Adam Bonica
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adambonica.bsky.social
Adam Bonica
@adambonica.bsky.social

Professor of Political Science at Stanford | Exploring money in politics, campaigns and elections, ideology, the courts, and inequality | Author of The Judicial Tug of War cup.org/2LEoMrs | https://data4democracy.substack.com .. more

Economics 26%
Political science 24%
Pinned
Study after study shows campaign ads barely move the needle. So where does money’s real power come from? I ranked the five ways money corrupts politics—from least to most corrosive. What I’ve learned from 15 years of tracking political money:
Money Doesn't Buy Elections. It Does Something Worse.
Campaign ads barely move the needle. The real influence is hiding in plain sight.
open.substack.com

“Patriotism and loving America, whether in journalism or politics, does not mean ignoring some of this country’s biggest problems, from racism to income inequality to an authoritarian president.”
"We love America" is one of the mantras of Bari Weiss' CBS News. "Unapologetically patriotic" is the term the Washington Post's newly right-wing editorial board uses for its ethos. But "America" isn't billionaires/Trump and good journalism isn't always patriotic. newrepublic.com/article/2049...
Bari Weiss Is Dead Wrong—Good Journalism Isn’t About Being Pro-America
The CBS boss and her new evening anchor have released new “principles.” Among them: “We Love America.” They have no understanding of journalism—but they sure know where their bread is buttered.
newrepublic.com
@indivisible.org FYI found a scam PAC that's probably stealing a copyright from you www.no-kings.io
No Kings PAC
www.no-kings.io
"We love America" is one of the mantras of Bari Weiss' CBS News. "Unapologetically patriotic" is the term the Washington Post's newly right-wing editorial board uses for its ethos. But "America" isn't billionaires/Trump and good journalism isn't always patriotic. newrepublic.com/article/2049...
Bari Weiss Is Dead Wrong—Good Journalism Isn’t About Being Pro-America
The CBS boss and her new evening anchor have released new “principles.” Among them: “We Love America.” They have no understanding of journalism—but they sure know where their bread is buttered.
newrepublic.com

It is also a story of race and privilege. There is a through line from reconstruction to Jan 6. From @hakeemjefferson.bsky.social and @victorerikray.bsky.social.
White Backlash Is A Type Of Racial Reckoning, Too
For more coverage of the Jan. 6 attack, read our collection of essays and reflections examining where we are as a country one year later, including what has — a…
fivethirtyeight.com

The aftermath of Jan 6 is a story of power protecting power and a deep-seated reluctance to holding elites accountable.

America has constructed two justice systems: one offering extraordinary leniency for the elite, the other operating with swift severity for the disadvantaged.
An Exceptional Failure of Democratic Accountability: How American Institutions Protected Power While Global Democracies Upheld Justice
How Elite Deference Eroded America's Rule of Law, Defying the Global Norm.
open.substack.com
It's not just Trump --- state legislators who actively and openly undermined free and fair elections faced spotty accountability (at best) in the wake of their physical participation in the Jan 6th insurrection

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Fascism may not invariably lead to war, but it invariably makes war sound reasonable, inevitable, and costless.
TAPPER: Can you rule out the US is going to take Greenland by force?

MILLER: Greenland should be part of the US. By what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland? The US is the power of NATO

T: So force is on the table?

M: Nobody is gonna fight the US militarily over future of Greenland
The failure of our elites to hold Trump accountable for January 6th is as disgraceful as what happened on that awful day.

Since 2010, 35 democratic leaders around the world have been criminally convicted. Only Trump went unpunished and unconstrained.

Now he threatens democracy at home and abroad.
TAPPER: Can you rule out the US is going to take Greenland by force?

MILLER: Greenland should be part of the US. By what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland? The US is the power of NATO

T: So force is on the table?

M: Nobody is gonna fight the US militarily over future of Greenland

Uncertainty abounds, but historical precedent suggests the Chavista regime will respond by arresting opposition leaders as it reframes itself as a defender of sovereignty against foreign aggression.

Democracy rarely emerges from external deposition of leaders or sudden power vacuums.

It emerges from negotiated exits with guarantees and credible domestic opposition to corrupt or repressive regimes.

This intervention actively undermines both.

When a gang leader takes out a rival to seize turf, no one pretends it’s justified just because the rival was awful.

Trump said he did it for the oil. Why is the media foregrounding humanitarian motives?
BASH: There's no question that Maduro was a destabilizing force in the region. People are celebrating in the streets all over. Is it fair to say there's some benefit in him not being in power?

CHRIS MURPHY: What changes? You just heard Sen. Cotton not be able to explain who's running the country

It might be a coincidence, but I’m afraid it might be a tell.

6/21/25: Windmill rant ➡️ Bombs Iranian nuclear sites.

1/2/26: Windmill rant ➡️ Invades Venezuela/Captures Maduro.
BASH: There's no question that Maduro was a destabilizing force in the region. People are celebrating in the streets all over. Is it fair to say there's some benefit in him not being in power?

CHRIS MURPHY: What changes? You just heard Sen. Cotton not be able to explain who's running the country

Another downside of spending ungodly amounts on the military is that you become prone to doing the things like this. It’s the international equivalent of leaving loaded assault rifles scattered around your house.

And if you’re thinking at least the billionaires will have to pay taxes, I’ve got bad news for you…
Buy, Borrow, Die: How Billionaires Legally Avoid Paying Taxes While the Rest of Us Can't
A Step-by-Step Guide to How the Ultra-Wealthy Minimize Their Tax Burden While Their Fortunes Multiply
open.substack.com

The top 15 billionaires got $1T richer in 2025.

Remember the all the handwringing that stimulus checks were too generous and ruined the economy?

If we’d sent that $1T to households instead, total stimulus would’ve exceeded all 3 pandemic check rounds combined.

How is this the responsible option?

The windmills kept turning in La Mancha. They’ll keep turning here.

I wrote more about this (including a link to the data) here: data4democracy.substack.com/p/tilting-at...
Tilting at Progress
Combining data analysis and a 400-year-old novel to make sense of Trump’s obsession with windmills.
data4democracy.substack.com

Cervantes wrote Don Quixote as satire four centuries ago. And here we are watching a confidently wrong man charge at windmills because he cannot accept a modern world that threatens his fantasy of the past.

Sound familiar? In 2020, Trump’s own aides told him plainly: you lost the election. “Those are just windmills.” Trump couldn’t accept it. So he sent Rudy Giuliani to Four Seasons Total Landscaping to declare that dark forces had conjured his win into a loss at the last moment.

In the famous scene, Quixote charges the windmills. He’s thrown from his horse and hurt. Does he rethink his beliefs? No. He instead says an enchanter must have turned the giants into windmills at the last second to steal his glorious victory.

We use “tilting at windmills” casually to mean fighting imaginary enemies. But Cervantes had something more specific in mind.

Quixote isn’t imagining things that aren’t there. He sees the windmills. He’s simply refusing to accept what they are.

This is where Don Quixote comes in. It’s about a man who can’t accept the modern world as it is, so he recasts it as something he can heroically fight against.

In early 17th-century Spain, windmills were high technology. They represented progress and modernity.

Here’s a breakdown of the names and accusations he's hurled at windmills (my fav: "bird cemetery").

In his telling, they cause cancer, ruin communities, destroy countries, and murder countless bald eagles and whales.

Which is a shame, because he also doesn't believe they produce electricity.

This is my first (and likely only) thread combining data and literary analysis of a 17th Century satire. When Trump rages against windmills, it’s deeply weird but even more so that it parallels Don Quixote. I've been tracking data on his windmill statements. Lately, he's really been tilting. 🧵

I wrote this in a dark moment after Trump’s 2nd inauguration to signal hope. It aged well. Those rays are getting brighter. And I have an even better feeling about 2026.
Years of studying American politics taught me this: In times of political turmoil, focus on democracy's rays of hope. Do everything you can to keep them lit. They may soon shine like the sun—and sooner than we might expect.

Reposted by Henry Jones

Despite what we are often told, this line from Mamdani’s inauguration speech is what true pragmatism actually looks like:

“Beginning today, we will govern expansively and audaciously. We may not always succeed. But never will we be accused of lacking the courage to try.”

Reposted by Daniel Ziblatt

What the data revealed about American democracy in 2025. And a path forward for 2026.
On Data and Democracy 2025 Year-in-Review Visualized
Tracing the money, the ideological purges, the strategic debates, and the court battles: A visual deep-dive into the data of 2025 and charting an empirical roadmap for a more resilient democracy.
open.substack.com
"We are going to win against Donald Trump, but we have a much bigger victory that we need to be aiming for. We need to Reconstruct this country," writes @adamgurri.liberalcurrents.com. www.liberalcurrents.com/we-are-going...
We Are Going to Win
Trump's revolution will fail, but we still have a long and painful road ahead of us.
www.liberalcurrents.com