For most of the last four years, election deniers were treated by responsible actors as dangerous to democracy. They were viewed as outside the acceptable mainstream, condemned for their attacks on democracy and opposed when they sought public office.
For many of us this was a clear, moral position in a society that had a sadly dwindling number of redlines. If democracy died in darkness, it was commonly accepted that nothing could be darker than election denialism.
Then Donald Trump won.
In the last two weeks we have seen so many of our institutions bow down to Trump. The media, corporate leaders and elected officials have all started to accommodate — some would say appease — the incoming MAGA administration.
The next test of this will be the nomination of avowed election denier Pam Bondi to be Attorney General. In the aftermath of the 2020 election, she falsely claimed that Trump won Pennsylvania, and that widespread fraud had occurred in Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. In 2024, she led the legal operation of a right-wing voter suppression group that fought against voting rights in court.
A few weeks ago, this history would have been sufficient to make her unacceptable to appear on certain cable news shows or be invited into pro-democracy gatherings. So far, her election denialism has mostly been relegated to a background biographical fact.
There are other disturbing signs as well.
Before the election, the media correctly focused on Republican efforts to disenfranchise voters and what that would mean in close elections. With the elections over, the media has largely abandoned that cause.
In Pennsylvania, Sen. Bob Casey lost a razor close election by 0.2%. Even before the final votes had been tallied, the legacy media attacked him for not conceding. And when Republicans went to court to disenfranchise thousands of voters, the same outlets that claimed to be outraged before the elections either turned a blind eye or sided with the GOP vote suppressors.
Meanwhile in North Carolina, in an even closer election for state Supreme Court justice, the trailing Republican candidate is seeking to discard more than 60,000 votes. Yet, traditional media outlets have mostly been silent. I can only assume they have FCC licenses to be concerned about or their owners have lucrative contracts with the federal government.
On Tuesday, as a part of my weekly tip-sheet, I offered recommendations of nonlegacy media outlets to follow. The feedback was overwhelming. So, by popular demand, here are some of my other favorite writers and creators to read and follow…
