He’s cunning. So are weasels. Lack of conscience doesn’t = intelligence. It = no boundaries on behavior, which masquerades to those refusing to acknowledge what they see as boldness, even originality. This is why political journalism fails: blindness to what he is. A predator. https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1260607432880992258

Predators know how to camouflage. It’s an instinct based on nothing more than a feral need for what feeds them. He wants power and adulation. Politics is full of narcissists. There aren’t, however, very many rank psychopaths with enough money to buy the shielding they need.

Political journalists have been covering this president with a template that doesn’t fit. Or rubric, really. That rubric is a checklist based on average narcissists. A psychopath is not by definition smart (though some can be), you’re just looking for the wrong criteria.

I knew in 2016 that only people with an understanding of rank criminal psychology would get what this president is. He should have been covered by crime beat veterans. Politics is gross & many politicians are heartless. But this is another creature altogether.

In prison terms, this president is a shotcaller. And he’s effectively managed to turn most of his party into a criminal gang reflecting his complete lack of empathy and humanity. Some because they’re the same. Many others because they are weak and want to belong.

If you broke down the president’s relationship with his party to its simplest possible analogy, Dave Cullen’s great 2004 assessment of the Columbine killers works. The Depressive (Klebold; post-Obama right wing) and The Psychopath (Harris; the president). https://www.slate.com/news-and-politics/2004/04/at-last-we-know-why-the-columbine-killers-did-it.amp

Just followed @sarahkendzior because from what I know she's one of the only people in a position to write about it who has ever fully understood the subject of this thread I'm bumping. A crime family is running the country.