It’s like they aren’t even hiding it anymore.
This election is a real worry for the US.
Part of the autocrat’s strategy of seizing and maintaining power is to not to hide the lawlessness and/or immorality, even whilst denying what they are doing is wrong.
To act, without real consequence (if they can manage it), in spite of their actions being obviously unjust and wicked, is one of the ultimate ways to dishearten, frighten, and dissolve hitherto righteous opposition. It is meant to imbue hopelessness and cultivate a sense of futility in efforts to oppose them. It is a mark of psychopathy. It is a sickening “thrill”.
Putin is a master of it — he’ll do something evil and illegal and then act as if he never did it, even though everyone knows he did it, why he did it, and that he knows they know. He’ll order the poisoning of a dissident and then publicly say he desperately hopes they recover quickly and that he will ensure they have the very best care. The doing it, in spite of the visibility, with no repercussions, builds power. It establishes that they are above the law; that consequences are for lesser people. And that the lesser people are the ones that should worry about their words and actions.
And Trump’s handlers, among them Miller and Barr, have been taking copious notes.
They flood the field with these sorts of ‘you know we know you know’ actions and statements. Little by little they chip away at opposition resolve, muddy the waters for the less ardent observers (so it becomes more difficult to even discern what they are doing because of the sheer volume of lawlessness and depravity), and degrade the checks and balances meant to stop them from doing it all in the first place.
It’s a strategy we have seen before and will see again until oblivion. We just have to hope oblivion isn’t soon, in this case.
