Why Trump Loyalists Should Care About the Russia Scandal
The president has proven he'll sell out members of his own tribe. He won't hesitate to do the same to his supporters.
Theres a famous line in President Donald Trumps real estate manifesto, The Art of the Deal, where he posits an incompatibility between public ethics and the kind of personal loyalty his McCarthyite mentor Roy Cohn supposedly exhibited. Cohn, Trump wrote, would go to bat for you, even if he privately disagreed with your view, and even if defending you wasnt necessarily the best thing for him.... Just compare that with all the hundreds of respectable guys who make careers out of boasting about their uncompromising integrity but have absolutely no loyalty. They think only about whats best for them and dont think twice about stabbing a friend in the back if the friend becomes a problem.
In the real world, the tension Trump hints at between playing by the rules and playing for a team arent nearly as severe as he implies. But the idea that integrity and tribalism are mutually exclusive moral codes is an enormously powerful one. I believe it is the source of Trumps greatest strength and weakness in his unexpected stint at the highest level of public service. It speaks to one of the questions bedeviling American politics as the Trump-Russia collusion scandal boils over: Why do his core supporters not seem to care about conduct that is so obviously beneath the standards we have set, through law and custom, for the presidency?
https://newrepublic.com/article/143906/trump-loyalists-care-russia-scandal?utm_content=bufferd91ea&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer