dwmbarker.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

A major insight of the work of brilliant scholars as disparate as James Scott, C. Thi Nguyen, & @kjhealy.co is that we live in a society governed by metrics, simple countable vessels for making abstract values concrete. Maximizing metrics is something states can do very well, even unto catastrophe

submitted 2 days ago • 6 comments

New (FREE) study from @andrew-whitehead.bsky.social & me @nationsnationalism.bsky.social. Even after accounting for relevant state-level factors, state-level Christian nationalism predicts Trump's vote share in 2024, primarily in states w/fewer college grads. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

Elon’s trying to tank Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill and I am here for it.

submitted 3 days ago • 18 comments

New paper alert! “Beyond Dichotomies: Empathy and Listening in Deliberative Democracy”, coauthored with Katharina Sodoma is now out in Political Communication as part of a special issue edited by @mollyscudder.bsky.social and Michael Neblo #philsky #poltheory www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

New, from me: The Trump administration is already making it easier for partisan political appointees to fire career civil servants. A new policy will also allow them to politicize who is hired into the civil service. The spoils system returns! 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-politi...

submitted 4 days ago • 23 comments

Cis people have no idea just how stupid gender is about to get

submitted 8 days ago • 18 comments

I was happy to contribute to this deep dive into how Orban's attack on higher education has inspired Trump's politics toward universities. Brought to you by @joshuacoe.bsky.social @theworld.org, a public radio program and podcast based in Boston. 👉 Read and listen: theworld.org/stories/2025...

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment

Welcome to authoritarianism, where the laws are enforced against out-groups and political opponents, but waived for in-groups and supporters.

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

Corrupt, gerrymandered government destroys outcomes, Exhibit 34: “Ohio continues to do terribly in nearly every way possible, according to the latest state rankings from the U.S. News & World Report.” t.co/pQcmTx7AnP

submitted 12 days ago • 6 comments

🔴 Russia launched one of its most massive and sustained air attacks on Kyiv overnight. Ukrainian capital was targeted with ballistic missiles and drones in a seven-hour assault that left at least 15 people injured. (1/3)

submitted 14 days ago • 3 comments

The interview with JD Vance by the NY Times today makes it clear why he is irredeemable. Impervious to facts. Morally vacant.

submitted 15 days ago • 9 comments

Wow. Really big crowd in Clermont County tonight. And they are doing the work! Running and organizing everywhere. 2023 showed the potential of winning Ohio, and how these collar counties are a key part of getting there. Trump lost ground here in 2024. Keep organizing and keep running!

submitted 15 days ago • 1 comment

Doesn’t this seem to work against the scope of the immunity ruling last year?

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

At a time when Congress should be checking executive power, and federal courts remain one of the last guardrails keeping the democracy, a single provision in the budget bill would greatly limit the power of federal courts. @davidpepperoh.bsky.social explains this urgent issue.

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

@sarahlongwell25.bsky.social was amazing on today's @kettering.org podcast, can't wait until the second half drops next week.

submitted 17 days ago • 3 comments

Pomona College alumni Corey Brettschneider ’95, professor of political science at Brown University, and Daniel Ziblatt ’95, professor of the science of government at Harvard, spoke on “Understanding the Crisis of Democracy” during Alumni Weekend. www.pomona.edu/news/2025/05...

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

This is extraordinary. The Secretary of Homeland Security doesn’t know what the right of habeas corpus is (the ancient right to go to court to challenge government detention) and offers an incoherent definition which suggests she thinks it’s a presidential power to deport people?

submitted 18 days ago • 92 comments

Dear Friends and Colleagues: I write with great sadness to say that I have had to change my travel plans and will not be able to join you for the conference to which you had so kindly invited me. I will unfortunately be cancelling all planned visits to the USA. /1

submitted 80 days ago • 15 comments

New on our blog: When targeting the nonprofit sector, a common tactic in the authoritarian playbook is to create panic and chaos. Anti-authoritarian activist Yelena V Litvinov offers five steps for civil sector organizations to prepare for adversity. kettering.org/five-steps-t...

submitted 22 days ago • 0 comments

In a powerful piece for @theatlantic.com, @judgeluttig.bsky.social—former federal judge and Kettering Foundation senior fellow—warns that Donald Trump’s ongoing attacks on the Constitution and rule of law pose a grave threat to American democracy.

submitted 23 days ago • 1 comment

I couldn’t write a more eye-opening lecture on race and white identity politics than what this administration is offering in its differential treatment of Afrikaners versus every other refugee or immigrant group.

submitted 25 days ago • 1 comment

🚨 🚨 The University of Toledo recently cancelled nine majors, including: Africana Studies, Disability Studies, Philosophy, Women’s and Gender Studies, Asian Studies, Data Analytics, Middle East Studies, Spanish and Religious Studies. Why? It’s the first wave of a new, draconian law that.. 1/

submitted 23 days ago • 11 comments

share of respondents across 100 countries that have a positive view on xi jinping: 32% vladimir putin: 32% elon musk: 31% donald trump: 27% -2025 democracy index

submitted 24 days ago • 5 comments

With immense pride, the Kettering Foundation announces the first recipients of the Kettering Democracy Prize: Judith Browne Dianis (@jbrownedianis.bsky.social) and the late #AlexeiNavalny.

submitted 24 days ago • 1 comment

Brag, Cave and Crow: Donald Trump's contribution to game theory (written in 2019, but evergreen): peterlevine.ws?p=20882

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

1. Shamefully, the Washington Post Editorial Board has just endorsed the junk-science report put out by RFK Jr's HHS department on trans people. The paper is willing to put science aside when a politically juicy target like transgender people is involved. Subscribe to support real journalism.

submitted 25 days ago • 36 comments

As the patterns of global authoritarianism are playing out in the U.S., now is a critical time to learn from resistance movements around the world. Find out what works from this new Kettering blog series.

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

s-usih.org/2025/05/the-... Savage review by @notoriousrsg.bsky.social: "Little did Steinmetz-Jenkins know that, within a year of its publication, his volume would go from being a triumphant coup-de-grace against the liberal tyrannophobes, to an artifact of the shortest victory lap ever taken. "

submitted 26 days ago • 15 comments

In his first Sunday address at the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV has called for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine. "I carry in my heart the sufferings of the beloved Ukrainian people. Let everything possible be done to achieve genuine, just and lasting peace as soon as possible⤵️

submitted 27 days ago • 21 comments

This is predictable when you put teenagers in charge of the government whose main qualifications is ability to do Grok AI queries

submitted 27 days ago • 1 comment

ok I like the new pope now it's way better than whatever Francis was saying like he admitted that Russia is imperialist

submitted 27 days ago • 2 comments

Allowing so much of the American political map to go uncontested has done great damage to democracy and outcomes. We must bring accountability to uncontested districts, starting at the statehouse level. Today’s newsletter talks about how it’s happening: open.substack.com/pub/davidpep...

submitted 28 days ago • 4 comments

He is like Trump's Goebbels.

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

Mega thread on the new pope. I am sure I did not understand all of it but still feel smarter and slightly more hopeful about things.

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

White South Africa First?

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments