The Bully President

We are seeing a rather unprecedented, for this country, heavy handed takeover of a major American party.

It doesn't seem like this is going to be the new norm or even if it will last any time at all, but we have seen a large group of Americans who were elected to represent the American people, representing one person who may or may not even care about the country.

Without arguing about the motives of the party dictator, the more interesting factor relates to how they were forced to toe the line?

As always the primary motivator was fear, fear of losing their seat to his rabid followers.

One of the problems we have in this country is our process of selecting party nominees.

They are all subject to potential primaries after which they have to win an election.

Not long ago, a sitting politician hardly worried about the first, he was likely unchallenged and many were fairly assured of winning the second.

Today we see a situation in which, using social media, an upset President can turn his followers against you overnight.

So step out of line and face an expensive primary fight which even if you win is likely to hurt you badly in the general election as his followers aren't the type to turn around and support you.

It didn't take a lot of this to scare the bejesus out of the politicians who primarily only care about their continued employment.

The bully President has no loyalty to anyone in his party who steps out of line and they know it.

In the soviet union the penalties for stepping our of line were often a trip to the GULAG, here its simply having to get a real job, a terrifying prospect for many of them.