So, in a big nutshell. (aka jump!)

[Dill]

(02-18-2017, 04:59 PM)hollodero Wrote: What is completely unprecedented is a president calling every media outlet except from Rush Limbaugh enemy of the people - because rush rushed to show his undying Trump love and for no other reason than that - a pure dictator move. I know I mentioned that often already, but it's so damn unbelievable it needs to be repeated again and again. I despise every republican sitting in Congress and senate backing this kind of behaviour, and that has nothing to do with being "liberal".
How can any conservative rally behind that. It's really disheartening.

That news conference was reportedly the deal breaker for Harward.  

Don't get entirely disheartened. A large number of Republicans and Republican Congressmen disliked Trump from the get go. His behavior is gradually giving them permission to dissent. And remember Trump is getting worse, not better. Next week this list forum will throw up threads on entirely new scandals, while this week's linger on. The chaos will continue, week after week, month after month, until he is gone.

The Trumpster core, of course, still thinks his performance is great. It might be that a significant segment of American voters don't really grasp the principle of free press. Like Trump, they don't perceive questions about dealings with Russia as legitimate and in the people's interest--just a lib media attack from those who wanted Hillary to win. And the heroic Trump doesn't back down like other politicians. In a perversion of the 1st Amendment, they actually see a strong leader fighting for them when he deflects accountability and undermines the press.

But I also think that more and more Americans who voted for Trump (not his base) are gradually realizing that he does not want a free press, that refusing to call on legitimate reporters while doling out press badges to right wing bloggers is a strategy for avoiding accountability, for expanding the right wing Bubble, where "facts" like millions of illegals voting circulate unchallenged and liberals only imagine T's partiality to Russia.