@nytimes Bestselling Author, HOW CIVIL WARS START | Identifying the conditions that give rise to modern civil war in order to stop them. @UCSanDiego Professor.
Something important happened this week.
Senate Republicans finally said no to Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund. Not because they found courage but because they sensed weakness.
Authoritarian systems begin to crack when elites stop fearing the leader.
My latest:
The First Crack in Trump's Wall of Fear https://t.co/sjncudqPwd
I’ve left this platform but democracy’s decline hasn’t.
Follow me on Bluesky @barbarafwalter.com for real-time analysis and what's happening and how we fight back. Bluesky is more thoughtful and better for honest debate. Join me there.
A month ago I pitched an article about what we know about elections and violence. Today it was the lead article in my favorite magazine of all time.
https://t.co/7jVmxzrrSa
Looking for context ahead of the 2024 US election?
FH's @hoopermatt outlines his list of preelection must-reads, from @bfwalter's discussion of political violence to @TimothyDSnyder's deep dive into Russia's malign influence campaigns.
See our list⬇️
https://t.co/kHUqwLzxdd
The people targeted first for killing are people within the shooters own party who are believed to be too moderate. Shooters see these people as traitors to the cause. This is why the Jan 6th attackers wanted to target Mike Pence first.
(5) Why would a registered Republican try to kill Trump? Right now we don't know. But one thing we know historically is that when a group turns to violence, the people they target first are not people on the opposing side...
(3) The US has all of those features and a candidate for President who is priming his supporters to believe the election will be stolen. (4) This is a recipe for more violence not less...
(2) But...the countries most at risk of violence are democracies with winner-take-all elections, deeply divided by race, religion, or ethnicity, and distrust of the election process...
Some thoughts on Saturday's attempted assassination of Donald Trump: (1) Violence surrounding elections have been common throughout the world, just not in advanced industrialized countries like the US...
My latest @thetimes podcast with @ManveenRana and @bfwalter: How America could descend into civil war 👀 scary stuff The Story | Acast https://t.co/SFI7yN3BcF
With mounting casualties, an expanding humanitarian crisis, and rising global political tensions, the question of how the Israel-Hamas war might end is on everyone’s mind.
Listen now: https://t.co/eccbAj6cU5