What We Can Learn from the George Santos Story

From CBS News:

Prosecutors are seeking more than seven years in prison for disgraced former New York Congressman George Santos after he pleaded guilty to federal fraud and identity theft charges.

A federal judge on Long Island is scheduled to decide Santos’ sentence during a court hearing April 25.

In a court filing Friday, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York argued that a significant sentence was warranted because the New York Republican’s “unparalleled crimes” had “made a mockery” of the country’s election system.

“From his creation of a wholly fictitious biography to his callous theft of money from elderly and impaired donors, Santos’s unrestrained greed and voracious appetite for fame enabled him to exploit the very system by which we select our representatives,” the office wrote.

Prosecutors argue Santos has a “high likelihood of reoffending”

Prosecutors also argued that Santos had been “unrepentant and defiant” for years, dismissing the prosecution as a “witch hunt” and refusing to resign from Congress as his web of lies was debunked.

There are a couple of aspects to the case that make it particularly sickening:

Santos was elected in southeastern New York, not some rural part of the Deep South that brought Marjorie Taylor Greene to power.  It’s impossible to blame a lack of education for this humiliating catastrophe.

He actually is a threat to reoffend, because he’s crazier than an outhouse rat.

This whole revolting story illustrates how it’s possible that the United States re-elected Donald Trump as its president.  As a population, we have very little capacity to differentiate between a decent human being and a criminal sociopath.