On Al Capone - Thomas B. Edsall in NYT:

‘John Ganz, a political analyst and the author of the new book “When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s,” captured this aspect of Trump in “The Shadow of the Mob: Trump’s Gangster Gemeinschaft,” an essay posted last week on Ganz’s Substack, Unpopular Front.
“So, Donald Trump is now a convicted felon. Will voters mind?” Ganz, who is doubtful, wondered: “Maybe even those who are not the MAGA faithful but view Trump in a more ambivalent way may not be much bothered by Trump’s official status as a criminal. And some might even find something attractive in it.”

How could that be? To answer that question, Ganz wrote that Trump talks and acts like a Mafioso. He’s not trying to hide it. He has compared himself to Al Capone frequently. The New York Times reported last week, “Trump Leans Into an Outlaw Image as His Criminal Trial Concludes.” Voters drawn to Trump, Ganz argued, believe that the system — the rule of law, liberal democracy, political equality — has failed.
For this constituency, Trumpism offers the appearance of a solution: Rackets don’t just take care of the material well-being of the insiders; they are always also sources of recognition and belonging. You’re part of the clan, the crew, the family.
Ganz wrote that in this context Trump “speaks to the longing to a return to something earlier, ‘the original closeness of blood,’ something more organic than society: the gang, the mob, la famiglia — to Gemeinschaft.” For Ganz, one comment in particular from an African American operations manager who participated in a Times focus group session conducted hours after the New York jury found Trump guilty provided an instructive case study: “You have to remember why Trump is the choice of millions of people,” the person said: Trump represents a shock to the system. His supporters don’t hold him to the same ethical standards. He’s the antihero, the Soprano, the “Breaking Bad,” the guy who does bad things, who is a bad guy but does them on behalf of the people he represents.’

Read the article here.

The believe that the system has failed makes gangsters turned into would-be tyrants popular once again.

Who wants to be ruled by a philosopher-king?

But apparently many people would like to be ruled by the capo di tutti capi.