General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I'll be blunt. Democrats help "normalize" Trump if we wait for an election to hold him accountable [View all]Caliman73
(11,725 posts)It means that his pathology is minimized to the extent that it is seen as a typical part of the current paradigm. The way that slavery was "normalized" during the antebellum period and Jim Crow until the Civil Rights movement challenged it. Trump's problems are reported in the media, but they are done so in a way that presents them as the typical conservative v. liberal policy debate and not the wholesale assault on all of the fundamental ideas and institutions that have existed in the country since the constitution was ratified.
Trump's tweets and pronouncements which assail the press and the first amendment, which promote fascism and racism, are reported on as, "Oh look what Trump said and how Democrats responded" instead of "Trump is attempting to destroy the first amendment by saying that anything that does not paint him in the best light is not 'free speech'".
That is "normalizing".