A virtue of this profile of
Elise Stefanik by Nick Confessore is that it doesn't describe an ideological conversion.
Rather, Stefanik had no strong beliefs to begin with. Her rise is a simpler tale of ambition— and an emptiness inside. The profile is of the party's direction, as much as the person who went with it.
"Friends going back to Ms. Stefanik’s Harvard days struggled to identify any of her deeply held political beliefs at all."
Another way to look at the authoritarian movements/cults is that they consist of three easily defined (although easily intersecting) groups:
1) Psychopaths and sociopaths (drivers)
2) opportunists/sycophants/grifters, also sociopathic (enablers and drivers, middle-managers)
3) idiots, 'poorly educated', misinformed, disinformed, fearful, angry (enablers, foot soldiers)
The Stefanik characters fits neatly into the "ethic-less opportunist/sycophant" category.
Narcissism can exist in all groups (even in their compassionate counterparts!) but prevalence is higher among the "drivers" — also inflating their 'self worth'.
Jay Rosen
demi7en 🎗🇪🇺