1/ This is a thoughful reply and allows me to clarify what I mean by "Trumpist", a term I use an insult.
Read on if you care. (The Trumpists who attack me here will obviously continue to misrepresent my views. But they're dishonest anyway. This is for people of good faith.) https://twitter.com/A_E_RUN/status/1338227094510243846

2/ I understand that many out there have voted for/supported Trump because of certain policy positions. They think globalization/illegal immigration/wokeness is out of control; they like his peace deals in the ME; in my world, many like his tough Iran policy; I get all that.

3/ To the extent you're a policy-based voter who supports Trump, I understand you. I disagree w/ you because I think on many issues (e.g. identity politics) Trump has actually made things worse. But that's a normal policy disagreement. I don't think of you as a Trumpist.

4/ In fact, where Trump has been better on policy, I have been willing to say it publicly (often at the cost of a deluge of lies by the #IranLobby calling me a Trump supporter). https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2020/01/14/trumps-iran-policy-is-imperfect-but-he-grasps-truths-obama-missed.html

5/ But Trumpism is something other than policy preferences. Trumpism is a posture. It's an attitude towards others and towards politics. It's a general orientation. It's like that famous story about porn & obscenity: it's hard to define, but you know it when you see it.

6/ It's an attitude of reckless indifference to truth. Like demanding that people acknowledge that your inaguration crowd is the largest in history when they can see with their eyes that that's a lie. Like claiming you saw Muslims celebrate 9/11 in NJ when it's patently untrue.

7/ It's a certain meanness and disdain for the vulnerable. It's making fun of a war hero or a gold star family (when you yourself were too chickenshit to serve.) It's mocking a disabled reporter. It runs against every moral code we have been taught since we were kids.

8/ It's a politics based on racial animus. Like building a political career on the birther conspiracy; like saying that an American judge w/ Mexican parents can't be impartial in your case; saying that your American opponents born in other countries should go back "home".

9/ I personally struggle with how someone can look past all of that just to support the policy positions. But some people (even some very close to me) manage to make their peace with it. Fine.

10/ The Trumpists whom I despise are the people who don't struggle with that stuff at all. They actually think it's wonderful that Trump talks about beating the shit out of protesters. Or mocking the disabled. Or being racist. To them, those things are virtues.

11/ Some of these Trumpist idiots on Iran Twitter have taken to calling those of us who despise Trump 'Bidenists'. It's obviously a ridiculous claim. I, and many other activists, hoped Biden would win not by virtue of any love of Biden, but as a rejection of what Trumpism is.

12/ We've openly acknowledged that Biden's win would make the job of advocating for a free Iran tougher. But you can't call for democracy while also making a hero of a man who spreads election lies, who built a career on a racist lie; and who delights in beating protesters.

13/ Trumpism isn't policy choices. It's essentially a personality cult. It's a (particularly immoral) religion.
I despise dictatorships, like Iran's, because I despise personality cults. And I despise politics based on religion.

/END