"I believe in Democracy... Trump will fade over time... the demagogue always loses..." - Lindsay Graham "None of those predictions came true... Clearly, Graham had miscalculated. Maybe the voters were wrong. Maybe America wasn’t always a good place. Maybe sometimes the demagogue won. But to face that possibility, Graham would have to rethink everything. He would have to oppose the Republican ticket. He would have to reconsider his role in the party. He would have to defy the voters of his own state. So instead, he turned the other way. He told himself that democracy had worked. The good and wise Republicans of South Carolina and other states had chosen Trump, not Graham. They must have known better than Graham did. And if the good people of America went on to elect Trump, then Graham would accept their judgment. He wouldn’t just tolerate their decision; he would embrace it. He would defer to the people’s verdict. He would withdraw his criticisms of Trump." - Will Saletan

"Appeasement encourages the aggressor. Appeasement corrupts the appeasers. Appeasement empowers the mob." Lindsay Graham

"Did Graham really believe this? Did he honestly think that the voters knew best and that their ballots somehow cleansed Trump? Probably not. But that was the rationale Graham began to articulate in public. And over time, he increasingly behaved as though he did believe it. That’s how rationales often work. You espouse them—at first uncertainly or insincerely, later with conviction—because you need them to justify what you’ve done or what you want to do."