AD

What do we know about Trump? What has stayed the same while his stated policy positions have wandered all over the landscape? This. That he has always been about himself. That what counts to him most from others is loyalty. That he believes resistance of any significance is akin to treason. That he aims to punish those who cross him so severely that neither they nor any witnesses to his punishment will try crossing him again.

AD

This is not the description of the president of a democracy. This is the description of an autocrat. And yes, we can get there from here. All it takes is a willingness to use the apparatus of presidential powers to reward friends and punish enemies to a degree where cooperation is the only viable course, and opposition becomes suicide. Matt Yglesias sketches out what this could look like here.

It is scary because it’s all too imaginable. And this at a time when the opposition party is shattered, powerless and in complete disarray. There is very little to stand in the way of a conflagration.