A 21st-century declaration of independence

We need to talk about Twitter. If Topline’s audience is reflective of the American population in general, there’s a good chance many of our readers don’t use Twitter regularly, if at all. But if, like me and millions of others, you are a Twitter user, it’s getting harder and harder to ignore the elephant in the room—Elon Musk. I was agnostic toward Musk for a long time, with neither a favorable nor unfavorable view of him. But over the past year, and especially since he took over at Twitter, he has revealed himself as more than just another wealthy businessman who likes to say controversial things (sounds familiar, doesn’t it?). Musk calls himself a champion of “free speech,” and I don’t doubt he truly believes that. But believing in freedom of speech, as most of us do, and going out of one’s way to empower and amplify those who spread conspiracies and hate are two very different things. It’s hard to imagine that Musk is simply a social media neophyte who doesn’t realize what he is doing. And the effect is real—since he took over the company in October, antisemitic content has spiked on the platform. No executive should be proud of that metric. Like it or hate it, Twitter plays a role, along with other forms of media, in driving the national mood and agenda. So far, Musk’s impact on them leaves much to be desired. —Melissa Amour, Managing Editor

• U.S. finalizing plans to send Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine —CNN

• Biden signs bill to protect same-sex and interracial marriages —Axios

• FTX's Bankman-Fried charged by U.S. for ‘scheme’ to defraud —Associated Press

• Inflation slowed in November, offering relief for consumers —ABC News

• Second journalist dies while covering Qatar World Cup —The Daily Beast

Will 2023 be the year of the independent?

Maybe. Recent signs point to a growing movement toward political independence in the U.S. In a poll from Quinnipiac University, 35% of respondents identified as politically independent and 12% as “other,” for a total of 47%. That compares to 26% as Republicans and 27% as Democrats. Other positive signs: the success of ranked-choice voting initiatives and more moderate, independent-minded candidates in the midterm elections last month. “I don’t think we can predict how the growing disenchantment with the two incumbent parties will ultimately play out,” says Bill King, the author of  “Unapologetically Moderate.” “But independent voters are sending a message loud and clear. The status quo is not acceptable.” —RealClearPolitics

• The two parties should take notice. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema quitting the Democratic Party last week and joining the burgeoning rolls of independent Americans was more evidence of change. Though Sinema may have her own reasons—and will unlikely spark a mass exodus—“Democrats and Republicans [are] showing early signs of losing their grip on government,” observes columnist Joe Battenfeld. “And the stubborn parties have only themselves to blame. The Democrats and the GOP have failed to reinvent themselves to win back disenfranchised voters.” —Boston Herald

• What have Democrats learned? The Sinema departure has led to very different reactions within the party, from worried consultants urging Democrats to "tolerate" less progressive members of their party who are "reflective of their broader constituents and not only those who cater to the activists that dominate the base,” to outright celebration. "She lays out no goals for Arizonans, no vision, no commitments. It’s 'no healthcare, just vibes' for Senate,” said Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “People deserve more. Grateful this race and nomination has opened up.” —Washington Examiner

• And on the other side? The view isn’t much better on the right. Still licking its wounds from the underwhelming midterms, the GOP remains mired in the very ideology that has cost it so dearly at the ballot box. “If you look at state party organizations, it’s the MAGA strain of Republicanism that’s become dominant,” says former RNC chair Michael Steele. The post-midterm recriminations are a signal that dissent is growing, he says, but there’s little sign that it’s enough to loosen the ex-president’s hold on the party. In other words, same old, same old. —Politico

MORE: Surprise: Both parties are joining hands to prevent another Jan. 6-style coup —The UnPopulist

Wines: The election is over. The battle for voting rights is not

“[J]ockeying for power always goes on beneath the radar of most voters. But in the wake of more direct attacks on democracy by insurrectionists at the U.S. Capitol and by election deniers in last month's vote, the divergent legislative priorities of the two parties—and particularly Republican reliance on restrictive voting measures and supercharged gerrymanders—reflect what has become a ceaseless tug of war over the rules of American politics and governance.” —Michael Wines in The Buffalo News

Michael Wines is a national correspondent for The New York Times and writes about voting and other election-related issues. 

MORE: Philip Bump: Election deniers have to pretend election denial isn’t election denial —The Washington Post

Meadows texts go public

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who exchanged text messages with at least 34 Republican members of Congress as they plotted to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, turned over those messages to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Now, for the first time, they are available to the public as well. The exchanges shed new light on the extent of congressional involvement in the efforts to spread baseless conspiracy theories about Trump’s defeat and subvert the election. The texts are rife with links to far-right websites, questionable legal theories, violent rhetoric, and advocacy for authoritarian power grabs. One standout: On Jan. 17, 2021, Rep. Ralph Norman proposed a dramatic last-ditch plan to stop the inauguration of Joe Biden by having Trump impose martial law during his final hours in office. —Talking Points Memo

MORE JAN. 6 NEWS:

• What the Jan. 6 select committee’s final report will look like —Politico

• Special Counsel Smith speeds ahead on criminal probes surrounding Trump —CNN

• Special counsel subpoenas Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger in Jan. 6 probe —CNN

• Democracy on the ballot—will false electors be investigated? —Brookings Institute

• Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene says if she ran Jan. 6 Capitol attack, 'We would have won' —ABC News

Mockaitis: Extremism becomes an American export 

“Those of us who study extremism have long been aware of how lone wolves influence one another. … The Reichsbűrger plot [in Germany] reveals cross-pollination between groups as well as individuals. Alexander Haeusler, who studies extremism at the University of Applied Sciences in Dusseldorf, told Reuters that ‘the storming of the U.S. Capitol after the last presidential election showed these people that there are options to destroy the state order.’” —Tom Mockaitis in The Hill

Tom Mockaitis is a professor of history at DePaul University and the author of “Violent Extremists: Understanding the Domestic and International Terrorist Threat.” 

MORE: Domestic extremism often starts with online propaganda —ABC News

QElon strikes again

Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s deep dive into the far reaches of the conspiracy right continued on Sunday, when he tweeted that his pronouns are “Prosecute/Fauci,” a reference to chief White House adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci. This time, he provoked more than just the average Twitter user; no less than the White House itself called his tweet “incredibly dangerous” and “disgusting.” The backlash didn’t seem to bother Musk, who has joined Sen. Rand Paul, Rep. Jim Jordan, and others in accusing Fauci of funding gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a lab located in the Chinese city where COVID-19 originated three years ago. House Republicans have repeatedly floated plans to investigate Fauci upon taking the House majority in January. For his part, Musk tweeted yesterday, “The woke mind virus is either defeated or nothing else matters.” —The Hill

MORE: How conspiratorial thinking is undermining democracy, and what we can do about it —Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Dixon: In the fight for democracy, a unifying identity matters

“The bigger challenge for defenders of democracy may be that many people feel their lives have little meaning as traditional communities disintegrate, migrants arrive in their countries, and technology destroys high-status jobs. The strongmen have a ready answer to this identity crisis: so-called ‘traditional values,’ religion or nationalism, and often a combination of all these. … By contrast, liberal democracy is often rational and materialistic. While this caters to important human needs, it does little to ease people’s identity crises. Until democrats provide some answer to this, they will be vulnerable to new waves of autocracy and demagogy.” —Hugo Dixon in Reuters

Hugo Dixon is a British business journalist and the co-founder of the financial commentary website Breakingviews. A visiting fellow at Saïd Business School, Oxford University, he is the great-grandson of former British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill.

MORE: These candidates who ran on democracy prepare to defend it —Los Angeles Times

The real losers of the last few elections, sadly, were voters who allowed themselves to be deluded by candidates who were wholly unqualified. A majority of Americans understood the threat that Donald Trump posed within minutes of his announcing his candidacy in 2015, but that did not stop enough voters from making him president by awarding him an Electoral College victory. On Jan. 6, 2021, a large number of low-information "patriots" expressed their love for the country by chanting, "USA! USA!”…and then vandalizing its Capitol. Most recently, voters in Georgia pretended there was something comparable between the qualifications of Trump-endorsed candidate Herschel Walker and incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock for the office of U.S. senator. Would they want to have brain surgery performed by a butcher?

Until the day they die, whether they admit it or not, they will own the results of their decisions. They made Jan. 6 possible. They made it possible for Trump to prostrate himself before Vladimir Putin in Helsinki. They it made possible for the western world to question the stability of the "Indispensable Nation.” They made it possible for unqualified judges and other hacks to hold office. Unfortunately, many still do not understand the reality of what they have done, as they continue to idolize a man who gleefully thinks of them as new students for Trump University 2.0. —Bill M., Pennsylvania

The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff or the Renew America Foundation.