Each state's slate of electors will cast their votes for president and vice-president today. President Trump won't win today. Nor will he win in the final Congressional certification on January 6, despite talk among some Republican legislators about plans for some type of electoral coup during the final vote count. 

Trump and his supporters are retreating deeper and deeper into an alternate reality where they can collectively will things to be the way they want them to be. At some point, Americans will have to start sharing the same reality again or reckon with the outcome. 

If we downplay anti-democratic behavior by a sitting president and leaders of a major political party, even if they didn't pull it off, we normalize it and invite future attempts by someone more competent. 

Also this hour: the ongoing assault against Voice of America.

GUESTS:

• Dahlia Lithwick writes about the courts and the law for Slate and hosts the podcast Amicus.
• Margaret Sullivan is a media columnist for The Washington Post and the author of Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy @sulliview