[rayiner]

MAGA didn't happen in a vacuum. Two republican presidents have been elected in the 21st century, and after both of their first elections, the media fostered widespread misperception of the legitimacy of their wins through selective reporting of the truth. For people coming into the leadership of the GOP now, folks in their 40s and 50s like Vance and Johnson, remember the 2000 election very well, but not the Walter Cronkite era when the media was more even-handed. That inevitably shapes their own approach to communication.

[zugi]

Undermining the legitimacy of the new President to try to diminish his power seems common lately, e.g.:

- Clinton only won because Ross Perot siphoned votes away.

- Bush didn't win, the Supreme Court handed him the Presidency.

- Obama isn't American.

- Trump was only elected thanks to Russian interference.

- Biden didn't win, the election was stolen.

It's a tactic that gets used because it seems to work, at least in terms of rallying one's own troops.

[ElevenLathe]

And Kennedy is a Catholic, so you're just voting in the Pope. And van Buren is a Dutchman. This isn't new.