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Paul Starr @starrprospect.bsky.social · Jul 31

We’ve lost any effective deterrent to presidential malfeasance.

The Reconstruction Era added 3 amendments. The Progressive Era brought 3 democratizing amendments too. I propose a package of three, including “The President Is Not Above the Law Amendment.” Read about it here: tinyurl.com/yunb54ab

The Premature Guide to Post-Trump Reform

American history offers three general strategies of repair and renewal.

tinyurl.com

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Paul Starr @starrprospect.bsky.social · Jul 31

…by enabling justices to retire only when a president of their party is in office. We need to set term limits for the justices.

Third, Trump has demonstrated problems that lie in the Constitution itself, like an unqualified pardon power. The Court’s immunity decision has emboldened Trump …

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Paul Starr @starrprospect.bsky.social · Jul 31

Much of this would codify what previously were taken-for-granted norms. Post-Trump would partly be Post-Watergate II.

The second level involves changes in the Supreme Court. Lifetime appointments create the potential for a self-perpetuating majority …

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Paul Starr @starrprospect.bsky.social · Jul 31

In “The Premature Guide to Post-Trump Reform,” tinyurl.com/yunb54ab
I set out three levels of reform: change in the law, the Supreme Court, and the Constitution.

The first, modeled on post-Watergate reforms, calls for efforts to curb presidential aggrandizement through new legislation …

The Premature Guide to Post-Trump Reform

American history offers three general strategies of repair and renewal.

tinyurl.com

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Paul Starr @starrprospect.bsky.social · Jul 31

Out today @prospect.org “Trump has shown how vulnerable [we are] … authoritarian rule when the president is contemptuous of [constitutional] norms, Congress is under his thumb, and the Court is an accomplice.” What to do? Here you go: “The Premature Guide to Post-Trump Reform” tinyurl.com/yunb54ab

The Premature Guide to Post-Trump Reform

American history offers three general strategies of repair and renewal.

tinyurl.com

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Paul Starr @starrprospect.bsky.social · Apr 5

Read this brilliant article by the historian Tara Zahra explaining how today’s right-wing reaction against trade and immigration recapitulates the first crisis of globalization in the early 20th century. Proud that Tara began her career at @theprospect.bsky.social

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/05/o...

Opinion | Globalization Is Collapsing. Brace Yourselves.

The world was just as intertwined 100 years ago, and its unraveling was a disaster. Can we avoid the same outcome?

www.nytimes.com

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Paul Starr @starrprospect.bsky.social · Mar 23

Important article by Aziz Huq on the U.S. following the path of Nazi Germany toward a “dual state”—partly rule of law, partly rule by prerogative (dictatorship).

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

America Is Watching the Rise of a Dual State

For most people, the courts will continue to operate as usual—until they don’t.

www.theatlantic.com

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Paul Starr @starrprospect.bsky.social · Mar 11

We need a new #proCanada movement to support Canada, to buy Canadian, to vacation in Canada, to express Americans’ long admiration of Canada, friendship with Canada, appreciation of Canadian decency and neighborliness, in contrast to the imperial lunacy driving the US today.

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Paul Starr @starrprospect.bsky.social · Mar 10

Thank you for reminding me about that old piece. It’s still true now. And, yes, it would be great to get new data on public perceptions of Social Security’s overhead costs and the realities.

Dan Ancona @danancona.bsky.social · Mar 8

Fuckin crazy man. Holds up amazingly well, absolutely still a banger. But we are going to get an update on that polling for you. 1981, sheeesh!

bsky.app/profile/dana...

Dan Ancona @danancona.bsky.social · Mar 8

Due to the @theprospect.bsky.social's excellent archives, the 2005 @starrprospect.bsky.social article that radicalized me is very much available. And it's still fully a banger! I'd had a STRONG sense that Republicans were full of shit on the economy but this argument kind of blew it open for me:

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Paul Starr @starrprospect.bsky.social · Feb 25

Are Denmark’s Social Democrats winning because they made one strategic decision—to keep immigration at lower levels than other European countries and the US? Check out this piece by David Leonhardt of the NY Times.

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/24/m...

How Denmark’s Social Democrats Are Succeeding With Stricter Immigration Policies

Around the world, progressive parties have come to see tight immigration restrictions as unnecessary, even cruel. What if they’re actually the only way for progressivism to flourish?

www.nytimes.com

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Paul Starr @starrprospect.bsky.social · Feb 21

Will Trump politicize or privatize the Postal Service? I’ll bet on politicize. Privatization would result in heavy cutbacks and higher rates in rural areas and small towns that vote Republican. They’re just not profitable to serve. But politicizing the post office—that’s the oldest graft in the US.

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Paul Starr @starrprospect.bsky.social · Feb 21

Cancel culture with real power.

Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · Feb 21

Asking questions about DOGE is a thoughtcrime on Musk's X.

Jamie Dupree @jamiedupree.bsky.social · Feb 21

Over on X, simple tweets by my colleague Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal Constitution have been blocked. They were nothing but video of a town hall held by Rep. Rich McCormick R-GA where he was asked questions about DOGE

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Paul Starr @starrprospect.bsky.social · Feb 20

Such an adorable poodle. Putin has him well trained for the coming surrender.

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Paul Starr @starrprospect.bsky.social · Feb 20

Trump’s polling numbers are slipping as he pursues unpopular policies. It’s what happened the first time around, but this will be worse. Prediction: He will end up the most hated president in American history, a stain on America’s good name.

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Analysis | Trump’s honeymoon is over

New polling shows Trump’s approval declining — and a number of major warning signs appearing.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Paul Starr @starrprospect.bsky.social · Feb 12

On the loss of a model of intellectual integrity and courage—Christopher Jencks. He showed us how to wade into troubled waters and come out the stronger for it.
@theprospect.bsky.social prospect.org/health/2025-...

The Exemplary Radical Skeptic

Christopher Jencks, one of the Prospect’s founding group, has died.

prospect.org

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Paul Starr @starrprospect.bsky.social · Feb 10

Imagine if we had done this to the Hungarians who fled their country in 1956 or the Cubans who later fled Castro. Trump’s decision to end TPS for Venezuelans is a betrayal of the Republican Party’s own traditions. And of the trust Venezuelans placed in him.

www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

Venezuelans backed Trump. Now some worry he’ll deport them.

Venezuelans in the Miami suburb of Doral have been some of Trump’s biggest proponents. Many feel betrayed after he revoked temporary protected status for thousands.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Paul Starr @starrprospect.bsky.social · Feb 9

@jimrutenberg.bsky.social: Trump’s attacks on media resemble Nixon’s. But the context then was different: a Democratic Congress whose hearings validated reporting on Watergate, and a Supreme Court that reliably defended press freedom. Outcome now much less certain.

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/b...

Trump’s Blueprint for Bending the Media Has Nixon Written All Over It

The president’s heavy-handed approach to traditional journalists has the hallmarks of an attempted crackdown 50 years ago.

www.nytimes.com

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Paul Starr @starrprospect.bsky.social · Feb 7

The Republican adherence to federalism is like the Republican adherence to balanced budgets. Federalism and balanced budgets just apply to the Democrats, not to themselves. Limits for thee, not for us.

Paul Starr @starrprospect.bsky.social · Feb 7

Now we can see clearly what should have been clear before: Republican support for federalism and denunciations of federal power have been a matter of expediency rather than principle. With Trump, they gave up federalism without a peep: www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/u...

Trump’s Power Grab Defies G.O.P. Orthodoxy on Local Control

New York City traffic. California water rules. Middle school sports. Few local policies are outside the reach of Donald J. Trump’s federal government.

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Paul Starr

Michael A. Cohen @speechboy71.bsky.social · Feb 7

My first post here at Blue Sky ... Trump is doing terrible things every day, but the wholesale destruction of USAID is by far the worst and potentially catastrophic ... truthandcons.substack.com/p/the-destru...

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Paul Starr @starrprospect.bsky.social · Feb 7

Now we can see clearly what should have been clear before: Republican support for federalism and denunciations of federal power have been a matter of expediency rather than principle. With Trump, they gave up federalism without a peep: www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/u...

Trump’s Power Grab Defies G.O.P. Orthodoxy on Local Control

New York City traffic. California water rules. Middle school sports. Few local policies are outside the reach of Donald J. Trump’s federal government.

www.nytimes.com

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Paul Starr @starrprospect.bsky.social · Feb 7

Day by day, Trump is clarifying things for the many voters in 2024 who refused to take seriously his announced intentions. The opposition will grow.

prospect.org/politics/202...

2024’s Foreseeable Unforeseens

What many refused to see in the last election becomes clearer day by day.

prospect.org

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Paul Starr @starrprospect.bsky.social · Feb 5

Another day, another insanity: Think of all the time and energy lost to all of us now that, once again, we have to attend to this man’s stupid and vicious ideas.

www.cnn.com/2025/02/04/p...

Trump says US will ‘take over’ Gaza Strip and doesn’t rule out using American troops | CNN Politics

President Donald Trump on Tuesday said the United States “will take over” the Gaza Strip — possibly with the help of American troops — while the Palestinians who live there should leave, a stunning pr...

www.cnn.com

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Paul Starr @starrprospect.bsky.social · Feb 3

CNN reports polling data showing a majority of the public against Trump’s tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China — and that’s before they’re hit with price increases, and before many people understand the damage to the US auto industry.

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Paul Starr @starrprospect.bsky.social · Feb 2

I see headlines like this—“Tariffs will shut down North American auto production within a week, industry warns”—and wonder, just how does the political payoff from Trump’s tariffs work?

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Paul Starr @starrprospect.bsky.social · Feb 2

Amid all the bleak assessments, read Ezra Klein’s counterintuitive analysis: “Trump is acting like a king because he is too weak to govern like a president. … He is trying to overwhelm you … to persuade you of something that isn’t true. Don’t believe him.” www.nytimes.com/2025/02/02/o...

Opinion | Don’t Believe Him

Look closely at the first two weeks of Donald Trump’s second term and you’ll see something very different than what he wants you to see.

www.nytimes.com

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