He will do anything, we have to understand, to protect his psychic attachment to his own self-interest. Anything. I’ll repeat what I believe: He will not leave his office if he narrowly loses in 2020. He’ll fight — and rally his supporters to fight with him. He’s not Nixon. He’s Erdoğan. When, since becoming president, has Trump conceded anything?
A tyrant’s path to power is not a straight line, it’s dynamic. Each concession is instantly banked, past vices are turned into virtues, and then the ante is upped once again. The threat rises exponentially with time. If we can’t see this in front of our own eyes, and impeach this man now, even if he will not be convicted, we are flirting with the very stability of our political system. It is not impregnable. Why is Putin the only person who seems to grasp this?
Sullivan is mostly right, but wrong about this: Trump isn’t leaving office without a godawful fight whether he loses by a large or small margin in 2020; a sycophantic Republican Party, and a cultish, easily-manipulated base, have convinced him his grip on office is unassailable and accountable to only his own whims.
Every day that Congress refuses to do its plain duty, and remove him, the danger of gunfire for control of the White House increases.