The model of appealing to populism, to lie and grasp power as if it belonged to a single person and hunt down and imprison your personal enemies has been done before. I think the most egregious example of this form of power was attempted by an Austrian named Adolf, but the most successful was probably Ghengis Khan. And the least successful empire builder, but dictator all the same could be Putin.
The level of self-belief requires an underlying narcissism, or psychology of entitlement. Real politicians are there to serve. All politicians find ways to enrich themselves, except the true saints who care about environmental concerns or who work tirelessly for the sake of the working population.
The trouble with dictators is they offer a simple self-serving solution for their own benefit. They have no actual plan to benefit the majority of voters, indeed, some of the worst examples are driven by greed for wealth and power, after a lifetime of getting away with murder, boast they could actually commit dreadful crimes and get away with it.
What the hell are their followers, their acolytes, what are they thinking?
They are not thinking. They are investing their very souls, doing a deal with a devil they have elevated above others in a belief system that starts with “lower taxes” and ends up with “freedom”.
In the UK, the hapless leader of the Conservatives called an election offering these, and the electorate seems to realise that after 14 years of talking the talk, what was really happening did not deliver either. In fact they have sold the very heart of the British life, and for what? In fact they have also reduced both freedom and increased taxes by allowing inflation with such terrible economic decisions that the economy can not support higher wages.
The Americans face a choice between a convicted criminal who is also charged with crimes against the constitution and national security (with published evidence of the theft and promulgation of top secrets) and an old man who has served the people with great success. And they favour the criminal, because the propaganda machine prefers “freedom” and “lower taxes”? It is not a choice between political systems. It is entrusting your children’s future with the priorities of a vengeful criminal. His policies are to empower oil companies which creates pollution while we witness climate events that are denied as people die in large numbers due to cruel heat waves, flooding and tornadoes. The memory of his first disastrous term in office appear to be delusional. He was ineffective and has no grasp of policy, he rules instead with edicts. And promises revenge.
Bring it on, say his cult followers. And they continue to believe their lives will be better. After fourteen years of a dishonest venal government who took revenge on their political alternatives, who took the British people out of the largest trading bloc in human history (for what?), who took profit shorting the crashing pound; after the tragic example of other dictators; after listening to his rantings about sharks and batteries, about bathrooms and whales flying into wind turbines, after the 34 unanimous criminal convictions by jury, after years of propaganda still want to enter an age that will destroy the chances of their children’s future still favour this because of the imagined “socialism” (the American Democrats are very Right Wing compared to most European Governments)…
Nothing wrong with economic freedom or lower taxes. But it takes a smart politician to convince others to play according to the rules. Not a mad emperor or god-king.