Thinking about Pruitt, Dershowitz, and, of course, Trump in the context of J.S. Mill's famous quote: "I did not mean that Conservatives are generally stupid; I meant, that stupid persons are generally Conservative." 1/
In the modern context, I don't think it's about intelligence, it's about attitude. I wouldn't say that all conservatives are monstrously self-centered; but monstrously self-centered people are generally conservative 2/
And certainly conservative political culture is far more tolerant of that sort of thing, even when it veers into raw corruption 3/
