They are as blind to the grossness of his character as they are to the incoherence of his positions.

Jeff Jacoby writes,

Power tends to corrupt. That will be true whether the next president is liberal or conservative, male or female, Republican or Democrat.

But the authoritarian abuse of power in a Trump administration isn’t just a theoretical possibility. Should the New York businessman win the presidency, it’s a certainty. Trump’s campaign, with its torrent of insults, threats of revenge, and undercurrent of political violence, is the first in American history to raise the prospect of a ruthless strongman in the White House, unencumbered by constitutional norms and democratic civilities.

It is normal for passions to run high in election season. We’re used to seeing candidates play to their base with animated rhetoric. What isn’t normal is for a serious presidential contender, after being heckled by a protester, to tell a campaign rally: “I’d like to punch him in the face.” What we’re not used to seeing is a candidate who warns that if he fails to win the nomination at a contested convention, blood will flow: “I think you’d have riots,” Trump said on CNN. “I think bad things would happen.”

Trump's low-road brawling, thuggishness, and gutter sexism are something new in American presidential politics. Dangerous demagogues are a species we have tended to associate with banana republics and military dictatorships. The fervent zealotry Trump's backers, the blind cult of personality that surrounds him, is shocking to many of us who always imagined that America was immune to the politics of caudillos and Dear Leaders. Now we know that for a significant minority of American voters, an authoritarian brute who flirts with violence and has no scruples is just what they've been waiting for.

Every president wants to get his way, and more than a few have bent some rules to the breaking point in the pursuit of their goals. But Trump holds out the prospect of a president for whom ends will always justify means, however dishonorable or scandalous or undemocratic. For many of his loyalists, nothing he does is beyond the pale; they are as blind to the grossness of his character as they are to the incoherence of his positions.

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