It's even worse than you think. With the pardons, Trump is trying to make these evil killers
beholden to him, so that he can, he thinks, force them to do things he wants them to do. Like kill people. Or I guess just show up to his rallies to intimidate people, as he's already floated.
He's hoping to put together a group of killers who will do his extra-democratic bidding.
Whether it's all just a fantasy on Trump's part or not, this is how he thinks. If he sees someone he recognizes as a totally unscrupulous piece of shit who's in real trouble, he's the type who will rush in and try to play savior to the guy so that he can coerce for himself said shitbag's willingness to do anything. It's also a big part of the reason why Trump is surrounded by criminals, and his own lawyer says things like he has "insurance" against Trump. Trump's really that bad, a truly awful human being who's always looking for an angle to manipulate others.
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Those guys took those oaths seriously, even though it might not mean much to us.
This is part and parcel of that. The whole "play along with the boss. I'll let you commit crimes in my name and I'll protect you" bullshit is the things that authoritarian societies are made of. It's mob boss mentality, and it's how mob underlings operate with impunity.
The bottom line is that personal loyalties start to override the more cerebral loyalties to a document or a political belief.
We're becoming a banana republic. 