By Robert Reich / RobertReich.org

Donald Trump. (Julio Cortez / AP)

Last Wednesday, on the eve of his election to the House of

Representatives, Montana Republican Greg Gianforte

beat up Ben Jacobs, a reporter for the “Guardian” newspaper.

What prompted the

violence? Jacobs had asked Gianforte for his reaction to the Congressional Budget

Office’s report showing that the House Republican substitute for the Affordable Care Act

would result in 23 million Americans losing their health insurance.

Then, in the words of a

Fox News team who witnessed the brutal attack: “Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the

neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground behind him. … Gianforte

then began punching the reporter. As Gianforte moved on top of Jacobs, he began

yelling something to the effect of, ‘I’m sick and tired of this!’ Jacobs

scrambled to his knees and said something about his glasses being broken…. To

be clear, at no point did any of us who witnessed this assault see Jacobs show

any form of physical aggression toward Gianforte, who left the area after

giving statements to local sheriff’s deputies.”

After the attack, Jacobs

was evaluated in an ambulance at the scene and taken to Bozeman Health

Deaconess Hospital. Several hours later he left the hospital wearing a sling

around his arm. Gianforte was charged with

misdemeanor assault.

Donald Trump’s reaction? In Sicily for the G-7 summit, he praised Greg

Gianforte’s election as a “great win in Montana.”

For years, conservatives warned that liberals were “defining

deviancy down” by tolerating bad social behavior.

Donald Trump is actively defining

deviancy down in American politics. He’s also making America meaner.

Last year, Trump said of a protester at one of

his campaign rallies: “I’d like to punch him in the face.” He added “in the old days, protesters would be carried out on stretchers.“

In a different era, when decency was the norm, the members of the U.S. House

of Representatives would not seat a thug like Gianforte in the chamber. In the age of

Trump, it’s okay to beat up a reporter.

Charlie Sykes, a conservative former

talk-show host in Wisconsin, says “every time something like Montana happens,

Republicans adjust their standards and put an emphasis on team loyalty. They

normalize and accept previously unacceptable behavior.”

Gianforte’s attack on Jacobs

was shameful enough. Almost as shameful was Gianforte’s press release about

what occurred, written immediately afterward by his campaign spokesman, Shane Scanlon:

“After asking Jacobs to lower the recorder, Jacobs declined. Greg then attempted to grab the phone that was pushed in his face. Jacobs grabbed Greg’s wrist and spun away from Greg, pushing them both to the ground. It’s unfortunate that this

aggressive behavior from a liberal journalist created this scene at our

campaign volunteer BBQ.”

This was all a blatant lie, as

confirmed by the Fox News crew that watched the whole thing. But under Trump, blatant lying is

the new normal. And a “liberal journalist” is the enemy.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a professor at the

University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, says that Donald Trump “has

contributed to a climate of discourse consistent with assaulting a reporter for

asking an inconvenient question.”

It used to be that candidates and elected officials had a duty to answer reporters’ questions. We assumed that answering questions from the press was part of the job. We thought democracy depended on it.

But we’re now in the era of Donald Trump, who calls the press the “enemy of the American people.”

It was never the case in the United States that candidates or elected officials beat up reporters who posed questions they didn’t like. That kind of thing occurred in dictatorships.

But “Trump has declared open season on journalists,

and politicians and members of his Cabinet have joined the hunt.” says Lucy Dalglish,

the dean of Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland.

More generally and menacingly, Trump has licensed the dark

side of the American psyche. His hatefulness and vindictiveness have normalized a new meanness in America.

Since Trump came on the scene, hate crimes

have soared. America has become even more polarized. Average Americans say and do things to people they disagree with that in a different time would have been unthinkable.

“I’d submit that the president has unearthed

some demons,” says Rep. Mark Sanford, a Republican Representative from South

Carolina. “I’ve talked to a number of

people about it back home. They say, ‘Well, look, if the president can say

whatever, why can’t I say whatever?’ He’s given them license.”

The new meanness is also finding its way to Washington, where Trump wants to slash Medicaid, Social Security disability, and food stamps so the rich can get big tax cuts; repeal the Affordable Care Act and shove 23 million Americans off health insurance; and lock up poor young people for selling a few ounces of drugs while letting fat cats get rich trading on inside information.

A president contributes to setting the norms of our society. Trump is setting them at a new low.