Prologue – Enabler

Summary

The prologue sets the stage for the book that follows. It describes where the book will go and how it will get there. It defines “enablers as followers who allow or even encourage their leaders to engage in, and then to persist in, behaviors that are destructive.” The prologue explores the all-important concept of followership, provides a brief history of relations between leaders and followers, and introduces the concept of the “leadership system,” that is, the equal importance of 1) leaders; 2) followers; 3) contexts. The concluding section of the prologue introduces distinctions among President Donald Trump’s enablers by dividing them into Trump’s Tribe and Trump’s Team. It similarly introduces the context of the book, which is the coronavirus crisis in the United States, especially during the first six months, January through June 2020.