The pattern behind George Santos’ sociopathy just became more clear
It’s oddly fitting that the current crop of House Republicans can’t get any media traction for the strategic lies they’ve been making up, because one of their own members keeps hogging all the headlines with all the lies he’s spent his entire lifetime making up. The sociopathy behind George Santos is a better fit for psychology textbooks. But because House Republicans refuse to expel him for fear of coming closer to losing their fragile majority, we’re stuck discussing this cartoon villain in a political context awhile longer.
In that regard, two new tidbits about George Santos seem to give away something about the pattern behind his sociopathy. One is the revelation that Santos defrauded some dog breeders in Amish country. This is Santos’ second fraud scandal involving dogs; the first time he defrauded a military veteran in need. This is an interesting pattern of depravity. Like a lot of fraudsters, Santos seems to be targeting those who are least in position to do something about it. If you’re a depraved person and you’re going to rip off some people and you hope that word isn’t going to get around, you might target Amish country, because you think they might be less likely to call you out on social media. That may or may not be how things actually work in the real world, but in the mind of a predator seeking out victims, it makes depraved sense.
The other new tidbit is Santos’ claim that Senator Kyrsten Sinema offered him words of encouragement at the State of the Union. Sinema says it never happened. But because Sinema is dishonest and despised in her own right, Santos probably figured that he could just make this up, and no one was going to believe Sinema when she denied it. For once we’re inclined to believe Sinema, if only because she only seems to lie when it suits her, whereas Santos lies every time he opens his mouth.
The pattern feels pretty clear. It makes perfect depraved sense that George Santos would try to rip off the Amish, due to the perception that they might not be as equipped to warn the general public about him. And it makes perfect depraved sense that Santos would make up a lie about a Senator whom no one likes or trusts to begin with. This is how the most opportunistically depraved of predators operate.
Of course this is also an apt metaphor for the entire current Republican Party. Republican politicians these days are all using strategic lies – often at the expense of society’s most vulnerable subgroups – in order to attract the most psychologically vulnerable of supporters. George Santos isn’t an outlier in today’s Republican Party. He is the Republican Party. He’s just been a bit too cartoonish while using the party’s playbook, which is why he won’t survive this. But other House Republicans are just a bit more nuanced in how they use Santos-like tactics. And all we can do with those types is work to put them back in the House minority so they’re never again in charge of anything.
