Michael Podhorzer

Stunning charts show how disproportionately the Roberts Court favors the Trump regime.

"This pattern exemplifies what scholars call 'autocratic legalism'—the systematic weaponization of legal institutions to consolidate power while maintaining the appearance of legal process."

Adam Bonica @adambonica.bsky.social

Been a busy year in the data mines.📊 Just published my mid-year roundup: 29 data visualizations on the state of US democracy, tracking everything from judicial resistance to billionaire influence to why Dems have a mobilization crisis, not a moderation problem. All charts free to use:

On Data and Democracy (Mid-Year Roundup): Charting the Assault on American Democracy and A Path Forward

A narrative of a democracy in the balance, told through 29 data visualizations.

My new deep dive on how Trump “won” the popular vote.

I put “won” in quotes because it wasn’t his win, but Harris’s loss. The results were not a “swing right” embracing Trump/MAGA, but a vote of no confidence in Democrats (and in our system as a whole).

www.weekendreading.net/p/how-trump-...

How Trump “Won”

The Anesthetized Anti-MAGA Majority

Black voter participation soared right after the VRA passed in 1965.

But not until 1992, after Congress strengthened the VRA to require majority-minority districts, did we start getting closer to proportional Black representation in Congress.

Because Black votes finally counted more in the South.

Are we on the brink of a constitutional crisis? No—we’re already in one, and have been for two decades.

Here, I explain how even progressive legal experts have enabled this coup, and how we can start to reclaim our own power to decide constitutional meaning.

www.weekendreading.net/p/the-courts...

The Courts Will Not Save Us

We must resist the learned helplessness of judicial supremacy.

RIP VRA, 1968-2026.

RIP all of the civil rights leaders who were murdered while fighting for the rights it secured.

www.weekendreading.net/p/americas-s...

Trump is already following Viktor Orban's autocratic playbook. Read @normeisen.bsky.social and @kimlanelaw.bsky.social on how America can respond: www.nytimes.com/2025/01/15/o...

Opinion | Are We Sleepwalking Into Autocracy? (Gift Article)

What we can learn from countries that have pushed back on threats to democracy.

Alito and Thomas have made clear their insurrectionist connections. So why are we debating whether Alito should recuse himself, instead of demanding Roberts dismiss Trump’s immunity appeal so the J6 trial can begin immediately? (It should be “dismissed as improvidently granted.")

1/ Here's what we too rarely talk about when a man seeking high office is credibly accused of sexual misconduct. Platner, Swalwell, Kavanaugh, Thomas—these men almost always have the option to keep the allegations private.

They almost never take it.

"The strategy here is to break the law in the open, over and over, until the law itself appears broken, ineffectual, and incapable of delivering consequences."
[email protected]

contrarian.substack.com/p/welcome-to...

Welcome To Postmodern Authoritarianism

On the urgent importance--for those of us who still hold out hope for the idea of America--not to give up on democracy or its language

Elon Musk’s ransacking of our government, including threats to the Department of Labor, should remind us:

Taking out unions is one of the first pages in the autocratic coup playbook.

It's why we need strong unions now more than ever.

contrarian.substack.com/p/the-one-si...

The one single, proven constraint on oligarchy and autocracy

By Michael Podhorzer

An incredibly important story is flying under the radar: There’s enough support in Congress to force a vote on a bill to restore the union rights for federal workers that Trump took away with an executive order.

Why is it so important?

AFL-CIO @aflcio.org

Trump’s executive order stripping bargaining rights from federal workers was union-busting—but we have the bill AND the votes to fix it. We urge every member of Congress to sign the discharge petition to get the Protect America’s Workforce Act to a vote. aflcio.org/press/releas...

On MLK Day, let’s remember the civil rights leaders who were murdered in the effort to pass the Voting Rights Act, which Antonin Scalia dismissed as a “racial entitlement” that was too difficult to get out of “through the normal political processes”—processes the Roberts Court happily disregarded.

Many now understand that Trump’s attacks on judges, law firms, universities, non-profit groups, and the media are all related—all part of a fascist power grab.

Missing from that list? Unions.

A detailed inventory of Trump’s attacks on working people, and how unions are fighting back:

The Trump Regime’s War on Working People: The First 100 Days

How Unions are Resisting Authoritarian Attacks on Workers’ Rights—and Why It Matters for Everyone

Crucial data from @adambonica.bsky.social - and completely foreseeable - www.weekendreading.net/p/the-courts...

The Courts Will Not Save Us

We must resist the learned helplessness of judicial supremacy.

Adam Bonica @adambonica.bsky.social

Since May: Federal district courts have ruled against Trump admin 94% of the time. Supreme Court has sided with the Trump admin 94% of the time. A judiciary at war with itself.

Americans support labor over big business more now than at any time on record. @epi.org

www.epi.org/blog/america...

Trump is now doing almost precisely what he said he would—and voters hate it.

This is compelling evidence of the catastrophic failure of not just Democratic campaign professionals, but also civil society and the media, to effectively inform voters of the consequences of the choice before them.

The Re-Emerging Anti-MAGA Majority

If voters had known in November what they know now—which could and should have been possible—Trump would have lost.

Trump's bad polls tell us less about Trump than about the catastrophic failure of not just Dems, but also civil society and the media, to effectively inform voters of the consequences of their choice.

Trump is now doing almost exactly what he said he would. www.weekendreading.net/p/the-re-eme...

Trump’s executive order canceling federal workers’ union contracts isn't just anti-labor—it's an authoritarian move, like attacks on media & courts.

History proves dismantling unions is core to consolidating authoritarian power. We can't overlook this. (Thread) bit.ly/4lpwEcv

Oligarchs Understand Power. Do We?

Unions make us strong.

It was great to join @dahlialithwick.bsky.social on Amicus again to connect the oligarchic capture of SCOTUS (the Roberts Court) to the mess we’re in today.

Without it, there’s no Trump-Musk feud, no second Trump term, and much more. 🧵
slate.com/podcasts/ami...

How The Roberts Court Built the Foundations For The Trump-Musk Feud

The project to demolish the New Deal reaches its apex one hundred years later with an intra-billionaire spat.

When Trump clapped John Roberts on the shoulder and thanked him on Tuesday, it wasn't just for shielding him from prosecution—he was acknowledging the man who had quietly created the conditions that made his re-election and Elon Musk’s co-presidency possible.

contrarian.substack.com/p/theres-not...

There's Nothing Supreme About the Roberts Court

Today’s radical decisions have been delivered exclusively by justices handpicked through a pipeline designed to ensure ideological loyalty to corporate and religious elites

Reply to @mikepod.bsky.social

It’s no wonder the three branches of government no longer check each other. The Roberts Court, Trump, and the Republican House/Senate caucuses are all on the same team—shadows of the same shadowcasters.

This weekend's episode of Amicus with @dahlialithwick.bsky.social and @whitehouse.senate.gov is well worth your time.

As Whitehouse put it, what was done to our democracy **was done**, and can be undone.

slate.com/news-and-pol...

This Is the Most Inspiring Thing I’ve Heard About Democracy at the Supreme Court in Ages

It’s not every day that a political leader talking about the state of U.S. democracy is able to hit two tricky notes at the same time: realism and hope.

During the 2024 campaign, Trump and his MAGA allies did not hide their intentions towards immigrants like Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

But media, pollsters, and consultants did—minimizing or outright ignoring Trump's explicit threats in an effort to avoid accusations of bias, partisanship, or alarmism.

From “Deportation” to Abduction

How the media and consultant class’s poll-washing enabled the abduction of Kilmar Abrego Garcia—and what comes next

Our neighbors are being held in concentration camps. Some might resist calling them that, but it's the historically correct term.

Thousands of people abducted based on their identity and held without due process.

Any other term whitewashes what's really happening. @anatosaurus.bsky.social

Yes, Virginia, There Is an Appetite to Fight Fascism

Redistricting, saying "concentration camps," and more on "Meeting the Moment" with Anat Shenker-Osorio