Thread by @ThePlumLineGS

1) Now that Trump has caved in the shutdown fight, I'd like to suggest that there's a lesson in this outcome about the continuing blight of #BothSides media coverage.

*THREAD*

2) When Nancy Pelosi canceled Trump’s State of the Union speech, the thrust of a great deal of media discussion was that Pelosi had "sunk to Trump's level."

3) But this precluded any reasoned judgment about whether one side’s use of the levers of power was more legitimate and even more mature and considered under the circumstances than the other.

As I wrote, this subtly put a thumb on the scales for Trump:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…

4) This was not remotely a close call. But the point is that, once Pelosi held firm and Trump capitulated on the speech, that #BothSides treatment was rendered irrelevant.

All that was left behind was the reality of the new power balance in Washington:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…

5) The obscuring fog of both-sidesism also pervaded a great deal of discussion of the substantive differences between Trump/GOP and Dems over the shutdown itself.

The profound asymmetry of the situation simply did not register in much of the coverage:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…

6) At the core of all this is Trump’s refusal to exit Foxlandia, the place where Trump always enjoys all the leverage and the 2018 election never happened.

The failure to convey the pathology and malice driving this paints a deeply misleading picture:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…

7) The only answer was for Dems to weather the #BothSidesism and keep saying, “No, we’re not doing it this way.”

And again, the result is that the #BothSidesism is now rendered irrelevant. In its place is the reality of the new power balance in DC:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…

8) By the way, I have a new book out that tries to tell the broader story of how we got to this place, and what we can do about it going forward. Hope you’ll check it out. FIN.

amazon.com/Uncivil-War-De…