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This Is Not Normal
Townhall.com ^ | January 27, 2021 | Ben Shapiro

Posted on 01/27/2021 6:34:07 AM PST by Kaslin

For four years, we were informed by our establishment media that President Donald Trump's behavior was "not normal." The abnormality of Trump's behavior became a near rallying cry for the self-appointed heroes of journalism, who spent every waking hour poring over his bizarre tweets and his bloviating self-absorption. The media dedicated themselves to preventing Trump's supposed normalization.

Now, the media inform us, we have been graced by the most normal normal person to have ever normalled: President Joe Biden. Biden, they proclaim, is utterly boring, nondescript, barely worthy of coverage. His administration, too, is paradigmatically normal. Yascha Mounk of The Atlantic tweets, "It is so nice to have a boring President." Alleged media watchdog Brian Stelter asked this week whether Biden is "making the news boring again," adding, "The Biden White House is clearly a break from the chaos and incompetence of Trump world."

For his part, Biden obviously revels in this sort of coverage. This week, his favorite ice cream flavor (chocolate chip) was tweeted out as well as a retweet of first lady Jill Biden's announcement that Champ and Major, the new first pets, had entered the White House.

On a personal level, Biden is clearly more "normal" than Trump -- although treating Biden, a career politician worth nearly $10 million, as the height of normality is rather stunning. The goal for the establishment media isn't to point out merely that Biden is a sort of American Everyman. It's to use that supposed normalcy to disguise the fact that his agenda is absolutely abnormal.

The dirty little secret of the Trump administration is that despite Trump's personal abnormality, his agenda was well in line with past precedent, and with mainstream American opinions on everything from taxes to military policy. Trump did not radically shift American policy. Biden will. Within the first five days of his presidency, he issued 30 executive orders, compared with four for Trump, five for Barack Obama and zero for George W. Bush. Those executive orders included endorsement of radical reinterpretation of American history; killing the Keystone XL pipeline, along with its attendant estimated 11,000 American jobs; forcing the military to allow troops to undergo gender reassignment surgery; and forcing federally funded institutions to allow biological men who identify as transgender to compete alongside biological women, among others. He is reportedly pursuing an immigration plan directed toward reopening America's borders. He has staffed his Cabinet by intersectional box-checking.

Biden's policy is indeed radical. But because Biden is presented as a normal person, we're supposed to ignore all of that. We're supposed to simply be grateful for the "return to normalcy" -- complete with caving to the teachers unions that seek to keep schools closed indeterminately, reentering a long-dead deal with the Iranian theocracy, firing government staffers with whom he disagrees and lying openly about the vaccine distribution plan he inherited.

Meanwhile, our media pat themselves on the back. It's rare to see a profession declare itself irrelevant, but that's what many in the media are doing these days. According to Stelter, it's "refreshing" that Biden's team promises accountability and transparency. According to Margaret Sullivan of The Washington Post, the media must learn their lesson from the Trump era and cover Democrats more sycophantically.

Joe Biden may be a relatively normal guy. But none of this is normal. And pretending it is represents just another way for the media to reject legitimate criticisms of an administration seeking radicalism right off the bat.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: joebiden
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Many of you thought Ben Shapiro was a #Never Trumper. Does that look like he was?. I don't think so.
1 posted on 01/27/2021 6:34:07 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

he is


2 posted on 01/27/2021 6:36:31 AM PST by snarkytart
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To: Kaslin

Biden is as Normal as Memory Care.


3 posted on 01/27/2021 6:37:09 AM PST by Uncle Miltie (Allegations of vote fraud cause you to 1)Provide contrary evidence or 2)Censor and erect razor wire)
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To: Kaslin

Joe Milquetoast... Droll AND bland, weak as water.


4 posted on 01/27/2021 6:37:50 AM PST by W. (And now, more beer, and Les Nessman!)
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To: Kaslin
For a long time he was. He has some issues. He, unlike Trump and us deplorables, understand the depth of evil and stupidity of the left.

Pretending they are just slightly worse than RINO's is Ben's big (huge) flaw.

It's why I don't think much of him and his commentary.

5 posted on 01/27/2021 6:40:31 AM PST by Lakeshark (Trump. He stands for the great issues of the day. Stay the course!)
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To: Kaslin

He is, but he is too late to the dance. The band went home.


6 posted on 01/27/2021 6:40:38 AM PST by dforest (RATS are criminals and frauds. Hide anything that belongs to you. They will steal it.)
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To: Kaslin

Of course he is a never Trumper

No one gets to jump in now pretending they’d been supportive all along

He has been whiny, non sense am, illogical, hating and anti Trump. Period.

These people turn on a sharp angle to do a 180 then they do it again.

No


7 posted on 01/27/2021 6:40:38 AM PST by stanne
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To: Kaslin

Shapiro is a #NeverTrumper. He just bit his tongue to not interrupt his cash flow. Now that Biden is in he knows conservatives are looking for sources of reinforcement to their frustrations. Time to get those clicks and ad revenue.

Shapiro is a modern day William Kristol.


8 posted on 01/27/2021 6:40:55 AM PST by Tailback
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To: Kaslin
Many of you thought Ben Shapiro was a #Never Trumper. Does that look like he was?. I don't think so

Shapiro is a political abomination. We Normals can see right thru him.

9 posted on 01/27/2021 6:41:54 AM PST by JonPreston (Q: Never have so many, been so wrong, so often)
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To: Kaslin

Hitler was just a normal tea totaling vegetarian that liked dogs.

He also liked to kill people, by the millions.

I’m not making any comparisons, so I didn’t break Godwin’s law. :)


10 posted on 01/27/2021 6:43:10 AM PST by cuban leaf (We killed our economy and damaged our culture. In 2021 we will pine for the salad days of 2020.)
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To: Kaslin

Ben a never Trumper? Except for the knife in the back, you’d never know.


11 posted on 01/27/2021 6:44:55 AM PST by robel
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To: stanne

Actually, Shappiro was a never trumper like me before the election. But like me he changed. I’ve been listening to him since just before the election. It seems he and I were both concerned about him before he was elected, as any reasonable person would have been. But then he started DOING STUFF, and I now consider him the best president in my 67 years.

But his biggest weakness has always been his communication style. It is simply terrible. Fortunately, I ignore what ALL politicians say - even trump. All I care about is what they do. And Trump even outdid Reagan.


12 posted on 01/27/2021 6:46:12 AM PST by cuban leaf (We killed our economy and damaged our culture. In 2021 we will pine for the salad days of 2020.)
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To: Kaslin

I was wondering when they’d get around to asking what his favorite ice cream flavor was. So predictable.


13 posted on 01/27/2021 6:46:53 AM PST by HighSierra5
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To: Kaslin

Chaos came from media and or deep state.
President Trump did his best to deal with it..while creating one of the greatest economies for the people..and not getting us into wars.
Btw just because someone is boring.?doesn’t mean they are not evil or corrupt.


14 posted on 01/27/2021 6:47:51 AM PST by Leep (Save America. Lock down Joe Biden!)
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To: Tailback

Yeah. When he was on the Morning Answer in L.A. in 2016 he was a rabid anti Trumper. I’ve had his number from day one. Plus his voice is like an adolescent chalk board screech.


15 posted on 01/27/2021 6:49:55 AM PST by HighSierra5
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To: Kaslin

Shapiro is a california liberal.


16 posted on 01/27/2021 6:50:38 AM PST by CodeToad (Arm Up! They Have!)
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To: Tailback

“Shapiro is a modern day William Kristol.”

I have thought similarly. Shapiro is more intelligent and more articulate than Kristol but a #NeverTrumper nonetheless. Your comment about the revenue stream is spot on.


17 posted on 01/27/2021 6:51:06 AM PST by CheneyClone
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To: Kaslin

We complain about the unfairness, the hypocrisy, comparing how politicians are not treated the same. Etc Etc

What we are missing is what is really going on. This is a one sided war (coup). The left made plans and moved forward. This started years back. All is fair in love and war....and that is the way they look at it. They know exactly what they are doing. They don’t care if it is fair or not. Their words are deliberate weapons....not logic.

We never had a strategic plan except to talk, argue, buy books and vote, hoping the right politician will save the country.

Have you heard about HR-1? Its the next plan of the left that will seal things up. We can complain all we want about it being unconstitutional. They already know that, and they don’t care.


18 posted on 01/27/2021 6:51:26 AM PST by xenia ("In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." George Orwell)
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To: Kaslin
Joe Biden may be a relatively normal guy.

Only if you think that sniffing little girls' hair and fondling their breasts is normal.

19 posted on 01/27/2021 6:52:04 AM PST by Fresh Wind (Joe Biden: The best president Chinese money can buy.)
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To: CodeToad

“Shapiro is a california liberal.”

And he’s leaving CA, or has already, and taking his claptrap to Texas or similar.


20 posted on 01/27/2021 6:52:18 AM PST by MayflowerMadam (They HAD to kill somebody for their plan to work. RIP Ashli.)
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