Letter to the editor: Reader raises concerns over Trump's influence on GOP
The "cult of Trumpism"
There have long been questions about the difference between a religious community and a cult. “The Seven Signs That You’re in a Cult” seem clear:
Opposing critical thinking
Isolating members and penalizing them for leaving
Emphasizing special doctrines outside scripture
Seeking inappropriate loyalty to their leaders
Dishonoring the family unit
Crossing Biblical boundaries of behavior (versus sexual purity and personal ownership)
Separation from the Church
Now there’s the closely relevant question, is there a difference between the modern Republican Party and the cult of Trumpism? They sound and act like a form of political religion. He has been deified and his opposition, demonized.
Definitions, Cult of Personality: often associated with dictators, it arises when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods to create an idealized, heroic, and at times worshipful image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise.
That description and those 7 signs have many examples: anti-education, shunning RINO’s, stop-the-steal, Trumpism, adultery, corruption, and separation from Constitutional laws, democracy, and decency.
Why do they still support Trump?
Who are the extremists and megaphones? @CawthornforNC is the essence of cultism.
“I think the election was stolen, but have no basis.”
“There’s plenty of proof but I can’t point to any.”
“The fact that 60 cases were thrown out of court doesn’t mean my claims are without merit, it means that the system failed.”
What forms these contortions of logic and reality? Where is the de-programming recipe? How do desirable individual virtues, character strengths, personality traits reassert themselves? When do basic concepts like facts, science, truth, and justice overcome the social and psychological forces of believing and sharing fearful misinformation?
Vonnegut suggested, “Our daily news sources, newspapers and TV, are now so craven, so unvigilant on behalf of the American people, that only in books do we learn what's really going on.”
With patience, persistence, and principles, we see hope in Theodore Parker’s 1853 sermon, “The arc of the moral universe is a long one. I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see, I am sure it bends toward justice."
- Allen Brand, Bremen
This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Letter: Reader raises concerns over Trump's influence on GOP
