printMSNBC’s Chris Hayes entertained a guest who framed the fact that Donald Trump bowed out of the next debate, as the act of a strongman in power, bullying a put-upon, abused press. How does one unpack such messy thinking? First to consider is that Trump has been extremely accessible to media.
More important:
1. Trump is not in power. He is not bolstered by police powers. Not yet. So he is not a political strongman.
2. Trump has grown his support like a business grows on the free market, non-coercively. You offer a product. If people like it, they buy it. Your business grows through the democratic dollar vote of the consumer. Again, no coercion was involved in Trump’s rise.
3. In absenting himself from a media extravaganza with the showy Megyn Kelly, Trump might annoy media, but he is not disappointing his base, who’ve had enough of the debates, and he is certainly not violating anyone’s rights.