Caving to Authoritarianism : WaPo Doesn't Endorse

This article sums it up pretty well; WaPo has made quite a few endorsements over the last 6-12 months, including in this election cycle. Now they won't endorse for POTUS and claim it's basically reverting to past principles.

Clearly this is untrue, or they'd have not endorsed elsewhere in this cycle, and/or made this case far earlier. It seems pretty obvious that owner Jeff Bezos is afraid of retaliation from the impending authoritarian regime of the convicted felon Trump. Bezos is on record saying that a vindictive Trump Administration cost his company an estimated $10 billion in government contracts during the prior administration.

The author posits the dark hypothetical that this is an indication that many of the former "guardrails" against the authoritarianism of Trump should not be counted on to be there in a future Trump regime.

My take : the author is correct. Good game, America.

(As an aside, my wife is adamant about cancelling our subscription. I'm inclined to agree, but not certain. The forces of evil win either way.)


That’s where the decision feels like a gut punch. The endorsement itself is not so important: I bet there aren’t many subscribers to high-end American newspapers who are still uncertain about how they’ll vote next month. But as a sign of how elite institutions grapple with a political environment in which one side has vowed retribution against enemies, it feels like a big warning sign, one that Lewis’ terse statement is not doing anything to chill.


https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/10/25/washington-post-president-non-endorsement-00185581

 

As evidence of why this sentiment about a future Trump Administration should be taken seriously, here's an example of what ought to be considered the criminal abuse of government function for Trump's personal agenda;


‘Outrageous abuse of power’: Trump spurned disaster pleas amid feud with governor

In early September 2020, wildfires tore through eastern Washington state, obliterating tens of millions of dollars of property, displacing hundreds of rural residents and killing a 1-year-old boy.

But then-President Donald Trump refused to act on Gov. Jay Inslee’s request for $37 million in federal disaster aid because of a bitter personal dispute with the Democratic governor, an investigation by POLITICO’s E&E News shows.

Trump sat on Inslee’s request for the final four months of his presidency, delaying recovery and leaving communities unsure about rebuilding because nobody knew if they would get federal help.

Trump ignored Inslee’s 73-page request even after the Federal Emergency Management Agency found during weeks of inspection that the wildfires easily met the federal damage threshold for disaster aid.


https://www.politico.com/news/2024/...aid-request-from-democratic-governor-00185542