The root of Chen’s moral demise is something the classical Greeks identified: hubris. Chen’s popularity among his party followers, whose fervency often bordered on fundamentalism, changed him from a person with deep democratic instincts into a textbook case of a man who regards power and its prerogatives as being his by right.
陈水扁在道义上逊位的根源类似于古希腊人所指出的那样，就是傲慢自大。台湾民进党的热忱常常接近于原教旨主义。陈水扁在他的党内的声望把他从一个有着强烈民主天性的人变成了一个视权力和特权为其一己利益的人的范例。