Why are So Many Politicians Pathological Narcissists and What Can We Do About it?

Evelyn Ryan, Yourlifelifter

“Criminals, parasites, incompetents, and predators running for public office cannot announce to their targeted hosts and prey their true intent can they? What do they like all predatory and parasitic animals do? They use camouflage to mask their true intent. The truly evil members of the human race know what makes people of character work and how our fears work. They learn to read their emotional responses and manipulate their conscientiousness, compassion, and fears to direct their votes, loyalty, time, energy, and money they work for and earn to them.”

Narcissism is now a world-wide pandemic. It has infiltrated all aspects or our lives and is particularly rampant in “good deed” communities like politics, the medical community, churches, and even fundraising organizations where many emotional manipulators can exist for years going unnoticed, providing illusions of generosity and “goodness” and feeding off the unlimited supply of power and energy of innocent members of the community while hiding true intentions of superiority and self-righteousness.

Kathy Krajco, a formidable pioneer in educating the world on narcissism and narcissistic abuse, warns us in What Makes Narcissists Tick about the serious problem narcissism poses in the public sector and private nonprofit institutions that use the do-gooder and moral elitist facade to cloak their true self-righteous intentions to not do good but to be “seen as doing good” and “show how good they are by pointing at someone else and telling them how bad they are.” Politics, she points out, “is an ideal arena for narcissists…the list of them who have conned whole nations to become dictators is breathtaking.”

Why Pathological Narcissism is on the Rise

Narcissists and psychopaths, who are disordered aggressive human predators, have infiltrated society for one primary reason. Their emotional food supply is abundant. And like any predatory animal, when the food supply is plentiful, the population of predators rise.

We are a world in crisis because we have not improved our wounded faulty thinking. Because we as a collective have not healed and have not effectively battled the evil component of humanity and society who we continue to birth, promote, be exploited by, vote for in key decision-making positions, and allow to promulgate.

And the world, I am sad to report, has accepted that it is perfectly fine for members of our species to prey on our own children and on our own kind to serve the depraved. Impersonal relationships facilitated by social media appear to, at least in small part, have fueled the fire.

Corrupt Political Parties are Nothing More than Dysfunctional Families

Dictators manipulating their ways into power or foreign governments manipulating elections in other countries to their favor, like cults, supremacist groups, and terrorist organizations, are nothing more than an exaggerated form of a dysfunctional “family” filled with narcissists and codependent adults with unhealed childhood wounds and predatory group think that has gone haywire. Pathologically narcissistic and psychopathic “terrorists” recruit other vulnerable pain-addicted emotionally unhealthy individuals who like abused codependent children in families suffer from low self-worth and have not been taught to self-soothe, source their personal power, and to regulate their pain-based emotions.

Narcissists use other narcissists and the apathetic as proxies to steal power from others that they cannot and do not want to supply to their character deficient selves. It doesn’t matter if the group is a terrorist cell or the decision making body in a major world power. These are the same maladaptive practices we see in dysfunctional families who recruit other narcissists in their dirty dealings and prey on the scapegoats (e.g. the U.S. and other democratic countries and anti-narcissistic thinking innocent righteous hard-working individuals) who in many cases are empaths, kind, generous individuals who are vulnerable to codependency or as we have seen in the most recent Presidential election in the United States, the media simply doing their jobs or fearful concerned citizens voicing an opinion on Twitter. See this inspiring video of CNN’s chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour’s acceptance speech for receiving the Burton Benjamin Memorial Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists for “extraordinary and sustained achievement in the cause of press freedom.” Her acceptance speech was an inspiring appeal to “recommit to robust, fact-based reporting” in the Age of Trump.

This is the same tribal “group think” that exists to keep the group, political party, dictatorship, cult, thieving company, church, family unit, villages of our ancestors intact but that also supports honor killing, genocide, genital mutilation, racism, misogyny, homophobia, shunning, protecting child molesters and rapists, and even “building walls to keep Hispanics out” and does not respect or honor an individual’s right to free will. In fact, they punish, shun, character assassinate, jail, and even annihilate individuals for attempting to do so.

How Narcissists Get Us to Direct Our Power to Them

There is immense accuracy to the old adage that “the devil comes cloaked as everything you ever wanted.” Now, criminals, parasites, and predators running for public office cannot announce to their targeted hosts and prey their true intent can they? What do they like all predatory and parasitic animal do? Of course, they use camouflage to mask their true intent. The truly evil members of the human race know what makes people tick. They learn to read their emotional responses and manipulate their conscientiousness, compassion, and fears to direct their time, energy, and money to them.

So narcissists have added faked wealth, competence, title, power (e.g. covert or overt aggressiveness), jobs, sex, love, political position, level of stature or whatever works to their toolkit of manipulation tactics. Why? Again, the answer is simple. They are disordered, their thinking is distorted, they think they are entitled, and they permanently lack the compassion and integrity of character that would stop a normal adaptive human being from engaging in this depravity and malevolence. This is a good point to stop and explore what personal power really is and what it’s not.

What is Power and What It’s Not personalpower

Would you let the hospital janitor perform your heart surgery? Would you let a nurse perform your heart surgery? I hope not. Well, the same principles apply to anyone in a position of authority in government whose decisions and competence level can have life or death impacts on the public. This is also why education, qualifications, emotional fitness, credibility, reliability, loyalty, criminal history, communications, experience, and character traits like compassion and conscientiousness are so important to effectively completing any high risk/ high consequence job. Those of us who have dedicated our lives to maintain this high level of competency in support of our service to the public are very well aware of this. We are clear on personal power, competence and worth and have worked our back ends off to achieve a level of excellence our work and the public deserves. However, sadly, many others are not. This is why. They believe lies about what power really is. Let’s be clear here.

Aggression is not power.
Triggering pain and fear is not power.
Exploitation is not power.
Money is not power.
Being born into privilege does not make us powerful.
Entitlement is not power.

Then why do so many of us believe this?

Most of us have been conditioned to believe personal power is associated with privilege, personal strength, size, sex, beauty, brains, status quo, prestige, instant gratification, the level of attention we get, and with those we fear either on a conscious or unconscious level. Nothing could be farther from reality. While all these things may look good on the outside and be appealing, anything too good to be true usually is. Beware of glitter folks. This is all B.S. we have been brainwashed to believe in our youth and that is reinforced in all aspects of our adult lives that have a profound affect on our beliefs on our personal worth, value, lovability, pain-based emotions and our powerlessness and defenselessness.

“We can perceive those with authentic power who can actually help us as threats because they challenge our pain-based ego-driven beliefs that while faulty we are comfortable with and settled for. We unknowingly become vulnerable to emotional vampires and do not live to our true potential.”

We then live and create in life what we believe to be true or valuable based on lies and false fears. As a result, we routinely give up our power or witness others giving up their power to good actors who use aggression, manipulation, money or privilege overtly or covertly to trigger our fears and powerlessness. We believe falsely that anything that relieves our pain is value-adding. And more significantly, we can perceive those with authentic power who can actually help us as threats because they challenge our pain-based ego-driven beliefs that while faulty we are comfortable with and settled for. We unknowingly become vulnerable to emotional vampires and do not live to our true potential.

So, is acting powerful? Are lies powerful? Is manipulation powerful? They may gratify you temporarily if you pay to be entertained by them. They may be impactful in the long run if they trigger fears you believe you are powerless and defenseless to and only they can alleviate. That, folks, is not power. It is abusive exploitation of power from the vulnerable, the wounded. Anything truly powerful does not have to act, lie, manipulate, or exploit. Why? It has no need to. Compassionate people, don’t forget, would focus on protecting the vulnerable, the sick, and anyone in need, not exploit them for their personal gain.

“Anything truly powerful does not have to act, lie, manipulate, or exploit. Why? It has no need to.”

Narcissists are Parasites by Nature

We all have to work to become humans of excellence, humans of integrity. No one based on their level of privilege, label, title, looks, authority, sex, or role is exempt from this basic rule of humanity. There is no other way. The level of our integrity of character including our empathy and moral compass help us create authentic value and reap the benefits from the value we create and willfully share with others, not steal value from others we use to benefit ourselves. It simply doesn’t work that way. It is irrational to think otherwise.

We, nevertheless, are social beings and cannot accomplish this in a vacuum. So normal functioning people work to use their experiences to develop the lessons, knowledge, skills, competence they use to create value in their lives, relationships, work, community, and in the world. This is real power that we project out to others. This is how we all become humans of excellence and accomplish goals we are worthy of. We earn them! And we openly share that value at will with others we choose to share it with and they with us.

If you are not aware of this, then immediately please bring this into you level of consciousness. Because if you do not, you will remain vulnerable to pathological narcissistic politicians, con artists, psychopaths, bullies, love interests, and abusers who prey on those with the lack of knowledge of their real worth and power and personal authority.

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Narcissists are wired for mooching and betrayal. They permanently lack normal functioning abilities that motivate humans to work and earn these benefits and that would prevent them from conning and stealing these from anyone vulnerable to their manipulation tactics and, in particular, empaths. This is why they despise laws, courts, accountability, scrutiny, regulations, oversight and literally anything or anyone that will prevent them from exploiting or that expose them for who they really are, the weakest humans with lowest of integrity of character. They are disordered individuals who have become human parasites, permanent moochers, cheaters, who prey on the benefits others work for and have earned. They are forever unable to fend for themselves or sustain their own happiness.

Learn more about the natural but parasitic nature of narcissists.

Learn more about why cheaters cheat?

Beware of glitter, folks! Turds can’t be polished. They can be rolled in glitter but never lose their stench. Truth, on the other hand, is like gold. It may tarnish but can be polished and never loses it value or brilliance.

Narcissistic Politicians Lie Consistently to Con You

Pathological narcissists who are rampant in politics are pathological liars. (As a side note, I would love to see their pants actually catch fire). Why? The answer again is simple! They have to be and want to be. It is just part of their natural but parasitic nature.

Learn more here about the natural but parasitic nature of narcissists.

“Pathological narcissists, who are rampant in politics are pathological liars. (As a side note, I do wish their pants would catch fire). Why? The answer again is simple! They have to be and want to be. It is just a part of their natural and parasitic nature.”

Narcissistic politicians and candidates who cannot and do not want to work to develop character and competence covertly or overtly yet aggressively con the vulnerable in the public to ignore their basic instincts, core beliefs, and sense of reason and decency. They routinely engage in “crazy making” to distract you from the facts and invalidate your “authentic emotions” so you will forget that in a democratic republic, we all, regardless of our differences, have a right to achieve life, liberty, happiness and to our own opinions regardless of our beliefs, state of our emotional health or level of comfort in the state of affairs. Of course, no one likes rules or laws or regulations but we know they exist to provide limits that, in the short or long term, protect us from harm, create order, and prevent chaos and keep us all on the up and up.

“They routinely engage in ‘crazy making’ to distract you from the facts and invalidate your ‘authentic emotions’ so you will forget that in a democratic republic, we all, regardless of our differences, have a right to achieve life, liberty, happiness and to our own opinions regardless of our beliefs, state of our emotional health or level of comfort in the state of affairs.”

Narcissists try to stealthily convince you that people in legitimate need are “moochers.” They want us to forget the vulnerable among us like the sick, those prejudiced against, abuse victims, minorities, and the elderly need our help and it is our civic duty to help them. These are conditions all humans face that can prevent us from acting on our basic rights and meeting our basic needs. “Why,” you may think, “would anyone do these horrible things?” The answer is simple. They are disordered and want to direct our time, energy, money, and power to them. To do this effectively, they must get us to not care for other folks and to fear or hate them instead. You may now think, “how can someone get another person to not care for another, to fear and hate them?”

Well, sadly, lots easier than you may think if they get you to believe that the person even those of the same sex and those you care about are a threat to you, and convince you through lies and character assassination that he or she is not worthy of your compassion. More so, they get you to believe only they can save you from these fake threats and alleviate your fears and only they are worthy of your attention and adulation. How do they do this? Again the answer is pretty simple.

They lie. Narcissists bomb us with lies and irrational beliefs to skew our perceptions of our own (male or female) and others’ personal power and worth. They frequently surround themselves with a posse of low-character “flying monkeys” who support them in the “lie bombing.” They target the primary beliefs that trigger our fears and shame related to our self-esteem, personal power, and safety. In short, these are the primary beliefs that support our personal joy, health, power, and happiness.

So they lie pathologically to create doubt, confusion, uncertainty, and chaos so they can manipulate us more effectively. They are emotional moochers. This tactic like the old bait and switch is as old as the hills, but nevertheless, is very effective. Convincing you that you or others in need are weak, of less value, or are a danger, a threat, makes us seem less believable, weak, and unworthy and therefore less human. Like I always say if women had no power why are so many trying to convince us we have none and trying to take our rights away? And ultimately by getting you to believe the lies, they can more readily get you to abandon your natural desire to care for, empathize and help yourself and others who legitimately are in need. They manipulate you to believe that you and the vulnerable are not worthy of your basic rights to life, liberty, and happiness because you are “moochers” who are stealing from those more worthy. Remember The Wizard of Oz? The all power Oz turned out to be nothing but a bunch of distracting smoke and mirrors directing you to pay no attention to the man behind the mirror exposed by a scruffy dog. The Wizard was a narcissist. This, remember, are common tactics of all pathological narcissists who routinely exploit the vulnerable and abusing their power.

“Narcissists bomb us with lies and irrational beliefs to skew our perceptions of our own (male or female) and others’ personal power and worth. The frequently surround themselves with a posse of low-character “flying monkeys” who support them in the “lie bombing.” They target the primary beliefs that trigger our fears and shame related to our our self-esteem, personal power, and safety. In short, these are the primary beliefs that support our personal joy, health, power, and happiness.”

All Humans Have Basic Needs for Survival

We must not forget that we all have basic needs for survival regardless of our level of privilege, status, and title. These include, food, love, shelter, safety, self-actualization (achieving your potential, happiness). To meet these needs, sometimes we give and sometimes we take because our living conditions change. Bad things happen to good people, right? Nothing is ever static. So “mooching” clearly is part of the human condition and part of all relationships and our existence as individuals and as a society since we exist as a nation (and no longer live in tribes and a feudal system).

No one is immune, poor or rich, privileged or not from “mooching.” Some of us because of disabilities or hardships may have to legitimately mooch more than others because we are not able to create, generate or return the resources we need to support our basic needs. Narcissists, however, do not mooch legitimately. They are intentional emotional moochers who want us to forget that those in a civil ordered ethically-based compassionate society take care of each other and that we have laws that protect our rights and the rights of the vulnerable to help us maintain order from chaos. We also have our own personal standards, ethics and morals we live by they want us to forget. They, instead, deliberately divide us and create chaos to imbalance power so they can more easily steal our power from us.

Disparities in character and emotional fitness can cause power imbalance in any abusive family, organization, government, political party, employer, relationship where the members use their authority to exploit the rights of the vulnerable to benefit themselves. These abusers, then, stealthily interfere with our rights to life, liberty, and happiness by intentionally exploiting resources and opportunities that allow us to act on those rights. Governments, for example, use political authority to get our support or votes; in employment, job status and authority to keep us sub-servant; and in families, love and acceptance to abuse us. All test and demonstrate the value added from integrity of character and the level of emotional fitness of all participating members, givers and takers alike.

There is a vital lesson for us to all learn here!

We cannot ever take for granted what it takes to support order or forget the importance of the balance of power and integrity of character in ensuring not only our personal health and happiness but also peace and harmony in our families, communities, states, and society. And we must never forget that acquiring these takes plain hard work.

“We cannot ever take for granted what it takes to support order or forget the importance of the balance of power and integrity of character in ensuring not only our personal health and happiness but also peace and harmony in our families, communities, states, and society. And we must never forget that acquiring these takes plain hard work.”

What Can We Do as a Person, a People, a Nation

Well, there is lots we can do and lots we shouldn’t do. At the top of the “do not” list is to hunker down in shame or fear. At the top of the “do” list is to take actions and resist so we can take our power back and maximize the positive impact of the truly good and emotionally healthy people with integrity of character, intellect, and compassion and to stop promoting the evil component of society. So now more than ever it is critical to be intelligent in our choices and to not not let our fears and lack of information and state of our emotional health drive them. We must be vigilant and informed in all our choices and especially in whom we choose to love, associate with, trust, and choose as our lawmakers, senators, the head of state! We can work on improving our own emotional health. As we heal, our children will heal through us. The onus is on the United States government and on us as citizens to ensure we can confidently answer this question as it applies to all personnel running for key elected decision-making roles in government and especially those at the highest levels of government:

“Are these candidates competent and emotionally fit for duty and running an honest campaign from the heart and with authentic duty to the greater good or are they knowingly and intentionally lying and making false promises to their constituents and exploiting their fears to win in order to abuse the authority of the position to benefit themselves?”

How do we achieve this? First, we must heal and educate ourselves on narcissism. As we heal, our children will heal through us. They will develop the empathy, self-worth, self-reliance, and emotional intelligence required to succeed in life, work, and relationships and maximize their power to themselves and to the world. I provide tons of healing information, tools and resources in this Blog, the Yourlifelifter website and Facebook page, and in my book Take Your Power Back: Healing Lessons, Tips and Tools for Abuse Survivors.

Second, we must learn what authentic power really is and how it applies to all humans regardless of their sex, privilege, or appearance, the tactics emotional manipulators use to con our power from us to benefit them, and what makes us vulnerable to them.

Third, we can stand up to and also stop voting diagnosed pathological narcissists into key political offices. We can be mindful and wise in our choices of those with the integrity of character and other qualities, skills, knowledge and abilities they have worked for and earned that support them being an effective world leader and who are competent to make informed decisions based on what is best for others, the country, the world and not just themselves, profoundly weak people who cannot generate their own power and steal that of others. Educating ourselves about narcissism will allow us easier to recognize them and assess the state of our own emotional health that makes us vulnerable to their manipulation. In this way, we can expose and defuse them. The U. S. government can also start screening the mental and emotional health, along with the financial and character integrity of anyone who is hired into a critical political position no different than what all high risk industries are, by law or ethics, required to do. This is how we collectively heal and take our power back as people and as a nation and get us back on track to allow us equally and unhindered to act freely on our divine rights we collectively work for and pay for to pursue life, liberty, and happiness