I just finished listening to the seventh and final episode of the Bullwark's Podcast of "The Corruption of Lindsey Graham". The podcast itself is excellent daily by Charlie Sykes, former Republican who daily lays out the case against the Former Guy. For the last seven Mondays Will Saletan has presented his series on The Bullwark that traces the fall of Lindsey Graham from an opponent of Trump who stated the obvious, that Trump was unfit for any political office, to a Trump sycophant and propagandist. Graham is the example. Almost all elected Republicans are the same
There are many steps along the way, but the biggest revelation that stood out to me was that once anyone gives in to any lie and to any pressure of an authoritarian, he’s got you on his game board of total domination. Because once you cave to him on what seems like a little thing, then the next thing seems to be not that much more than before, and you cave and cave and cave until you end up pretending to agree that Trump only lost the election because it was stolen, or maybe you actually have convinced yourself that this latest piece of nonsense is truer than any facts ever presented to the contrary. Because you sold your soul to him long, long ago.
Micheal Cohen, Trump's former lawyer/enforcer made the same point in his book. The first thing Trump said to Cohen the first time they met was a silly lie, some kind of flattery or some kind of braggadocio, and it was just too easy/too polite to just go along with it rather than to take a stand and make the correction. And so the deliberate, pre-planned sequence of reducing the will of whomever he is set out to dominate goes forth - one lie at a time, one violation at a time, one atrocity at a time.
And, of course, there are threats and punishment and violence. And a few doled out “rewards”. It’s all about submission.
The result? A person whose spirit has been crushed and whose soul has been sold to the bully/authoritarian/autocrat/fascist. One escalating violation at a time.
My biggest caution at this point is that Trump deliberately violated the mandate from the DC court telling him he could not threaten or intimidate any witnesses nor anyone connected to his trial, but one day later he posted "You go after me, and I will go after you". Oh, you say - is this enough to pull him back to court and remand him to jail awaiting trial? I say, yes yes yes yes yes yes. You will note that his provocations will continue to escalate because he got away with the first one. And each further provocation is not that different from the previous one.
And in the end, he shoots someone on 5th Avenue and so what? Nobody does anything because they haven't stood up to him before and are in the habit of caving caving caving caving....
Trump is not a smart man, but he knows this domination trick, and he has been using it for well over half a century. And he is good at it.
Funny thing about those who are submissive - all they have to do is stand up and then the game of domination and submission is over.
Prison please --- now.
