“Strongmen need to bring everyone around them down to their level of corruption and depravity. To show their loyalty, elites compete to be the most sycophant and self-abasing, doing anything the leader asks, no matter how criminal, and going along with the inevitable escalations of violence and corruption.”

“This hollowing out of political elites is a precondition for a political party to institutionalize violence. In pledging support to a brutal demagogue, you are sooner or later required to betray not only your compatriots, but also yourself. As political violence spirals, you can become a target of that demagogue, no matter how loyal you have been in the past.”

“…by accepting his violence, you have validated the strongman’s mantra: I am everything, and you are nothing.”

“Jan. 6 radicalized the GOP, accelerating its transformation into an entity dependent on lying, corruption, and the threat and reality of violence against internal enemies. But it is fear, as well as fanaticism, that has kept the GOP disciplined in the years since the insurrection, no one wanting to be a target.”

“Authoritarianism is the conversion of the rule of law into rule by the lawless. It makes perfect sense that a convicted felon and the man who sent the violent mob into the Capitol on his behalf would initiate an American autocracy.”