Every gerrymander, purge, and press attack tightens the screw — until the system is locked and the tyrant holds the only key…
With the raid on John Bolton's home, it looks like we may have reached that stage when fascist governments begin to turn against their critics, weaponizing the tools of a police state.
Richard Nixon went after his enemies, too, and once said, in the depths of the Watergate scandal, that "when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal." He discovered the hard way that wasn't true, at least back in the 1970s. More than 40 people connected to his White House and campaign were indicted, and many went to prison.
Nixon's Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, Domestic Policy Advisor John Ehrlichman, White House Counsel John Dean, Attorney General John Mitchell, and special counsel Charles Colson all did time. So did several members of Nixon's Committee to Re-Elect the President, better known as CREEP, for their crimes of burglary, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy. Nixon himself escaped accountability only because Gerald Ford pardoned him.
That experience left a permanent scar on America's political consciousness, but it also left a roadmap that Trump and his inner circle are determined not to follow. They have no intention of being, like Nixon and his people, crooks who lost their grip on power. They're apparently making plans to guarantee it never happens to them.
