One of the big lessons that Donald Trump has learned through his years at the center of the New York tabloid media is that he can normalize just about anything.

When he was getting bad press because he was having an affair on his first wife, for example, he called newspapers pretending to be his own assistant to say that Marla Maples was astonished with "the best sex ever." It changed the entire newspaper narrative, and Trump proved to himself one more time that he can normalize just about anything.

In the last four years, he has normalized a president lying to the American people on a daily basis, putting lobbyists in charge of every federal agency and then looting the federal treasury, breaking laws like the Hatch Act right out in public, and has even normalized being accused of rape.

He's so normalized ignoring precautions in a pandemic that his followers routinely expose themselves to a deadly disease without a second thought.

No matter what Trump or the corrupt, sleazy members of his administration do, after a day in the news cycle America collectively shrugs its shoulders.

Now he's normalizing fascism. He's normalizing federal police taking over cities, colluding with foreign autocrats, criminalizing protest, and ignoring the results of elections. We have armed vigilantes in our streets, and he praises them as he normalizes a situation America hasn't seen since the Civil War.

In the entire history of the United States, one of the most highly cherished and praised values of our country is the peaceful transfer of power after an election. Now, Trump is trying to normalize the idea that that peaceful transfer of power does not need to happen.

He's trying to normalize the idea that states can simply change their laws right around the election so their legislatures can direct their own votes in the electoral college. This radical departure from American traditions is a coup.

Thomas Paine referred to the vote as the beating heart of democracy. Donald Trump is trying to rip that heart out of our republic.

We can't let him normalize this. Speak out. Double check your voter registration at Iwillvote.com. Sign up to help out over at indivisible.org. Call your elected officials, both federal and state. Express your outrage on social media. We all need to use every tool available to us to save this republic.

-Thom