Charles Pierce: We have to face it. The four horsemen have been out of the barn for months now.

Trump Normalized Hate Groups. The Media Normalized Trump.
Looking back on the week everyone in America started saying "alt-right."​

.......

But one of the very real responsibilities for this nightmare of a campaign lies not with a candidate that normalized hate groups but with an elite political media that, by adhering to rules that did not apply, normalized that candidate. Donald Trump has hurled wild, vicious (and largely unsubstantiated) charges every since he first stood up behind a podium as a candidate. This is nothing new. So now, his wild, vicious (and largely unsubstantiated) charges are being hurled in a campaign context in which they have become the way people run for president, at least in 2016. And they're being hurled at a person for whom much of the elite political media has had a barely concealed grudge for 25 years.

There now will follow some earnest chin-stroking about the tenor of the campaign. And nothing will change. This is the campaign we are going to have, and there's no turning back. It's going to be rough, and more than half-vile, but it's going to be more reflective of the actual state of the nation than a hundred soft-focus TV spots with gentle music.

We have to face it. The four horsemen have been out of the barn for months now.

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a48036/clinton-trump-harsh-rhetoric/