Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder): 1/20. Democracy is precious and exceptional.
Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder): 2/20. Democracy is undone from within rather than from without.
Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder): 3/20. The occasion to undo democracy is often an election.
Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder): 4/20. The mechanism to undo democracy is usually a fake emergency, a claim that internal enemies have done something outrageous.
Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder): 5/20. A tyrant cares about his person, not the Republic.
Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder): 6/20. A tyrant fears prosecution and poverty after leaving office.
Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder): 7/20. Donald Trump faces criminal investigations and owes a billion dollars to creditors.
Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder): 8/20. Donald Trump has said all along that he would ignore the vote count.
Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder): 9/20. What Donald Trump is attempting to do has a name: coup d'état. Poorly organized though it might seem, it is not bound to fail. It must be made to fail.
Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder): 10/20. Coups are defeated quickly or not at all. While they take place we are meant to look away, as many of us are doing. When they are complete we are powerless.
Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder): 11/20. American exceptionalism prevents us from seeing basic truths.
Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder): 12/20. Biden voters are wrong to see a Biden administration as inevitable. Take responsibility, Democrats.
Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder): 13/20. In an authoritarian situation, the election is only round one. You don't win by winning round one.
Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder): 14/20. Peaceful demonstrations after elections are necessary for transitions away from authoritarianism, as in Poland in 1989, Serbia in 1999, or Belarus right now.
Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder): 15/20. It is up to civil society, organized citizens, to defend the vote and to peacefully defend democracy.
Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder): 16/20. Dance after the wedding, not before. Take responsibility, Americans.
Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder): 17/20. Republicans endorsing the claim of fraud endanger the Republic.
Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder): 18/20. Calling an opponent's victory fraudulent risks assassination, as in Poland in 1922.
Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder): 19/20. Creating a myth of a "stab in the back" by internal enemies, as Republicans are helping Trump to do, justifies violence against other citizens, as in interwar Germany.
Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder): 20/20. Persuading your voters that the other side cheated starts a downward spiral. Your voters will expect you to cheat next time. Take responsibility, Republicans.