It is the single greatest tell that a commentator has nothing of value to offer the public.

What is? Any complaint about or advisement against “normalizing” Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States who will soon serve as the 47th.

The Trump era has given way to many tropes, and nearly all of them are boring, useless, misleading, or some combination of the three. How many times have Americans heard that “the walls are closing in” on ole’ Donny Trump? Or that the Russians have kompromat on him? Or heard the preposterous defense that his only vice is his “mean tweets”?

Yet among all of these inanities, it is the pearl-clutching about “normalizing” the president-elect that stands out.

On Monday, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski’s announcement that they had met with Trump over the weekend set off a fresh round of howls.

“Normalizing Trump is a bad idea,” declared the Scarborough and Brzezinski’s MSNBC colleague Katie Phang in a not-so-subtle shot at them.

“Period,” she added in an attempt at a rhetorical flourish.

Former Republican congressman Joe Walsh — who once threatened to grab his “musket” if Trump lost the 2016 election — put on his dunce cap Tuesday morning when he tweeted “Good morning. Do. Not. Normalize. Him. Resist. Have a wonderful day.”

If anyone in your own life talked this way, you’d have them committed.

Donald Trump is one of the most famous people to ever live. Long before he embarked upon his political career, he became one of the most famous people in the world’s most famous city, dominating the tabloids and establishing himself as a symbol of American wealth.

He parlayed that status into a career as the star of one of America’s most famous television shows and then a political platform.

Then he won a presidential election, served as commander-in-chief for four years, narrowly lost his reelection bid, and then won again four years later.

He has a cameo in Home Alone 2.

He’s hosted Saturday Night Live twice.

Almost everyone on Earth has an opinion about him.

So when anyone embarks upon a ham-handed lecture about “normalizing” about the man, the first thing one should do is make sure they’re not suffering from a stroke. But if they’re not, the next most proper course of action is to ruthlessly and relentlessly mock them until they either apologize or go into exile.

If you’re looking for an example of what your rebuke should look like, consider James Downey’s admonition of Adam Sandler’s titular character in Billy Madison: “…what you have just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”

The purpose for such acerbity is not merely to punish the foolish, but to serve as a wake-up call for the ideologically homogenous American press.

Donald Trump has dominated American politics for the better part of a decade in no small part because he has a better idea of what sounds normal to the average voter than the likes of Phang and Walsh.

A border wall is a sensible solution to illegal immigration. Most who do cross illegally should be deported. Biological sex is not a social construct. America should not hamstring its energy industry.

All of these truths that seem self-evident to others, yet vast swathes of the Fourth Estate treat them as not just abnormal, but unthinkable.

Of course, none of this is a defense of Trump’s character. He is self-evidently unfit for office and his occupation of it over the next four years will doubtlessly be the cause of many bad things for the country.

But any and all whining about his being normalized isn’t just silly, it’s so disconnected from reality as to disqualify those responsible for it from being taken seriously.

The post Everyone Howling About ‘Normalizing’ Donald Trump Should Be Relentlessly Mocked Into Exile first appeared on Mediaite.

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