On sins and sinners – Douthat once again:

‘Just before the South Carolina Republican primary in 2012, CNN’s John King opened a presidential debate by asking Newt Gingrich what he probably considered a tough question, about Gingrich’s ex-wife’s claim that the former speaker of the House had once sought an open marriage.
Gingrich’s response dripped with dudgeon. “I think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media,” he told King, “makes it harder to govern this country, harder to attract decent people to run for public office, and I am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that.” To make the “personal pain” of divorce into “a significant question for a presidential campaign is as close to despicable as anything I can imagine.” The crowd erupted. Gingrich swept to victory in the primary, lapping noted family man Mitt Romney. And though the Gingrich campaign faltered soon thereafter, it was a moment that anticipated an important part of the Donald Trump phenomenon, by offering proof that Republican voters will forgive a multitude of sins, or else disbelieve in those sins’ existence, for a candidate who’s eagerly, even zestfully at war with the establishment media.’

(…)

‘What the TV professionals should learn is that they have two choices in dealing with another Trump primary campaign. They can take the kind of this-is-an-emergency path urged on them by some press critics and anti-Trump writers: Don’t platform him or normalize his campaign in any way, don’t let him speak on live TV, cover him only within a set framework that constantly emphasizes his authoritarian tendencies and attempts to overturn the last election. I don’t believe this path is wise or workable, but it at least has a moral consistency lacking in the “democracy is in danger and tune in tonight for an hour with the demagogue!” approach that we already watched play out in 2016.’

(…)

‘But the most basic lesson to be drawn by Republican politicians from watching Trump’s town hall is the importance, for any would-be Trumpian successor, of demonstrating that you too can engage with the mainstream press and come away a winner.

This is the core of Vivek Ramaswamy’s presidential strategy so far, which has lifted him to nearly Mike Pence-ian levels of support in primary polls in part because of his willingness to argue with Chuck Todd or Don Lemon, not just rattle off talking points on Hannity.
But it’s the opposite of the DeSantis method, which has been to stiff-arm the mainstream media (with a side of mockery from his friends and allies on Twitter).’

Read Douthat here.

In order to defeat Trump you must defeat the ‘mainstream press’ first.

Well, if mainstream press is the enemy of the people, or at least almost half of the people, you might as well dismantle the state and start from scratch.

This, needless to say, is the true nature of any revolution.