Rev. Jen Butler

CEO of Faith in Democracy
BLUE SKY: @revjenbutler.bsky.social

[Face The Nation @FaceTheNation]

Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) says New York doesn’t have the election security resources it needs ahead of the November midterm elections, telling @margbrennan “the federal government has basically been dismantling all the protections that we've come to rely on to protect this core essence of our democracy.”

“I'll make sure that we are protected, but I can't count on the federal government for anything in this space,” she says. Hochul also adds she’s concerned the Trump administration will deploy federal immigration agents at polling places during the upcoming November midterms. “They don't follow the law very much at all,” she adds.

[Rev. Jen Butler @RevJenButler]

Fresh air. God knows we all need it!

[Carl @HistoryBoomer]

Trump lost fair and square in 2020. Only women can get pregnant. The Trump assassination attempts were real. Mitch McConnell is alive. Michelle Obama is not a man. Barack Obama is a citizen. America is less racist than most countries. Police stop crime. Tariffs hurt the economy.

[Sarah Longwell @SarahLongwell25]

Things conservatives told me when I was in my 20’s:

*Character counts
*Crony capitalism is bad
*Russia is our enemy
*Tariffs are taxes
*The Constitution is sacrosanct
*Government power should be limited, restrained, and checked by congress.

Guess they were just joking.

[Michael Steele @MichaelSteele]

This is what it sounds like when idiots gather, pound their religious breasts and sow stupidity. The words “separation of church and state” do not appear in the Constitution, but the words are a metaphor (you know what that is, right?) from an 1802 letter written by Thomas Jefferson (since relied on as precedent by our Supreme Court) in which he stated that the First Amendment built a "wall of separation between Church & State."
Jefferson should know what those words meant; so if it’s good enough for him…perhaps the idiocracy should sit down and pick up a book they haven’t burned or banned. #BringBackCivics

[David French @DavidAFrench]

The reason why Watergate would be a 12 hour news story today is that Trump is so corrupt that Nixon seems almost quaint by comparison. Heck, the Guilded Age guys are kicking themselves for being born in the wrong century. There's much more dirty money to be made now.

[Roger K. Horn @rogerkhorn]

Francis Fukuyama recently shared a compelling piece titled “The Myth of Authoritarian Efficiency” by political scientists Jørgen Møller and Svend-Erik Skaaning (Aarhus University / V-Dem project).
The article dismantles the popular notion that authoritarian regimes—particularly China—are simply better at “getting things done.” Drawing on historical data and comparative evidence, the authors argue that democracies consistently outperform autocracies over the long term across critical domains:
• Military effectiveness: Democracies have won more than 80% of wars since 1815. Greater legitimacy enables citizens to make greater sacrifices, and democratic alliances prove more durable.
• Economic performance: While autocracies can drive catch-up growth to middle-income levels, they struggle to transition to innovation-driven, knowledge economies that require rule of law, intellectual property protection, and open debate. High-quality democracies show a modest but robust long-run growth advantage.
• Avoiding catastrophe: Autocracies periodically produce large-scale man-made disasters (Mao’s Great Leap Forward, Soviet collectivization). Institutional checks and public scrutiny in democracies make comparable failures rare.
• Crisis management & environment: Transparency, independent science, and accountability lead to better outcomes on pandemics, climate policy, and environmental indicators. China’s zero-COVID flip-flop and overstated economic statistics illustrate the risks of centralized, unaccountable decision-making.
The authors acknowledge democracies can be slow and messy, but emphasize that self-correction mechanisms ultimately make them more resilient and effective than systems that concentrate power without feedback loops.
Francis Fukuyama, author of the landmark book The End of History and the Last Man, continues to spark important conversations about the enduring strengths of liberal democracy in an era of renewed authoritarian confidence.
Full article (highly recommended):
https://t.co/rdLYptPLnY
What’s your take—do you see evidence of this “myth” playing out in emerging markets or great-power competition today?
#Democracy #Geopolitics #China #EmergingMarkets #InternationalRelations #PoliticalEconomy

[Gideon Rachman @gideonrachman]

Never forgave Zelensky for standing up to him in Kyiv and refusing to sign away Ukraine’s mineral rights. According to our correspondent who saw Bessent, immediately afterwards, he was trembling after meeting Zelensky

[Ruth Ben-Ghiat @ruthbenghiat]

👀 Necessary

[Ruth Ben-Ghiat @ruthbenghiat]

We don’t talk enough about how autocrats view taxpayer dollars—not as public resources to serve the people, but as a pot of gold to enrich themselves and their allies. Their focus isn’t public welfare; it’s personal profit and power.

[Robert G. Callahan, II • Author @RCallahanWaco]

I’d actually like to thank the SBC on behalf of all my future plaintiff survivors for demonstrating that the parent organization DOES in fact exercise control over the local churches &, therefore, should be sued for allowing instances of abuse in those churches.

We’ll chat soon

[Team Talarico @TeamTalaricoHQ]

.@JamesTalarico: There's been a lot of talk in this race about what it means to be a real man.

Recently on the campaign trail I told the story of my adoptive dad, Mark Talarico. Every Saturday morning, he would mow our lawn, and then without anyone asking him to, he would go next door and mow our neighbor's lawn because she was a widow. My dad never talked about it — he just did it, because that's what a man does.

A man takes responsibility, upholds his commitments to his family and his neighbors, and does what's right, even when no one is watching.

Here's what real men don't do. They don't lie and cheat their way through life, sell their soul to the highest bidder, or steal from other people in order to enrich themselves. Real men serve others. Weak men serve themselves.

I welcome this debate about what it means to be a man, and I don't think Ken Paxton or Ted Cruz are in a position to tell anybody what a real man is.

[Rev. Jen Butler @RevJenButler]

Honored to be included in this excellent @notusperspect piece on what Washington gets wrong about religion-- and in such great company. @JamesMartinSJ @drmoore @rachelklaser @simran @EbooPatel and many other.

My quote: “The right weaponizes religion. The left ignores it.” That’s the challenge: faith is shaping public life, and democracy leaders can’t afford to ignore it.

https://t.co/hOqgI34oZY

[Rev. Jen Butler @RevJenButler]

What If Christian Nationalism Loses Its Monopoly on Faith? https://t.co/NmTThG4V65

[Team Talarico @TeamTalaricoHQ]

BREAKING: Ken Paxton’s own lawyer just endorsed James Talarico:

“I defended Ken Paxton for years in the impeachment trial and in state criminal cases. But in my view, I think Ken has lost sight of his core mission, which is to represent the people of Texas. 

And unlike Ken, I believe that you, James, believe in unity over division and that you know how to assemble not only Democrats but Independents and Republicans and we need that right now. 

We need unity, we don't need any more division and that's why I'm supporting you.”

[Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum]

The details about the Tate brothers in this @newyorker profile are as sick as anything you will ever read. They are rapists, pornographers, traffickers - and heroes to the "conservative" MAGA movement
https://t.co/Zv2l52b9Id

[Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum]

The only "rigged" elections are the ones Republicans lose

[Sarah Longwell @SarahLongwell25]

What a rotten, braindead party that requires all of its members to tell the same absurd, destructive lie to the American people.

[Timothy Snyder @TimothyDSnyder]

Donald Trump proposes a 1.776 billion slush fund for terrorists. In my book "On Freedom" I proposed $1776 as guaranteed monthly fixed income for Americans. Each kind of future is possible. We choose.

[Rev. Jen Butler @RevJenButler]

@atrupar @CheriJacobus Every time he calls a journalist corrupt they should thank him for the opportunity to talk about how he and his family are profiting off taxpayers….you wanna talk corruption, great let’s do it