Maybe that would be like the "good Norwegians" of the 1940s, whom everyone but the Germans called "quislings."

I caught this in the comments section of digby's blog this morning:

Outside the home country of the empire, and far from the restraining view of one's peers, there are few of the customary restraints on the exercise of power.

The habits of power developed on the fringes of empire have a nasty habit of being drawn back into the home country's political praxis by a kind of slow, capillary action.

Once the lure of the opportunities of thus excercising power overwhelms the customary restraints on the excercise of that power: look out.

Ah, what rough beast is this we see breaking through the dusty chrysalis of the old American republic? Nothing good, friends, nothing good.

cordially,