re: #8 Charles Johnson

I had already resigned before the hard right turn, but the direction was pretty clear even then. One by one, all the people who came in at the start were eliminated, and replaced with ideologues and toadies.

Which is the one major advantage they have. They are after power pure and simple. It is very difficult for people who have other goals in mind to oppose them. The ‘ideologues and toadies’ can usually outflank the good guys because they have no limits on what they’re willing to do in order to win power.

It’s rather like a war where one side is wiling to use weapons of mass destruction and the other isn’t. The extra firepower wins. Of course it leaves a wasteland behind but the winners are cool with that. As long as they have the power they don’t care if the world burns.