In Remembrance of P.J. O’Rourke: Let’s Make a List

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 protect traditional expressive and association rights
• Civil rights & liberties organizations’ failing to support minority political opinions and minorities’ traditional expressive and association rights
• 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 Bragg
• Georgia (Fulton County) District Attorney 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 destroying and defacing private property to advance political causes
• Destroying and defacing 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”
• 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 certitude) of a Harris-Walz landslide
• Nobel Peace Prize selection committee
• Foreign political leaders who injected themselves into the U.S. political process
• And 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);