Which, if any or all, of these things (most) helped to elect Trump?
- Mainstream / legacy media
- Media’s normalization of foreign! gangs’ committing crimes in the U.S.
- Media’s normalization of Biden’s continuing presidency until January 20, 2025, although he was not well enough to run for a second term as President
- Media’s characterization of (every) political disagreement as a “crisis”
- Media’s characterization of every “crisis” as an “existential crisis”
- Media’s characterizing every person who disagrees about the scope of a purported “existential crisis,” or how it is best addressed, as a “denier”
- Academia
- Legal academia
- Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (“CREW”)
- Constitutional Accountability Center and other CREW wannabes
- Universities’ adopting partisan political positions
- Universities’ failing to protect traditional expressive and association rights
- Civil rights & liberties organizations’ failing to support minority political opinions and minorities’ traditional expressive and association rights
- Criminal Defense bar’s sudden lack of interest in the U.S. Constitution’s Sixth Amendment (as incorporated against the States), Jury Unanimity rights, and Apprendi and its progeny
- Never Trump Republicans
- Cheney-the-Elder & Cheney-the-Younger
- Take Care Blog
- Lawfare Blog
- Russia Collusion Hoax/Mueller investigation
- Foreign Emoluments Clause & Domestic (Presidential) Emoluments Clause cases
- Ukraine telephone call impeachment
- January-6-events impeachment
- Special Counsel Jack Smith
- New York (Manhattan) District Attorney Alvin Bragg
- Georgia (Fulton County) District Attorney Fani Willis
- Section-3 ballot-access cases
- Professional commentariat: e.g., former U.S. prosecutors and former judges—state and federal
- Professional commentariats’ endless predictions which failed to materialize
- Swatting political opponents
- Stealing opponents’ political posters and otherwise defacing and destroying private property to advance political causes
- Defacing and destroying public property and museum exhibits to advance political causes
- Endorsements from actors and musicians
- Debanking clients based on political association
- Regulators’ encouraging banks to debank clients based on: political association and/or policy goals unrelated to the agency’s stated mission
- Killing Peanut and killing Fred
- And, those who sought to normalize any or all of the above
And post-election confirmation—explaining election losses by way of racism, misogyny, and low-information voters.
And will ANY of them take ANY responsibility for their “success”?
Honorable mentions:
- Those who endlessly parroted: “The walls are closing in”
- All those entertainers who threatened to emigrate should Trump win the election
- All those entertainers who threatened to emigrate should Trump win the election, but (unexpectedly) have remained in the United States
- Those pollsters and party operatives who depended on the Taylor Swift vote
- Michael Avenatti and those who promoted and praised him
- Michael Cohen and those who promoted and praised him
- Hunter Biden laptop story and the response of the media, current and former intelligence agency heads, and other so-called “experts,” including academics and former prosecutors
- Bar organizations which and judges!! who sought to control attorneys’ non-professional and other out-of-court activities and speech
- Pollsters and other “experts” who, pre-election, expressed confidence (if not near certitude) of a Harris-Walz national popular vote and/or electoral vote landslide
- Pollsters and other “experts” who, pre-election, expressed confidence (if not near certitude) of Harris-Walz’s prevailing in Iowa!!!
- Nobel Peace Prize selection committee
- Foreign political leaders who injected themselves into the U.S. political process
- Those who sought to normalize foreign political leaders’ injecting themselves into the U.S. political process
- And, those who sought to normalize any or all of the above
Seth Barrett Tillman, ‘In Remembrance of P.J. O’Rourke: Let’s Make a List,’ New Reform Club (Dec. 1, 2024, 2:34 AM), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2024/12/in-remembrance-of-pj-orourke-lets-make.html>;
See also: Seth Barrett Tillman, ‘Who Was On The Remain Side?,’ New Reform Club (Jan. 18, 2019, 7:32 AM), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2019/01/who-was-on-remain-side.html>;
See also: Emperor Tiberius to Caligula: “You and I will draw up a list during dinner. A long list.” Robert Graves’ “I, Claudius” (1934);
