Michael Evans
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mevanspolisci.bsky.social
Michael Evans
@mevanspolisci.bsky.social

I teach & conduct political science research, seeking a healthier democracy.

Communication & Media Studies 27%
Education 25%

The panel (which I'm helping organize) features 2 CDC scientists who will critique the book’s arguments. No serious critic has disputed that it raises credible concerns. The aim is not to endorse it, but to engage seriously and critically with its ideas. I hope you will join.
Where America stands, one year after the election.

A fascistic movement controls the government; they are building an authoritarian state; but they have not been able yet to extend authoritarian rule across society. A democracy no more, but not a consolidated autocratic regime yet.

New piece:
Escalation, Authoritarian “Normalization,” or a Democratic Turnaround?
One year after the election: What we can say with certainty about the state of the Trumpist assault, where uncertainty lies, and where America might go from here
steady.page
America has no idea what's about to hit them. "Young Republicans" are fully steeped in neo-Nazi edge lord talking points. Fuentes is the present and future of the GOP. After Trump, this is the new form of MAGA. The establishment isn't built for this fight.

www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
The Firewall Against Nick Fuentes Is Crumbling
The white-supremacist influencer is entering the MAGA mainstream.
www.theatlantic.com
“We cannot go back to anything approaching the old constitutional order, which already had been in a long, terminal decline.” www.liberalcurrents.com/the-american...
The American Presidency Can Never Be Trusted Again
It’s time for multiparty democracy and a limited executive.
www.liberalcurrents.com
I jump into the moderation debate. I agree with @adambonica.bsky.social and @gelliottmorris.com on the methodology, but I want to draw attention to a bigger issue. The collapse of candidate effects generally.
leedrutman.substack.com/p/the-modera...
Trump in July, on the WH $250MM ballroom project:

“It won’t interfere with the current building.... It’ll be near it but not touching it — and pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of."

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
No institutional design can overcome a lawbreaking president, a Congress defending lawbreaking and forfeiting its own power, a Supreme Court that pretends legal text doesn’t count to facilitate lawbreaking, and a citizenry that votes for all that.
Need at least one that wants rule of law. Maybe two.

Reposted by Michael Evans

To his great credit
“Oklahomans would lose their mind if Pritzker in Illinois sent troops down to Oklahoma during the Biden administration.”

The Republican chair of the National Governors Association breaks with Trump.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/u...
Oklahoma’s Republican Governor Criticizes National Guard Deployment in Chicago
www.nytimes.com

This will be a great discussion with my colleague, @jennifermccoy.bsky.social. Hope you can join us!
Join Georgia SSN for the first webinar in their "Defending U.S. Democracy" webinar series with
@jennifermccoy.bsky.social, moderated by @bernardtamas.bsky.social!

📅 Tues, Oct. 14
🕓 4pm - 5:15pm

🔗 Register for the event now: scholars.my.salesforce-sites.com/event/home/d...
Join Georgia SSN for the first webinar in their "Defending U.S. Democracy" webinar series with
@jennifermccoy.bsky.social, moderated by @bernardtamas.bsky.social!

📅 Tues, Oct. 14
🕓 4pm - 5:15pm

🔗 Register for the event now: scholars.my.salesforce-sites.com/event/home/d...
I wrote back in June that Trump is essentially attempting a Little Rock 1957 deployment only this time for white people, and he just tweeted it out
smotus.substack.com/p/welcome-to...
Who is going to pay for all this slop?
Sora 2 Has a Huge Financial Problem
How will OpenAI stop Sora 2 from burning through cash as users generate countless resource-intensive AI videos?
futurism.com
Gifting this one: interesting, important read on how the USA shook off authoritarianism of 1920s. Yes cataclysm is part of it.
But bolstering the WEB Duboises & Sidney Hillmans of today?
Pushing Grand Experiments for democracy?
BRING IT ON.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/o...
Opinion | How to Save the American Experiment
www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Michael Evans

Back in 2016 I wrote a chapter called "The President as Minority Leader" in a volume on the just-concluded election (link in next post). Feeling pretty good about that early conclusion...
all presidential administrations are partisan, but trump and the people in his white house are partisans bordering on sectarians, and one result is that they see nothing of actions that strain and weaken the union itself
Trump targets states that voted for Harris in shutdown fight
The Office of Management and Budget is withholding billions in energy and infrastructure money in more than a dozen states that voted against Trump.
www.politico.com
all presidential administrations are partisan, but trump and the people in his white house are partisans bordering on sectarians, and one result is that they see nothing of actions that strain and weaken the union itself
Trump targets states that voted for Harris in shutdown fight
The Office of Management and Budget is withholding billions in energy and infrastructure money in more than a dozen states that voted against Trump.
www.politico.com

Reposted by Michael Evans

NEW: How fusion voting—an American tradition allowing candidates to appear on multiple party ballot lines—can bolster efforts to reform our broken politics. It's time to revive this pathway to better representation. Summary is threaded plus full report is 🔗: protectdemocracy.org/work/fusion-...
The president said, in a televised speech, that he's sending his new, less restrained, more violent military into US cities to practice their brutality on immigrants and minorities, to better train them to apply that brutality to other countries.

He said this out loud.
The president just gathered the highest ranking officers in the military to tell them that he may order them to kill American citizens -- and that they better follow his orders. All in response to a series of crises that have no basis in reality.

I don't know how to yell any louder.
I’m opening a movie theater in which I show recently released films that I ripped from the internet but the studios are welcome to opt out if they wish.
Exclusive: OpenAI is planning to release a new version of its Sora video generator, which creates videos featuring copyrighted material unless copyright holders opt out of having their work appear.
OpenAI’s New Sora Video Generator to Require Copyright Holders to Opt Out
Executives at the startup notified talent agencies and studios over the last week.
on.wsj.com
Exclusive: OpenAI is planning to release a new version of its Sora video generator, which creates videos featuring copyrighted material unless copyright holders opt out of having their work appear.
OpenAI’s New Sora Video Generator to Require Copyright Holders to Opt Out
Executives at the startup notified talent agencies and studios over the last week.
on.wsj.com

Awesome. Can't wait to read it!

This seems really relevant. Have you looked at which podcasts are being cited?

Reposted by Michael Evans

This is really fucking bad.

Reposted by Michael Evans

That’s what makes this so scary: Any assumption of democratic resilience was predicated on the idea that civil society actors with enormous resources at their disposal and the law on their side – universities, law firms, media companies… – would push back. But so many simply won’t, or not anymore.
This is why they’re deleting studies

Reposted by Michael Evans

BREAKING: Touching the stove is bad

Reposted by Michael Evans

Reposted by Michael Evans

More independent media please

If only I could have that much influence — malevolent or otherwise.