As I read Heather Cox Richardson's recent Substack post, it was hard not to conclude that VP Harris lost because Sleepy Joe Biden lacked the energy to act like a politician and effectively promote his many achievements throughout his term. Granted, the Mainstream Media (MSM) aided and abetted Trump's lies and psychotic rants by softening them and reassuring readers that it was "just Trump again". After all, he was a font of profitable MSM clickbait. Trump effectively stole credit for many of Biden's achievements, blamed fictional failings of the current government on nonsense such as tolerating a marauding invasion of foreign criminals and instituting liberal policies that enabled public schools to perform sex-change surgeries on students during noon recess. Sadly, the greedy MSM failed to correct the record - something we once expected journalists to do.
When you look at polls asking about Democrat policies, public support is usually greater than 2/3 even among MAGAs. Moreover, national satisfaction with the federal government before the election was at an all-time high of 70%. Ironically, people rated themselves as financially better off today than under Trump, yet they asserted that most Americans were worse off. That underscores how effective Trump's fascism has been.
I would amplify that Trump's fascism was not some recent assertion. I prodded the author of "The Anatomy of Fascism", Emeritus Columbia University Prof. Robert Paxton, into a January 2021 Newsweek OpEd; "I've Hesitated to Call Donald Trump a Fascist. Until Now". Subsequently other experts have echoed Paxton's assertion. Trump has effectively switched off the critical reasoning ability of the vast majority of American voters. That is what fascist do - fuel rage to switch off critical reasoning to gain voter support though hyperbole and outright lies.
Clearly, America's Reichstag fire happened right under our collective noses, and we did not get woke until Trump nominated a slate of the most unqualified cabinet appointees in American history - a slate he intends to push through without Senate confirmation as fascist predecessors in other countries have done throughout history. The only force that can stop America from going full Fascist is the Republican Senate that so far has shown no greater sense of decency than that of the late notorious communist witch hunter, Senator Joe McCarthy.
