Americans left dizzy by Trump's "shock and awe" spectacle

It took one of Europe’s democracies only 53 days to succumb to fascism. Donald Trump and his MAGA movement’s shock and awe campaign against American democracy and society is moving very fast. Moreover, that is exactly what many of them desired from an elected autocrat-authoritarian who literally promised to be a dictator on “day one” of his “presidency.” What many of Trump’s voters may not have expected is that they too — not just the Democrats, the news media, the Black and brown people, the LGBTQ community, feminists, the “takers” and other so-called enemies — would be left spinning, made to feel vulnerable and hurt by their president and his MAGA Republican Party’s policies. Perhaps most troubling for what it will ultimately mean for America’s democratic culture and the First Amendment, media outlets are censoring themselves to avoid the wrath of the Trump administration and its allies who view them as “the enemy of the people.” “If Democracy dies in the darkness” too many of the country’s elite news media have chosen to dim their own lights. A few weeks before Donald Trump’s inauguration, I asked leading media critic Dan Froomkin for his thoughts about how the news media was responding to Trump's return to power.