individuals, such as Hannity, Limbaugh, Jones and the herd have banded them together into one ugly delusional force.

It's so bizarre. When I've asked for proof of any of these supposed "investigations" of HRC, Obama, Rice, Holder, etc the only answer is it has to be kept very hush hush so that's why there's no proof of them. Yet the obvious proof of all the investigations pending on trump et al: that's just a witch hunt by librul snowflake deep-staters and corrupt IC depts in an effort to overthrow the election results.

I sincerely wonder if it's a mental deficiency that allows them to answer a conspiracy theory with a conspiracy theory, no matter what the situation is.

is why mental tests should be used as part of a candidate's qualification process. We are far too lax in this country.

And authoritarian leaders. They've been studied extensively since WWII. Scary people but fortunately a minority. It's when others join them in a movement with bad leaders that nations fall. They've currently committed unquestioning loyalty to Trump, and we really should wonder what Pence, for instance, or whoever is already lining up to lead them in future might turn them to.

Most of the more recent research is disguised behind arcane technical jargon for protection, and the term "authoritarian followers," nor is right wing authoris not used by professionals, but Dr. Bob Altemeyer's findings are still considered mostly very valid. He republished them for lay readers in his seminal "The Authoritarians" and made it free on line to the public because he felt it was critically important to understand these people.

Strangely for such a subject, it's also an extremely enjoyable read.

Oh, just discovered he updated this website in pre-election 2016 with a new cover essay on "Donald Trump and Authoritarian Followers," which pretty much summarizes them.

https://theauthoritarians.org/

They ARE in an alternate universe.

yesterday. He called it the "deep state," but he meant our government.

is getting a bit mentally dissociated, or he's doing what he needs to do to keep the money rolling in for him. It could be a combination of both IMO.

I think he is like millions of others of his type for whom the situation evolved. They would take over our government if they could.

Check this out. Altemeyer's research is old and many have been studying it since, but he's still very well regarded in his field.

part the past has been pretty good, the US has always cruised along through good and bad times. It reminds me so well of the Germans that did not pay much attention to the rise of Hitler, it was they said just a fad. America has really not dealt with this ... the closest I can think of was Joseph McCarthy. I'm not sure what will shock more Americans into taking notice. This country is so ripe for a significant rise in authoritarianism. Just the fact Trump is president is a real shock. ... but he continues on. Hopefully Mueller will be able to throw a log under his wheels.

Anxiety increases vulnerability to authoritarian leaders, and that 20-25% who would have latched, onto Trump, as Altemeyer points out, in good times has increased.

But most Americans are still appalled. We're not used to this and can't even imagine authoritarian government enough to be afraid, much less want it.

What we know is our long, strong history of stable liberal western democracy. Our government isn't centralized, and authoritarian governments have always cropped up locally. But not federally. Over more than 2 centuries, the federal governments voted into being by the electorate have mostly been successful keepers of the flame and applier of constitutional standards to the states. Of course, there are dark moments in our history, but they're failures, not norms.

So far our government systems, which Mueller is a servant of, are holding. Our role in them is enormously larger, though. Germany and Iran are only two of the democracies that were destroyed by their own voters, after all.

He's weird but he's stable and intelligent at his work. But if you get anywhere near his politics you quickly realize that he is a paranoid and irrational right winger. I think the right wing authoritarianism fits right in with his mental illness.

a good way to refer to what might be traits of personality disorder, or of mental illness. How strange that Trump has been president for a year, after over a year of national campaigning, and people still aren't talking about personality disorder, even on DU, although I notice more is being published.

There's long been discussion that "pathological bias," including race-based of course, should be considered a type of mental disorder -- like other personality traits manifested so strongly that they make one unable to function adequately.

Sure, let's do that today. I'm imagining the uproar at the mental health professions officially declaring some of the more rabid types we've all run into mentally disordered, probably large number of them Trump supporters these days. Ooohwee!


Of course, it'd only apply to a few.

The entire GOP is coalescing around their "Imperfect Vessel who is doing God's work in the White House." In their minds, there's no collusion, no conspiracy, no wrongdoing, no cognitive impairment and certainly no lawbreaking. In GOP "reality," Trump is under attack by the "liberal, Soros-funded Deep State," and everybody's out to get him. THEY HAVE THE ENTIRE GOVERNMENT UNDER THEIR CONTROL, YET THEY ACT LIKE THEY ARE UNDER SIEGE.

If Democrats slip in this year's midterms, the entire show might be over. Please VOTE!

a couple of days ago on The View.

She said working at Fox is amazing for conservatives. Everyone thinks alike and you're "in a bubble." When you leave Fox, reality is brutal.

We know that, of course. But I don't think she realized the core truth she revealed in that statement as her intention was to express how hard it is for conservatives in media, outside of Fox. Hopefully any Fox sympathizers who watch (as few as they may be) realized what she admitted about their bubble.