How Kamala Harris de-normalized Trump in less than 2 hours

[Zorro]

In Tuesday night’s presidential debate, Vice President Kamala Harris may or may not have increased her chances of becoming the 47th president. But she did what so many have tried, and failed, to do.

She de-normalized Donald Trump.

For years, various politicians and pundits have yelled themselves hoarse over the danger of normalizing Trump’s chicanery, casual mendacity, outrageous divisiveness and outright criminal behavior. For years, the media have attempted to contextualize a candidate/president/insurrectionist/candidate who often dismisses the most time-honored rules of American politics (including the peaceful transfer of power) and continues to feed his not-inconsiderable number of supporters a diet of self-aggrandizement and grievance.

Not surprisingly, outrage itself has become normalized too. For President Biden and now Democratic nominee Harris, every word, action and expression is analyzed with granular intensity. Meanwhile, Trump’s familiar litany of untruths and increasingly nonsensical speeches is regularly glossed as “Trump being Trump.”

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2024-09-12/kamala-harris-donald-trump-abc-debate-de-normalize

[unblock]

1. I don't think "the media have attempted to contextualize" him.

In fact, I think the media refused to put him in proper context.

He's the most thoroughly documented liar in history, yet it took years for them to even say he "has a problem with the truth". They had no such struggles calling bill Clinton a liar over one statement about Monica, and no such struggles calling Al gore a liar over his internet boast that they had to misquote in order to pretend it was a lie.

Democratic scandals are constantly reported on as career-threatening, we need pure and honest people in government, etc., but for republicans, and Donnie in particular, everything is ho-hum, he did this but magats still support him so we'll just move on.

The media continues to decontextualize Donnie, to treat him as exempt from all the normal rules of politics, law, decency, ethics, etc.

They act as if they are bound by a non-disparagement agreement, and I would not be shocked if it eventually turned out that that is exactly why they "struggle" to cover him.

[CTyankee]

2. Link gets you to a paywall. Is there another way we can read this story?

[BWdem4life]

3. ...

https://archive.ph/K9Y4N