The power of Fox News was extraordinary in this campaign. Yes, the network has been around for 25 years; we all know its influence. But there's an interconnected vibe in rural areas: Fox->Trump rallies-> the live reality-show-traveling-circus with wall to wall TV coverage. 1/6

It's rare that anything of national significance comes to Bemidji, Fayetteville or Tuscaloosa. You text your cousin in Janesville when you see his town on TV in the bar. A huge % of the community actually attends. People you know. People your cousin knows from work are there. 2/6

Nearly everyone who doesn't go, watches live. Groupthink takes hold, a fever builds, people starting driving absurd distances to attend, driving two states over. Fox has live wall-to-wall coverage. Every rally, start to finish, a 12 hour a day TV event like the Olympics. 3/6

Meanwhile, everyone is reinforcing a permission structure for disgusting rhetoric and dangerous ideas including overt racism and wild conspiracies. Fascism is contagious. That's the thing. We're all acting like this was normal. All of this hand in hand with Facebook. 4/6

No conventional campaign tactic can match that. There's no way for a mainline Democratic campaign to counter that. It's worth millions. A traveling PT Barnum crossed with a Megachurch, all during a pandemic. It's what to watch when the world awful and you're stuck inside. 5/6

We have to understand the weight of what is happening here. Yes, Dems didn't when in a landslide. We can debate the postmortem. But look at what they've convinced people of. People you know. People you love.

That's the riddle we have to solve. 6/6