It is a testament to the extraordinary myopia of the American press corps that, day in and day out, it manages to miss not only the biggest story of the moment, but the biggest story that has presented itself within American politics for decades: the threat, currently being issued by many within the Democratic Party, to blow up the United States Supreme Court.

It is almost impossible to convey in words the monstrous enormity of what is being proposed, and yet it cannot be the case that our journalists lack the vocabulary with which to discuss it. For four years now, almost everything that President Trump has said and done has been met with language of the utmost urgency. We have heard about “shredded norms” and “threats to democracy” and “creeping fascism.” We have been warned that we are flirting with “totalitarianism” and “dictatorship” and even “concentration camps.” We have heard comparisons to Reichstag fires and the “secret police.” We have been told “This is not normal.”