The start of the seditious conspiracy that resulted in a whopping 22-year prison sentence this week for former Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio played out live, on television, on Sept. 29, 2020.
“Proud Boys, stand back and stand by,” Donald Trump told members of the far-right extremist group during a debate with then-presidential campaign rival Joe Biden. That call to action was heard loud and clear by Tarrio and others who formed the most extremist faction of Trump’s base. “Standing by sir,” Tarrio posted on social media site Parler in response to Trump’s command.
The conspiracy’s violent conclusion was also televised on Jan. 6, 2021. What happened should leave little doubt about the appropriateness of Tarrio’s hefty sentence. And though Trump wasn’t named in Tarrio’s case as an indicted coconspirator, the deadly and destructive attack on the nation’s electoral process wouldn’t have happened without him.
Yet here we are, as another presidential election nears, with many members of the media as well as most of Trump’s political opponents treating Trump like any other political front-runner instead of like the grave and growing threat to our nation’s democracy that he is.
Have we learned nothing?
Yes, some of us have been ringing the alarm about Trump’s dangerous penchant for authoritarianism, his disdain for the rule of law, and his warped and bigoted view of what it takes for America to be great since long before Jan. 6.
But for the most part, political headlines keep focusing on the latest poll declaring Trump the undisputed front-runner, and pundits are engaged in nonsensical analyses, from who won last month’s meaningless Trump-free Republican debate to what GOP contenders’ Spotify lists say about them.
Even when Trump’s Republican challengers such as former New Jersey governor Chris Christie or former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson call out Trump’s despotism, their comments barely register in the press because their poll numbers remain in the basement.
Trumpism, and the ideas that MAGA supporters like fellow candidate Vivek Ramaswamy espouse, “can tear our nation apart,” Hutchinson told the Boston Globe editorial board this week.
“President Trump has disqualified himself,” because of his conduct after the 2020 election, Hutchinson said. “He continues to attack the rule of law. He attacks prosecutors. He attacks judges. He attacks the system, and people are listening to him. He continues to mislead them.”
But with poll numbers at levels that threaten to keep him out of future debates, it’s hard for Hutchinson to catch media attention.
That’s because the press can’t beat its addiction to horse-race politics. With the breathless daily chase usually reserved for sports reporting, the lead-up to presidential races has for my entire journalistic career been defined by opinion poll chasing, fund-raising contests, on-air sparring battles and predictions based on conventional political wisdom.
But these are not normal times. America’s democracy is “backsliding,” according to the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, an organization that assesses the global state of democracy. And that backslide, the group’s report states, started in 2016. Coincidence? No.
Still, the fact that Trump now stands indicted on dozens of felony charges related to his effort to overturn the results of an American election is being treated merely as the latest piece of political baggage for Trump to overcome. It’s just another weakness for his opponents to try to exploit, just another elephant in the room for those too afraid to offend his supporters to call out.
Bluntly, covering Trump like a horse-race candidate only further weakens our already faltering democracy. It doesn’t just legitimize Trump, it elevates others who emulate his brand of populism. The race for who will be Trump’s MAGA heir should be covered with the same fervor and seriousness that journalists once pursued radicalism within America’s borders. Instead, candidates like Ramaswamy and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who have embraced dangerous ideas on immigration, climate, and education in an effort to out-Trump Trump, have been rewarded with fawning profiles. It’s not just lazy journalism, it’s dangerous normalization. That’s exactly how we got Trump, and it’s exactly how he or the next authoritarian-in-waiting can rise to power.
Some of us in the press will do our darnedest to ground our coverage of this upcoming election in the reality of the threat citizens are facing from Trump and Trumpism. We will continue to contextualize our analyses with the reality that none of this is healthy or normal. We will do our jobs. But I fear too many of us won’t. The horse race is just too irresistible to them.
Kimberly Atkins Stohr is a columnist for the Globe. She may be reached at kimberly.atkinsstohr@globe.com.