Joe and Mika Obey in Advance

The "Morning Joe" hosts rush to ignore the advice of one of the most credible experts on authoritarianism.

In his book, “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century,” historian and scholar Timothy Snyder provides straightforward guidance for subverting authoritarianism. The first lesson in Snyder’s primer is not to willingly cede personal power to a would-be tyrant:

1

Do not obey in advance.

Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.

— Timothy Snyder, “On Tyranny”

But it seems that MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski could hardly wait to make their pilgrimage to Palm Beach to kiss the ring of Donald Trump after his win in the Presidential election.

The couple has been a fixture of morning political chat television. But their return visit to Mar-a-Lago this past Friday is in complete contrast to their increasingly outspoken criticism of Trump over the pa…