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Joe Biden truly went off script last week. In an interview, he declared, "Any Christian person that votes for Republicans hates their religion, they hate everything about the United States, and they should be ashamed of themselves." Then he went further: While at a rally, he declared that the looters who broke into stores and stole property during the George Floyd protests in 2020 were "unbelievable patriots." His outrageous comments sparked front-page headlines across the country and dominated the news for days, with politicians from both parties and commentators across the political spectrum condemning his remarks and wondering aloud if he had the moral character to be president. Many called for him to drop out of the race and even resign the presidency.
Of course, none of that happened. But, no doubt, such a reaction would occur if Biden behaved in that manner. Yet with Trump, the standard rules—of politics, propriety, and human decency—do not apply. Even though we've known this for years, recent events have underscored the perverse reality that he has created and in which we all must now live.
In an interview with his former aide Sebastian Gorka, who had ties to antisemitic military groups in Hungary, Trump leveled a horrific antisemitic charge against a majority of American Jews: "Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion; they hate everything about Israel." At a rally in Dayton, he referred to the thousands of Trump loyalists who attacked law enforcement officers on January 6 as "unbelievable patriots," essentially endorsing the worst act of domestic political violence since the Civil War. Yet none of this has slowed Trump down or diminished his support—or received the same amount of attention as has Biden's age. (Within the punditry universe, there was much chatter about whether Trump's prediction in Dayton of a "bloodbath" should he lose the election was a threat of violence or a reference to an economic disaster. That was a silly debate. At the same event the Republican presidential nominee had enthusiastically embraced the use of political violence with his praise of the J6 brownshirts.)
This was hardly the first time Trump had made an antisemitic or racist comment or signaled acceptance of political violence. He has a long history of spewing "antisemitic tropes," as the Washington Post put it in 2022. (And that was before he had dinner at Mar-a-Lago with Kanye West, the antisemitic rapper, and Nick Fuentes, the white nationalist and Hitler fanboy.) He also has a history of advocating violence and deploying violent rhetoric. And for at least two years he has been saying he will pardon the January 6 rioters.
The net effect is that his outrageous remarks have become less newsworthy. Trump saying something hateful or inciteful is a dog-bites-man story. Sure, some Americans are enraged, but others either cheer him on or simply ignore it. Collectively, we're experiencing Trump Normalization Syndrome. As we—and many in the media—have become desensitized to his demagoguery and abominable conduct, the abhorrent and the aberrant is regarded as routine and treated as such. After all, it's just Trump being Trump. Another day, another affront to democratic values and basic morality.
Once upon a time, when Trump said something scandalous, reporters would fiercely chase Republicans through the halls of Congress in pursuit of a response. In the early Trump years, GOP legislators sometimes offered mild rebukes, rarely voicing anything too strong. As the years went by, they perfected the deaf-dumb-and-blind tactic, falsely claiming they had not seen or heard the latest offensive Trump comment. (Immediately after January 6, GOP leaders did denounce Trump for pushing his lies about the 2020 election and inciting the treasonous assault on the Capitol, but they quickly abandoned this stance when they realized that the Republican base was sticking with Trump.) I have no scientific data to back this up, but it seems that in recent years, reporters no longer press Republicans as hard for reactions to Trump's excesses, and in turn, Republicans feel no obligation to react to the newest Trump atrocity.
One symptom of Trump Normalization Syndrome is that reporters no longer expect party elders to address Trump's transgressions. When GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell was asked at a recent press conference about Trump hailing the January 6 rioters as "patriots," he muttered, "I'm going to avoid talking about the presidential election." And he got away with it; there was not much fuss among the journalists present. And when House Speaker Mike Johnson was questioned about Trump's antisemitic remark regarding Jewish Democrats, he replied, "I understand the sentiment that he's trying to express." The lack of outrage over Johnson's supportive comment was more evidence of TNS. A search turned up almost no reporting of Johnson's response in major US media outlets. Ho-hum.
Conservatives and others used to gripe that the United States was being dumbed down. Now we've been Trumped down. He can amplify the bonkers QAnon conspiracy theory, and it doesn't matter. He can call for suspending the Constitution (so he can be returned to power), and it doesn't matter. And, as you know, there's much more.
Normalization requires amnesia. With Trump, there has been so much misconduct that it's hard for our minds to hold it all. There's an overload of data; we need to dump some of it. And he and his cult followers encourage the forgetting. In recent weeks, Trump and his crew have been boldly asking voters, "Are you better off now than four years ago?" The clear and rationale answer is, are you effin' kidding me, absolutely. Four years ago, we couldn't touch our mail, groceries and toilet paper were hard to come by, millions of jobs were being lost each week, Americans waited in long food lines, bodies piled up in overcrowded hospitals and refrigerated trucks, the health care system was near collapse, we lived in anxiety and fear. And just about every economic indicator is stronger now than it was then.
Yet Trump and his gang believe they can hornswoggle people into thinking that life was not only normal when Trump was president during the pandemic and hundreds of thousands of Americans were dying, it was glorious. This is ridiculous. But this effort at whitewashing a catastrophe—like so much else with Trump—is not widely considered as shocking or disqualifying. Trump has worn down America. Trump Normalization Syndrome, which paves the way for a possible return to power for a narcissistic, hate-fueled, authoritarian demagogue, is a grave threat to the future of the republic.
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S E E D E D C O N T E N T
His hate and ignorance and arrogance and that of his cult is indeed wearing down America - it's becoming commonplace and the norm among the magat.
Maga chant: Don't speak against our great leader.
I think that most of the true Republicans have yielded the field to Trump/MAGA.
I love these stories. You almost have to appreciate such a complete lack of self awareness, ignorance of recent history, failure to grasp cause and effect and a total avoidance of responsibility.
Putting aside the years he spent shilling for Clinton and defending him from perjury/rape allegations, this is the guy who broke the Steele dossier story in the media. Trump was only possible, and remains viable, because of guys like David Corn.
total nonsense
Do you not understand the meaning of normalize?
Democrats spend 20 year pushing election conspiracies, claim elections were stolen by voting machines, Russians, "voter suppression" and even claimed the Post Office was trying to steal an election. Remember Pelosi demanding a special session of Congress to stop the Post Office? Here's the thing, you spend 20 years undermining confidence in elections, people will start to believe it. Then it's "How dare Trump claim an election was stolen" and Democrats are somehow surprised people believe him.
Democrats challenge the last three Presidential elections they've lost in Congress, locking in the precedent Republicans followed in 2020. Amazingly, Democrats are surprised only Democrats believe it's overthrowing Democracy when Republicans legislators do the same thing.
Democrats and their media allies spend decades defending and pretty much worshipping (see his 2012 convention speech) a President that committed sexual harassment, was credibly accused of rape, obstructed justice and perjured himself. Then Democrats somehow don't understand why those same allegations don't end Trump's career.
They call blacks Uncle Toms and wonder why Trump can get away with his claim about Israelis.
They spend decades attacking the Courts, politicize it, attack justices and wonder why the New York case seems to actually help Trump.
They attack Trump for supporting the J6 arrestees while lining up behind politicians who raised funds to get George Floyd rioters out of prison....
It goes on and on... Trump simply takes advantage of the precedents Democrats sent to demagogue in ways that benefit him, not democrats. His tactics are derivative, not unique.
you are trying to equate trump with others. more total nonsense.
Undermining confidence in elections is undermining confidence in elections.
Go ahead. The more Dems make a martyr out of Donald the more possible it is that he will be elected. Especially stuff like what is going on in New York where it seems more and more people are calling it targeted and unprecedented.
The TDS brain rot is just too advanced in some. Their useful idiot training is complete and irreversible.
Yes or no ?
Yes, just like it is for Democrats.
Just another throw shit against the wall and hope some sticks in the dems hopes of making people believe Donald is an existential threat to our way of life.
Now for a bit of Truth.
Trump lies
Biden lies
Every politician has lied and continues to lie
Lying has been normalized in politics way before Donald came to the scene. It seems to be getting worse because they at least used to hide it, but no more. Cases in point Trump, Joe and Pierre