But after leading chants to lock up political rivals and repeatedly calling the free press the "enemy of the people"[1], there is indeed nothing any politician from any party with any agenda could ever do to become normalized by democratically minded people.
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enemy_of_the_people#Marxist%E2...
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/08/18/rasmussen...
They are supposed to inform. Instead, most of the time, they push disinformation to fit a predefined agenda. Jeff Zucker literally tells CNN talking heads what to say in his 9AM meeting. This is not "free press". This is a fucking disgrace, and it is actively harmful to "the people", especially when there's a crisis.
Let me give you an example: https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/23/health/arizona-coronavirus-ch.... Unless you read the article carefully, you will get the impression that the man medicated himself with the actual chloroquine pills. This is NOT what happened: he ate god damn aquarium cleaner by the spoonful.
The front page of CNN is FULL of this bullshit. Literally all of the liberal outlets reprint these stories _knowing_ they are fake or misleading (just serarch Google for "chloroquine" and see for yourself, today - it'll be full of the same dude who ingested aquarium cleaner). And that's before we even mention lying by omission, which also happens all the time.
But it’s not that, either. You’re making up a completely fact-free accusation:
The aquarium is mentioned in the headline
The second sentence is:
“It does not appear they took the pharmaceutical version of the drug, but rather "an additive commonly used at aquariums to clean fish tanks," Banner Health said in a statement.“
If that constitutes „lying“ to you, it’s beyond hope.
Here's what it was: https://twitter.com/axios/status/1242425467438858241?ref_src...
And if this does not constitute lying to you, you need to wake up.
The larger issue is that the leader's supporters know what he is and his relationship to the truth. They know when he looses the popular vote, has consistent majority disapproval and acts with dubious legality. These things don't mater. If fact, that he can retain power in spite of these things is considered a virtue.
They elected him because of single minded ruthlessness and willingness to break laws to permanently eradicate liberalism and the viability of opposing parties. The mere promise of this is so thrilling to them that any action the leader takes is defended or obfuscated unwaveringly even when the defenders don't fully believe or aren't really comfortable with it themselves.