It was just about two week ago when I returned to Harvard’s unethical and dishonest propagandist Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt to pronounce them Academic Ethics Villains. These two favorites of the New York Times are substantially responsible for the Axis of Unethical Conduct‘s Big Lie #6: “Trump’s Defiance Of Norms Is A Threat To Democracy,” a cornerstone of the Harris Campaign’s desperate “Trump is Hitler” strategy.

They had just issued another of their fear-mongering and academically indefensible Times op-eds, banging that same metaphorical drum with their (profitable!) argument that any genuine student of Presidential history (like they claim to be) knows is 100% hooey, and using the beat to argue for Democrats taking unprecedented measures to block Trump from the presidency….all of which defy previous democratic norms! The Levitsky and  Ziblatt hypocrisy has nonetheless become, apparently, a standard weapon for the Axis to use against Trump, as increasingly absurd as it. That this is true shows just how dire the state of the Totalitarian Left is following Trump’s victory: they really have no unbroken arrows in their quiver, just noodles and boomerangs.

And so it is that the “Trump violates norms!” argument has resurfaced already. From CNN yesterday on “Newsroom with Fredericka Whitfield:

ALAYNA TREENE: (President Elect Donald Trump) said, quote: “Republican senators seeking the coveted leadership position in the United States Senate must agree to recess appointments in the Senate, without which, we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner.” The post goes on to describe other things. But I want to explain why this is so important. Essentially, Donald Trump is calling for the shattering of norms. Now what this means, a recess appointment, I know this sounds like we’re getting in the weeds a bit with the Hill lingo. But recesses are normally avoided in congress. Normally, when they actually go on break, they do something called a pro forma session. Part of that is because if you go to a recess, you actually have to have a vote in the House and the Senate, and Democrats in this case, giving Republicans control of the Senate come next year, would be able to filibuster. But essentially, to get down to it, to really boil down to what this would mean is that Donald Trump is trying to find a way, and use whoever the next Senate leader- Republican leader is, to try and avoid the confirmation process for his top Cabinet officials. And I remind you, a lot of times when different presidential candidates or people are looking to make these hires, and to appoint different people to these different Cabinet roles, a key thing that is always at the top of their minds is whether or not this person can get confirmed in the Senate if they have a controversial background, if they are more conservative, in this case, if they were Democrats they’d be maybe too liberal. But really, the Senate is kind of the last line of defense of who the president could put into office with him. And so this would be a huge change. And I will also argue that really this process that Congress has now about avoiding recess appointments in their entirety started back with George W. Bush and has continued since then under the different presidents with Obama and Trump and now Biden. And so, this again would be a HUGE BREAK from the norms that we currently have.

Fredericka Whitfield: And again, bucking norms.

“Again!” Even compared to most of the “norms” blather, this is really lame. The avoidance of recess appointments, as these hacks freely admit, began with President Bush II, meaning that recess appointments were among the “norms” before that. Ethics Alarms has repeatedly explained that “democratic norms” are practices, traditions and generally accepted and followed processes that are not laws, regulations or required by the Constitution. They evolve, they change, they are abandoned, and sometimes come back. Presidents are particularly prone to defying norms: that’s what strong leaders—not autocrats, not Hitlers, leaders, competent leaders—do and always have done in the U.S. and elsewhere when there are compelling reasons that make a “norm” unwise or obsolete.

The Levitsky and  Ziblatt formula, making them partisan hacks and a disgrace to Harvard if Harvard were capable of being disgraced any further, is that when Democrats break “norms,” it is benign and for the greater good, but when Donald Trump doesn’t follow a “norm,” it proves that he’s Hitler.

Indulge me by allowing me to re-post from the earlier essay partial list of the “norms” Biden, Harris and the Democrats stomped all over without protest from the Harvard Hacks. I expanded it a little…

• Making key political appointments based on color, gender and ethnicity rather than merit, talent and experience.

• Not firing agency and department heads who have proven to be incompetent.

• Empowering a purely partisan committee to stage a years long hearing aimed at vilifying and imprisoning members of the opposing party.

• Using threats by the Justice Department to intimidate dissenters in local school board meetings.

• The President impugning the integrity of the Supreme Court, and THIS…

• An administration actively pressuring public forums to censor opinions and posts that oppose its policies

• A President obviously in serious cognitive decline being manipulated and shielded by unelected officials, while the public is deliberately deceived about his condition.

• The justice system being politicized in an effort to eliminate a political rival via “lawfare.”

• A presumed Presidential nominee engaging in a debate with the other Party’s presumptive nominee and then withdrawing from the race after botching the debate.

• An individual being nominated by the President’s party without any primaries or democratic processes at all.

• A political party attempting to block the opposing party’s nominee from the ballot.

• A Presidential nominee refusing to hold a press conference during the campaign.

As Jimmy Durante liked to say, “I’ve got a million of ’em!” (which would immediately enter the Washington Post Trump lies database if Trump said it. See, it’s not really a million….)

That the news media is already returning to the same Big Lies and tactics it used to undermine Trump’s Presidency the first time shows us that 1) the Left is as undemocratic as ever, 2) that it hasn’t learned a thing, 3) that it has no new unethical tactics ready yet, and 4)…