Expert on Autocrats Says We Need to Prosecute and Convict Trump Post #64739 • Liberal Forum

Expert on Autocrats Says We Need to Prosecute and Convict Trump

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Politico has posted an interview with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor of Italian history and expert on autocracy at NYU, and the author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present. She originally published it in July 2020, during the Biden-Trump election campaign, but even then she predicted Trump couldn’t leave quietly if he lost.

“I just predicted that he wouldn’t leave in a quiet manner,” Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history and Italian studies at New York University told me recently. “He’s an authoritarian, and they can’t leave office. They don’t have good endings and they don’t leave properly.”

The genius of the “big lie” was not only that it sparked a movement that ended up with January 6 to physically allow him to stay in office. But psychologically the “big lie” was very important because it prevented his propagandized followers from having to reckon with the fact that he lost. And it maintains him as their hero, as their winner, as the invincible Trump, but also as the wronged Trump, the victim. Victimhood is extremely important for all autocrats. They always have to be the biggest victim.