"During Donald Trump’s first term as president, critics used to ask, Can
you imagine the outcry if a Democrat had done this? As Trump begins his
second, the relevant question is Can you imagine the outcry if Trump had
done this eight years ago?
Barely 24 hours into this new presidency, Trump has already taken a
series of steps that would have caused widespread outrage and mass demonstrations if he had taken them during his first day, week, or year
as president, in 2017. Most appallingly, he pardoned more than 1,500
January 6 rioters, including some involved in violence. (Of course, back
then, who could have imagined that a president would attempt to stay in
power despite losing, or that he would later return to the White House
having won the next election?) In addition, he purported to end
birthright citizenship, exited the World Health Organization, attempted
to turn large portions of the civil service into patronage jobs, and
issued an executive order defining gender as a binary.
The difference arises from three big factors. First, Trump has worked
hard to desensitize the population to his most outrageous statements.
..
Second, Trump has figured out the value of a shock-and-awe strategy. ...
Third, American society has changed. People aren’t just less outraged by things Trump is doing; almost a decade of the Trump era has shifted some aspects of American culture far to the right."
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/01/executive-orders-absent-anger/681393/
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