"Dissent can also be stamped out from within a party when the leader aggressively attacks internal critics, like Trump has often done (McCain, Flake, Romney). In democratic societies, politicians vie for the support of their voters. In an autocratic society, politicians perform for the leader. When this happens, a major check on executive power is broken as the political cost for speaking out against the leader is too high. Increasingly, the GOP's political class is behaving like an autocratic party. Those in positions of power offer lavish praise, propagate and encourage his lies, refuse oversight, and defend his autocratic impulses." -- Oren Jacobson, "How Modern Democracies Die: Is America Next?", 2020-09-24