I often say that the political and media environment was way more repressive under Bush than Trump. I understand it's been almost 20 years since Bush took office so many people have a hard time remembering. But recall that one senator voted against the Patriot Act...
One single House member voted against the war in Afghanistan and she had to have armed security! And this was a congresswoman from Berkeley, CA. Not a conservative hot spot.
I knew people personally who faced intimidation or professional threats for opposing war. MSNBC fired Phil Donahue for opposing the Iraq war. Now it's the opposite, dissent is not only welcome against the president it's encouraged.
In the leadup to Colin Powell's Iraq address at the UN, which made the case for war, major networks had 393 interviews about Iraq and 3 came from anti-war points of view. 3! I imagine if Trump tweeted "Water is wet" MSNBC would feature 25 guests denouncing it.
You can follow @ZaidJilani.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: