Trump’s intimidation of the press via threats, investigations, lawsuits, harassment and ridicule to coerce them into obsequiousness are unlike anything I’ve seen during my lifetime. I am aware that these tactics have been used before by dictators and authoritarians across the globe, but not in US.
It got me wondering if tactics like these ever were used in the US. It turns out, they were.
Here’s a link to a Politico article that details how other presidents have disregarded the First Amendment, attacked the free press, got away with it and what eventually turned things around.
I recommend reading the article.
Just like the grift, the criminality and the abuse of power, this too is nothing we haven’t seen before. Nor is it something we won’t see again.
Strangely, I find reading history allows me to get reentered and feel at peace with this.
After all, as far as I’m concerned, the worst has already happened anyway.