Even the fiercest of the White House collaborators — Sen. Mitch McConnell, Vice President Mike Pence, Atty. Gen. William Barr — will have to let the inevitable happen: The president is indefensible.
HISTORY WILL NOT BE KIND TO TRUMP’S ENABILERS THEY WILL REAP THE BITTER FRUIT OF THEIR TORTURE OF OTHERS
Matthews’ sudden white flag came to mind this week in the context of “collaborationism,” a tricky phenomenon recently elucidated by historian Anne Applebaum in the Atlantic. During evil regimes some members of the ruling class collaborate with the madness while others break ranks, become dissidents. Both types have a range of reasons for their actions.
Collaborators may believe they’re accomplishing great things by sucking up to a tyrant. Or they tell themselves they can contain the tyrant by keeping him close.
As for dissidents, Applebaum, citing the resistance in East Germany during the Cold War, said some have an epiphany that ends their tolerance for the big lies. Others fall away in increments, until they find themselves "irrevocably" on the other side of authoritarianism.