.
Post-Game Comments
Today’s Thought from my Readwise collection:
“Joseph Goebbels, who was present that day as a National Socialist Reichstag delegate, would later marvel that the National Socialists had succeeded in dismantling a federated constitutional republic entirely through constitutional means. Seven years earlier, in 1926, after being elected to the Reichstag as one the first 12 National Socialist delegates, Goebbels had been similarly struck: He was surprised to discover that he and these 11 other men (including Hermann Göring and Hans Frank), seated in a single row on the periphery of a plenary hall in their brown uniforms with swastika armbands, had—even as self-declared enemies of the Weimar Republic—been accorded free first-class train travel and subsidized meals, along with the capacity to disrupt, obstruct, and paralyze democratic structures and processes at will. “The big joke on democracy,” he observed, “is that it gives its mortal enemies the means to its own destruction.” (Timothy W. Ryback, How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy in 53 Days, The Atlantic)
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On January 6, 2021, Donald Trump instigated a violent insurrection against the United States government. Here’s a video from the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol that one can review if their memory fades.
People were hurt and police officers died protecting the Capitol. Vice President Pence and other elected officials just barely escaped danger. Our national streak of peaceful transfers of power ended.
It was not, as Trump claims, a “day of love.” And we must resist his efforts to rewrite the history of that dark day.
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