Timothy Snyder wrote this about the allure of the so-called 'strongman leader,' and I couldn't agree more. People like Snyder, like Jason Stanley, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, and many others, including to some extent me, have been warning about this for decades. If you were to ask why I'm such a hard ass on this topic, well, this is why. 

"Once this process begins, it is hard to stop.  At the present stage of the strongman fantasy, people imagine an exciting experiment.  If they don't like strongman rule, they think, they can just elect someone else the next time.  This misses the point.  If you help a strongman come to power, you are eliminating democracy.  You burn that bridge behind you.  The strongman fantasy dissolves, and real dictatorship remains.

Most likely you won’t be killed or be required to kill. But amid the dreariness of life under dictatorship is dark responsibility for others’ death. By the time the killing starts, you will know that it is not about unity, or the nation, or getting things done. The best Americans, betrayed by you when you cast your vote, will be murdered at the whim and for the wealth of a dictator. Your tragedy will be living long enough to understand this."