I absolutely agree that media has failed. I'm just saying that Trump expresses his horrors directly, via social media and rallies, no media intervention required. When he announces plainly that he'll ruin democracy, and Americans then vote for him, I blame the voters even more than the journalists.

Yeah, they were lied to. But also Trump announced his intentions quite directly. Example: before the 2016 primaries he said, very publicly, that he wanted to ban Muslims. That didn't require media intermediation. And the Trump voters chose it. I feel like blaming media lets his voters off the hook.

I don't disagree that officials and media have failed to take the threat seriously, but ultimately the voting citizens are responsible. Let's not act like voters couldn't possibly know he was a threat to democracy. It was kind of obvious. Every Trump voter should similarly beg for forgiveness.

Why didn't Hannity immediately correct him when he said no other countries have mail-in voting? That's just a factual lie. Trump didn't actually just believe Putin when he said this, did he?

Two great novelists!

Great advice, but I'll clarify: those novels are by Powers, not Ford.

It is so profoundly important to the Trumpian Rs to punish those who are, according to their schema of deservingness, undeserving.

I seriously thought a fairly conventional conservative position was that rights aren't bestowed by governments, but by God or nature. "Endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights," etc. How does Donalds (or any citizen supporting his statement here) square these sentiments?

This seems relevant. fortune.com/2025/02/20/h...