My sister steered me to listen to the segment on Lawrence O'Donnells show with Eugene Robinson and Yamiche Alcindor. O'Donnell began by noting that, contrary to the post outrage comments of Trump's staff, he clearly came prepared to say what he said supporting Nazis, white supremacists and the KKK.
In the discussion with Robinson and Alcindor, the idea that this is some kind of watershed moment that will see Republicans and Trumps allegedly better supporters will not support him and his leading the country into the sewer, it was the younger Yamiche Alcindor who pointed out that since his campaign started, we've had one after another of such incidents which were there was supposed to be some kind of turn around. She noted that after the Access Hollywood tape came out a lot of the same Republicans who made a motion of disavowing Trump then, went right on to support him through even his appointments of Nazis and white supremacists - including Jeff Sessions - and on right up to last weekend. She asked why this wouldn't turn into just one more of those kinds of incidents. I think a lot of media people of my generation are finding it very hard to face the fact that in the country we've got, today, even this kind of thing can be normalized.
It reminded me to the days after 9-11, when I was watching a bunch of journalists on Emily Rooney's show on WBGH, when they declared that that now long ago moment was a similar watershed that would usher in more civility and comity and unity into the public discourse. I only remember one of them expressing any skepticism about that. The very experienced journalist Carrie Crossley said she didn't believe it for a second and that things would go right back to where they were the day before. History very, very soon proved her right.
Get back to me next week, next month and remind me how this was supposed to be the outrage that is so outrageous that it changed everything. I don't buy it.
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