We need more nay-sayers.
NAY = Not About You, Donald!
AY = About You, Donald.
EVERY public appearance and most Tweets he twists to be about Donald as the shining light hero in his own mind.
Let's start responding NAY when he does this. It's Not About You, Donald.
4
The use of the adjective “wacky” to describe California’s ranked-choice voting is offensive and dismissive. We are among a growing number of states and communities using it, with good reason and the support of our citizenry. The League of Women Voters (big promoters of all things “wacky”) supports ranked-choice voting and people unfamiliar with it can read a quick pro/con explanation of it on the League’s website. On behalf of my home state, I would like an apology from your editorial board.
6
What can you say about a Dumb Bell like Trump, that thinks he doesn't have to prepare for his meeting with Kim Jong Un, pointing to his lack of preparation in the debates against Hillary Clinton.
News Flash for Trump, you did win the election by way of the electoral college, but lost the majority of the vote by almost 3 million votes, and lost the three debates big time to Hillary.
11
"Assuming that American democracy endures, a party organized around a single extreme personality seems like a brittle proposition." Chilling words to remember this November. The core of trump's message is about us vs them. The 'them' is anybody and everybody who does not support trump himself, and by extension his family and friends. Unfortunately, the republican voters have bought into that lock, stock, and barrel. There is no greater threat to a democracy than demagoguery. When the 'facts' that republicans operate from all come from trump's head, no amount of contradictory evidence will convince them otherwise. This is a different presidency in every respect, and only time will tell how American democracy will endure. Unfortunately, it might be too late for some of us.
6
I object to the characterization of our primary system in California as “wacky”.
While it certainly has some unintended consequences and will need further tuning, it is an important step to limiting the reach and influence of political parties.
Parties are not mentioned anywhere in the Constitution and enjoy a completely undeserved and false legitimacy in our political system. They derive their authority (largely unquestioned) from custom and tradition rather than law.
I am opposed to political parties and that is why, as a proud “decline to state” California voter, I am happy to support our “jungle” primary as another example of California’s leadership.
3
Trump has managed to convert the Republican party into his party; of that there is little doubt. But in doing that he has also made the entire Republican party aware of the reality that ignorance, boorishness, and bigotry are winning qualities. Why shouldn't the rest of the party adopt these traits and embrace its messenger-in-chief?
5
"Forget the longstanding Republican orthodoxy about the wonders of free trade."
That orthodoxy was a lie all along anyway. Just like supposed Republican orthodoxy about the magic of the markets -- vanishes when it comes to renewable energy, for example. They just lie. They hate government except insofar as it can enrich them: that is their bedrock.
John Boehner seems to have some self-satisfying idea of what the Republican party was prior to Trump. But its members have not changed. They are what they've always been: craven shysters with disregard or even malevolent intent toward anyone not in the donor class. Trump just brings them out more, burnishes them. So, like a true Republican, Boehner can not handle the truth -- can not acknowledge or own the sorry excuse for a political party his democracy-destroying faction has been for decades.
7
Maybe the cult leader will do a "Jim Jones" with his followers.
7
Republicans have been using dog whistle statements to push their core ideas like racism and misogyny for decades, so don’t be surprised that their voters went tor a guy who simply said these things out loud. Roger Ailes would be proud of what he has accomplished with good old fashioned propaganda.
6
The Republican Party isn't taking a nap anywhere unfortunately. It has been wide awake, working hard to align itself with the likes of Fox News, the Tea Party and now Trump. The Republicans' moral corruption shouldn't surprise anyone. But the true test for the rest of the country is to now come together as a united front against this atrocity.
9
I like the cult of Trump versus the cult of Obama. Nothing wrong with that.
2
It's not my father's Republican party. Where are all the honorable Republicans who would object to Trump's dismantling the rule-of-law at home and abroad and would stand up for values of decency and honesty? I guess they are all, like my father, dead.
5
Trump's popularity might be at 87 percent, but please know it is 87 percent of a very, very small sample of the Republican party. I wonder how popular he is with everyone in America? Perhaps the folks who conduct polls could step out of their comfort zone and ask a much larger set of the population?
5
My dream is that Donald Trump pardons Muhammed Ali and Ali's family rejects the gesture, emphatically and publicly.
6
Shouldn't the headline read the Cult of Fox News?
7
The republican party is the closest organization in America to the old Soviet style, Communist Party. Follow the party line, vote when and how you're told to vote! Don't try to think, that's been done for you. The leader is always right! His understanding is greater than tour's and his logic is infallible. And, we are always watching you!
5
Consider Trump's 87 percent approval by his base as a symptom of America's malaise. This is the stuff of Hitler's rise to power. One segment of the country has decided to grab total control of the country for themselves regardless of the consequences. The present reinterpretation of immigration laws by ICE is on a par with the Nuremberg Laws passed by Hitler's Reichstag in 1935. Bluntly, there is a move afoot to tear down the United States as it has existed from its founding and replace it with an authoritarian regime which will privilege male citizens of white, Northern European descent while disenfranchising, deporting and just plain disappearing black and brown bodied and Asian citizens and immigrants.
12
Donald Trump is despicable. The republican party giving him tacit approval is deplorable. The base of supporters blindly following him no matter how horrible he acts is disgusting.
Misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular person is considered a cult. Does anyone have a better example?
6
Cults never end well, especially for the cult.
8
Donald Trump has, and is, putting into place the policy and law that he had in the platform that got him elected(though fortunately for him his opponent was seen by much of the nation as horrible). The NY Times strongly disagree with his policies, and directly and indirectly denigrates those that voted for him( and in great percentages continue to support him).
Us "deplorables" support(in no particular order) reducing regulation on business, banking and exploration, putting into place conservative judges, reducing taxes, crushing ISIS and unwavering support for Israel, the peace talks with North Korea, pulling out of the Iran and Paris(non) treaties/accords, leveling the playing field with our trade partners and an overall stellar, strong economy. We also have seen no signs of collusion between the President and Russia, but see clear evidence of wrong doing by the HRC campaign, as well as the leaders of the FBI.
The nation recognizes that Mr. Trump is not a graceful and articulate man and is flawed , but half the nation also sees a man who indeed accomplishes what he sets out to do, and believes is making America a better country.
Differing opinions always exist. Sadly, Trump derangement syndrome allows usually dignified people to reach the point of hate toward the President, as well as nearly half the country that supports him.
3
Forget policy. Forget ideology. The name of the game for Democratic candidates has been to flaunt their Trump hatred.
2
Racism, bigotry, amorality, corruption, lacking all integrity in a leader that is revered and defended at all costs, has no other word to define it other than cult.
7
In other words none of your reporting has been effective in stopping Trump or reducing his voter support.
4
The Second American Civil War broke out in 2018. This is a war about American values and the way of life. Team Red led by the insurgent cult Leader staged a blitzkrieg that demolished many civil institutions designed to protect Democracy in America. An early casualties was the Rule of Law. The foundations of the Rule of Law were weakened by sacking the FBI Director. Despite the best efforts of a former Marine appointed to head the defence, the Rule of Law appeared to shatter when the Leader decided it could serve the national interest to declare himself above the law. He could proceed to pardon all his know associates and family members and cap that by pardoning himself. The guerrilla tactics employed by Team Red completely bamboozled the generals commanding the resistance. Their faith in the institutional defences made them blind to the dangers posed by new tools developed for Team Red including an alternative reality projected on the cult members by a weaponised Fox. As defensive positions manned by Team Blue continued to crumble in the face of unorthodox manoeuvres by Team Red, the commentariat collectively scratched their heads and commented ever more loudly. But, the noise generated by the commentators merely induced the GOP to take a nap thereby potentially neutralising the most potent defence of Democracy. The situation was so dire that one of the national guardians, the NYT, feared for where the country might be when the GOP wakes up.
2
How will it witk out?
It will work out great for Republicans. It’s a party of people feeling beaten down—beaten down by women out competing men, beat down by their kids rushing away from their small towns and farms to the city, beat down by a black man being president, beat down by robots and global competition, best down by the young’s cintemot, beat down by old age
Now we have a president who borrows $2 trillion dollars to give to corporations to make them more competitive, who will impose tariffs to make American companies more competitive, and will give the finger to everybkeader outside the US except Putin.
He will maje America feel big and great again without any republican doing anything, guving up anything. They love him for it
And if it all falls apart they will blane it on Demicrat’s welfare programs.
It will turn out Pefect!!!
4
"This week’s primary elections underscored the striking degree to which President Trump has transformed the Republican Party from a political organization into a cult of personality."
You've just described the Nazi Party of 1920s-30s Germany.
9
Every cult has that creepy time when the leader starts to exhibit more and more outrageous behavior, and everyone doubles down on professing their faith and loyalty outwardly. They close ranks and circle the wagons. Until finally they drink the look-aid. We need a Dorothy to throw water on the Orange Menace before that happens. Then he’ll melt away and we can all sing ding dong the witch is dead, and Jim Comey can get his heart.
6
Is History repeating itself once again? Study the rise of Fascism in Germany and how Hitler came to power. Think it can’t happen again? It is.....
4
Ugh. The Cult of Trump. When I saw this title I thought it was referring to Republican politicians.
Nope. The real Cult of Trump is the Republican voters.
Apparently 87% of Republicans are just fine with watching this cruel, hateful moron trash our democracy and trample on minorities and the less fortunate. And for what? A measly extra couple of bucks on their paycheck? Shame on them. SHAME ON ALL OF THEM.
I will never, ever understand their point of view.
We truly are two nations.
12
I disagree with the editors' characterization of California's primary system as "wacky". Your own Mr. Brooks recently wrote a column favoring a tiered system with multiple candidates regardless of party affiliation, and he made a very good case. In primaries, how many times have we, in our various districts, had to choose a good candidate and discard another one, equally good? How should mere party affiliation figure into our choices? Maine, by the way, is experimenting with a similar multi-candidate system... a plebiscite issue vigorously opposed by the state legislature. That alone should tell us that the system is definitely worth a try.
A parliamentary political party is a corporation formed by people with common political objectives to nominate and run candidates for public offices. When people cross over to vote against the stronger candidates of opposing parties, the overall quality of general election candidates is usually reduced.
2
They went all in for Hitler and Mussolini too, didn't they?
That worked out well.
5
Yeah there was no Obama cult.
1
The Republican Party won the struggling, addicted vote of white middle America on the trifecta, abortion, guns, and religion. Possibly, Russia helped with their hands on the scales.
Trump put a hat on it and was at home in the adoration of the unwashed or all others willing to also enrich the king. He was the King of reality television, a mafia don, and a birther, another trifecta.
This was a marriage made in "heaven" or more than likely hell.
5
"This week’s primary elections underscored the striking degree to which President Trump has transformed the Republican Party from a political organization into a cult of personality."
Political organization? Hardly.
The GOP may be a cult of personality now, but that transition wouldn't have been possible, at least not so quickly, had the party not already been a thoroughly corrupt gang if unprincipled thugs who abandoned democracy long ago and care about three things -- further enriching the wealthy, maximizing their power, and hurting the poor. If Trump is the seed, the Republican Party is the fertilizer-rich soil ideal for his growth. They would truly be a match made in hell if such a place existed.
"The Democratic approach may be more a function of default (or desperation) than design..."
As usual the Times Editirial
6
Hitler is what Hitler does. We have to be the dumbest people in the world to tolerate this mess.
11
Opinions are like A**H***s! Everyone has one and they usually stink.
Why is the NY Times and the rest of the mainstream media so afraid to call out Trump for the Hitler like effect he has had on our people and culture?
In a couple of years, it may be too late.
8
Having just spent a week out on the ocean on a cruise with 3 Trump supporters, I tried to find out what it is about him that so appeals to them. Not one could give me an answer to support him other than citing his opposition to the mainstream of politics. They couldn't cite one example of anything. They're all simply"Trump supporters". I found each of them uninformed, susceptible to fake news & lying & utterly PATHETIC. I read EVERYTHING. I watch news from both sides of the fence. At least, if you're going to support someone, know what the hell it is they stand for. Trump stands for NOTHING but hate, racism, bigotry & Russia.
14
The Republican Party started its death spiral with the election of Ronald Reagan, and is all but dead and buried with the less than appealing and failure called Donald Trump. May it Rest In Peace. It was once a great and viable party.
2
Donald Trump won almost exclusively with his enormous charisma, despite all the faults he displayed much of his life.
To those who knew him closely & by word of mouth, he has been a buffoon. And the bigger shots who thought they had plenty of clout railed against him to no avail.
The reason for his incongruous appearance to his detractors and admirers, unlike Ronald Reagan or FDR, is I think because he’s not normal. He has a definable psychiatric disorder, hypomania, which is much more pronounced since he became president. He’s impatient. He can’t maintain his focus on a subject. In the debates with Hillary Clinton, he did well in the beginning. But after about 30-40 minutes, he loses his focus and he consistently lost all 3 debates.
But his admirers were looking for any trace of hopeful signs while ignoring his shortcomings.
Still, if Comey’s letter 11 days before the election were not sent he wouldn’t have won. With HRC, people were looking for any reason not to vote for her & they found more than enough. With Trump people were looking for ANY reason to vote for him.
4
Tyrannies - or perhaps toned down to "mere" autocracies - have traditionally been based on personality cults. Mao. Stalin, Hitler. Napoleon. Louis XIV. N. Korea's series of "Kim"s. Julius Caesar. Genghis Kahn. Is Trump a tyrant? Not really. He wants the unfettered powers of a tyrant, though, and his personality cult is and has been engaged in assaults on all of the institutions that frustrate his insatiable lust for unquestioned power. The legitimate press. The judiciary. Federal agencies conducting the country's business. Numerous members of his own cabinet as they walk through the revolving door of the White House and out again. Our institutions stand in his way, and that makes us very lucky. The tyrants mentioned above weren't fettered by such institutions, and they weren't stupid. In our case, however... (no, I won't write that today).
1
Loathe.
Trump supporters phony baloney claims that they have somehow been slighted and overlooked is nothing but a lame excuse to practice racism, misogyny, and other antisocial, abnormal, sick and ugly ways of thinking and acting. It is past time that these people were shunned and marginalized instead of raising them up as people who somehow deserve something that Trump says he will offer them. Trump knows a sucker when he sees one and in the case of the Trump suckers, he suckered millions of them only to leave them standing out in the cold with their racist noses pressed against the window pane. What will they do with their hate absent their leader when he is frog marched off to prison?
11
I don't see anything attractive about Trump. It's very weird to me that 30% of people do. I hope that the Democratic party will embrace the values in districts where they are running, rather than a national platform dictated by DC. I would rather have an ideologically diverse Democrat party in Washington because it might allow the compromise needed to govern. There are 2 things that annoy me about the Republican party right now
-cloying loyalty to self-serving ideologies in interest of big donors
-chronic failure in Congressional oversight
Looking back on the Savings and Loans scandals, Democratics resigned for corruption and a Republican president, George Bush senior, raised taxes and froze military spending to reset the economy and save innocent depositors. Tax conservatives used George Bush's subsequent loss at re-election to strike fear in Republicans ever since, but it might have been that Bush, as R. Reagan's VP was too closely associated with 'trickle down', and Clinton was an outsider, like Trump. Tomorrow is another day.
Donald Trump has not changed the Republican Party , rather the Republican Party changed DJT. Trump was not like this before. The present Republican Party is the creation of FOX TV and right wing talk radio. I am not surprised that 87% Republican voters support and approve Trump. The Republican Party did not stand behind McCain when he was unfairly criticized. How Trump got nomination defeating 16 veteran Republican Senator or Governors? The Answer is FOX TV and right wing talk radio. Look at the speaker Paul Ryan who is not defending Gowdy but defending Nunes. This guy is shameless and spineless. He is also a product of present Republican Party. We have to worry for our country and future of our democracy and American value.
2
"Mr. Trump’s favorability rating among Republicans is at 87 percent"
I'm surprised because at the Wall Street Journal it seemed like virtually all the Republicans were against Trump's love for trade wars.
Off topic: After throwing out the Republican Party in 2016, today I threw out the Wall Street Journal which is infested with Republicans. Now I have a subscription to the New York Times. I love this place.
4
I guess it's been so long since we've had a strong dynamic leader, it's obviously a great shock to the system and especially the likes of the editorial board of the NYT. Milquetoast, scripted automatons and professional politicians are more to their liking. Cult of personality? History is made by such men, for better or worse. In my opinion, Trump is changing things for the better. We should be rooting for him to succeed. It sure beats the alternative, namely, overturning the election results, dragging the country through a protracted impeachment on contrived and baldly partisan grounds, and sowing political discord and a tit for tat politically poisonous (if it isn't poisonous enough), environment for decades to come and turning the country upside down because the Democrats still can't get over the fact that they lost to this guy who they have utter contempt for. Interestingly, it's Trump's personality that is his biggest strength and what the left hates him for the most. Viva La personalitie'!
5
Why is "The Cult of Trump" should be a surprise to anyone? Even those with a cursory knowledge of history can tell you that the humanity has seen this many times before, as this is part and parcel of a populist demagogue taking over a party or a country.
We have seen that in Germany when Adolf Hitler took over the Nazi Party. We have seen that in Italy, when Il Duce (Benito Mussolini) took over the National Fascist Party. Today we see that in Turkey, with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP). The same applies to the Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte and the PDP–Laban party.
What is most disturbing in the above list is that these "leaders": 1) are in fact very insecure and easily influenced and manipulated by those they come to trust; 2) are obsessed with their image as the "strong man"; and, 3) do not hesitate to start wars, which then have to be won at any cost.
Let's all pray that Mr. Mueller preempt the up-coming war.
4
The Republican Party died under the Chaney administration. Now, Teapublicans hang from Trump apron strings as Trump himself hangs from Putin's puppet strings. Soon Aaron Burr will be pardoned, elevating The Donald to the top position of American Traitors...
1
"This may well signal growing unease among congressional Republicans with Mr. Trump’s conspiracy mongering." Good thing you immediately pointed out in the next sentence that these two are retiring.
As the the GOP "taking a nap somewhere" and the question of there is the country will be with it finally wakes up, who and why is so sure that they will wake up from "the nap". Is anyone so sure the Republican Party is merely napping or falling into a permanent coma from which there is no waking up?
2
It’s great to have a president in the WH who’s a real leader, as opposed to someone who talks pretty and accomplishes nothing.
3
The Editorial Board posed an excellent question at the end of their editorial.
1
If he tells his cult members to mix up Jonestown Koolaid and drink deep chances are good many of them would do it. Just to "spite the libs..."
The Republican party no longer exists. To any Republicans who are not in this insane personality cult please vote Democrat this November.
Two more years of this hellscape could end the "American Experiment" that started with our Constitution in 1789.
2
Any member of Congress who publicly supports yet privately loathes Trump is being a coward.
5
Maybe the truth about the US is that it is a nation founded on Darwinian principles, the law of the jungle, eat or be eaten. The colonists came here to steal anything they could get. They killed or displaced 25 million native people, enslaved or slaughtered 12 million Africans. The white Christian European ethos classified all nonwhites as less than human so it justified killing or enslaving them to save them from their non white culture. The WASP mentality was based on a white racist dominating legal system administered and aided by the biblical interpretation preached in the pulpits of Enhglish congregations. What better way to destroy other cultures than to invoke the divine word of their white god. So here we are, all these years later still holding on to that white European racist religious indoctrination. I knew the world was going in reverse when Trump held up a bible and called himself a KKKristian, a true believer. The Anti-Christ is here in living color, Orange.
5
Whenever I feel the US may have turned a corner, become a moral nation. I have to remind myself of our true roots : genocide and slavery. It is important for us to all remember where we came from and what we truly are. This helps put Trump into perspective. I just hope our next genocide is on a small scale and ends quickly. Rest assured genocide is coming....
1
After WW2 we spent decades trying to figure out how an educated Germany could fall for the hateful ramblings of the Third Reich, then how a cultured people of the Soviet Union could allow Stalin to take their suffering and make it about himself while making things worse for them with the population not recoiling from it.
This country will never again be able to sit in judgement of any other nation that allows themselves to be bamboozled by an amoral leader with no sense of decency.
6
What Trump has exposed is the ugly underbelly of US society. It was there before him, and it will be there after him. He has given voice to those that do not recognize ignorance, racism, misogyny and lying when they see it. They are not intellectually curious, their desire to discover truth is paper-thin. These people exist to some degree in every country, but in the US they now have a loud mouthpiece who instinctively plays them like a fiddle. Hopefully November will see some checks put in place.
2
This cult is not as bad as the Apple cult, or perhaps Scientology, or any religion. Or, any fetish or fad, like Radical PC.
1
and Obama didn't have the dem party and he msm praising everything he did,said or even thought.
1
I really think you guys are going to re-elect this buffoon. You did it with George W and you will do it with Trump. Pity you all, and especially a Democratic party that is spinning its wheels in Trump's mud. Trump lies, Democrats shrug their shoulders. Decline of the American Empire 2018....
5
cult:
• a misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular person or thing: a cult of personality surrounding the leaders.
1
Trump is working out very well for the Republicans, for the economy, for our national security...
2
The Times wrings its hands in this typical editorial with magisterial disappointment, "assuming" that democracy will survive.
That assumption is shaky. The Dept. of Justice retreats day by day, and those of us who have read the Constitution can only look bleakly at our thin line of defense: Mueller; i.e., the cops.
This is the same FBI that turns somersaults and accidentally shoots patrons in a bar, and which compiled a thick dossier on MLK and which, recall, with a slack-jawed director, supported Richard Nixon nearly until the end.
The cops, sadly, are backed by courts that are as likely as not to capitulate to presidential claims of national security, no matter how spurious. Judges typically emerge from the go-along crowd.
Understand, Times. No one reads you in the Ozarks or in our expanding evangelical hinterlands. There, Trump is saving us from the foreign wickedness that has impoverished the uneducated working class, gutted our health-care, ruined our schools and drinking water and, worst of all, sent us a traitorous president who was both black and foreign. We narrowly escaped the horror of Hillary.
It's not amusing that they want to "lock 'er up." Start with her and move on to an already weak, corporately disjointed media, and maintain order by suppressing protests.
Your assumption that democracy will survive seems a wispy hope. Take off your gloves, Times, and understand where we are. If you're going down, go down fighting!
2
Donald Trump, and his GOP enablers, are the greatest single threat to the great American experiment in our history. Trump and the Republicans are systematically destroying our governmental institutions, while pitting Americans each other at every opportunity. Trump, with the help of both Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, are destroying the Atlantic Alliance and further alienating our traditional Allies solely for the benefit of Russia. Listen to Trump this morning. Never has such a graven liar, who has demonstrated no shame or decency at any point in his career, claimed while he loves our country, he loves Russia even more. Bring Russia back to the G-7, he says, after they made him president! The contempt that both Trump and the GOP leadership has for the American public knows no bounds. The only solution to rescue our nation in November is to vote against every single Republican on every ballot regardless of position. Then the Republicans may develop some intestinal fortitude and decide to represent the American people rather than a tinhorn despot.
4
There are normally two sides to every argument or position, whether political, economic or even ethical. But there is precious little about what Trump is doing to this country that has a legitimate POV in his favor; except perhaps for the one articulated in this editorial. Trump is the Pied Piper of his base and he's dragging the rest of our country and the world with him and his base over a very high cliff.
1
Demand his resignation. Front page editorial, above the fold, every day. Each day cite a new reason. Recruit WAPO and any other newspaper, radio or TV station, digital publication. Ask for respected notables of any political stripe to pen three paragraph back up messages which would also run on the front page.
The Fake president engages his hubris when he is enraged. Let's infuriate him all day and all night.
1
It's good that a few bulletproof or near-retirement Republican leaders are finally behaving and speaking more responsibly, having perhaps profited less than they expected by going low with Trump. As insiders, they likely foresee Trump's demise as followers awaken to the practical costs of their indulging in this miserable administration.
1
No point in calling them ‘Republicans’ anymore. They’re the Trump Party from here on out.
1
The best way I have found to look at Trump and the Republican party in general now is that they are scammers. You know how it clicks in your mind when you get a scam call or Email. They want to take things from you. Your money or rights or happiness or freedoms.
Their base gets off seeing their side bullying the other side.
The Democrats had better learn how to fight back because I don't want anyone looking after my best interests by rolling their eye and gasping in disbelief. This is real right now. stand up and call them liars and thieves. Don't rabbit punch them , kick them where it hurts.
4
I'm waiting for Trump to suggest removing the two term presidency limit and that the presidency itself be passed down to his family....maybe the North Korea summit is to get some advice.
2
The only way to defeat Queens Donnie the Philistine is for the Democratic party not to loom large and go with a blue dog. high hard fastball center left. Good pitching stops mediocre and good hitting in baseball & politics. Don't go for De blasio or any other lefty or pseudo one.
1
I would suggest we call this the cult of power, perhaps even the cult of power at all costs.
Republicans do and say whatever they can or must to get elected, to stay elected and to amass power. It doesn't seem to matter which buffoon is in the Oval Office as long as that clown is a Republican. What I find baffling is how ordinary people are scammed by these lies to align themselves with the GOP. Do ordinary folks really think Republicans will share the power or its outcomes?
2
Trump's true core of 35% will not keep him in office in 2020. The independents who did not like Hillary held their nose and voted for Trump. They now see what a horrible mistake they made. America does not need a reality tv president which is what Trump is. He told his staff upon taking the office to approach each day like it was a reality tv show day and by the end of the day vanquish your enemy. What a way to govern. It makes me want to throw up.
3
Trump's latest ploy to get the "NFL players who kneel" to reveal "friends, family" who they's like pardoned, is a total scam.
You know he just wants to know who definitely NOT to pardon.
To say the Dems are “pluralistic” is kind. Will,Rogers,used to say, “I don’t belong to an organized party. I’m a Democrat.”
1
But the Barack Obama "Hope" poster by Shepard Fairey absolutely was not an example of a cult of personality. Gotcha!
3
Hopefully not as badly as going all out for Hillary Clinton proved.
2
Trump literally hijacked the Republican party and has turned it into the modern day version of the know Nothings . It seems bravery is now relegated only to those who fight our wars from those who should be fighting to keep our democracy alive in Congress by standing up to the bully and his thumbs .The timidity of Republicans to excoriate and condemn Trump for his behavior regardless of his high rating is very telling . America is definitely up for sale , this is Trump's America and sadly his gullible supporters are in thrall and will rue their flirtation sometime down the road .
1
"The Cult of Trump."
The media?
(Only somewhat kidding.)
The below6 figure Democrat was totally forgotten by the Party. While the above 6 figure guys were getting rich they were getting poorer. And they got their revenge.
Between various trade and security deals from which the United States have voluntarily withdrawn or is about to be pushed out, it will be sooner rather then later that we will have a prolong market tumble, and it will be the economy stupid.
I believe that the extraordinary, rampant adulation of Trump by his base is actually due, in large measure, to the failure of Republicans in Congress in denouncing this clown and educating (leading) their constituents about the real dangers of this buffoon to our American way of life. This can and should be done regardless their policy positions. It may already be too late. Where are the true patriots?
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. ~ Edmund Burke
2
June 8, 2018
Saying cult nature and is surely true; then the Republican Party in not in legal bounds of its registered Federal State Party filings.
It then is the Trump Party, making for his being a third party and registered as such. One yes one would think these legal experts on call in the RNC would have understood and not having to be guided by NYT Editorials. All is about regulations and organizational identity that the electorate mustn't be duped by inertia and swindling the status of rules that to be respected and if not the journalism and judiciary will have to use their full power to disengage or reorganize the filing rules of legal facts.
Actually the We have the Obama dumping party and all of his - as anti-Obama is the Cult and this is gross mortal wound to our self governing - and yet the chatter and media geniuses are inept to their civil maturity and adult responsibilities towards understanding and consequences of intent to fail and violations of statute of political organizational signatories by law - that is make dear say fake. Call for grown up to give the cause to how we want to organize, and identify with all means of registrations for the grace of our nation.
jja Manhattan, N.Y.
1
This is not in the realm of logic. The cult of Trump is a primitive emotional bond as primal as lust; his followers are indulge their worst selves in an orgy of selfishness, hubris, and grievance masquerading as Freedom and Patriotism. Traditional Christian Values and Family Values have devolved into Christian chauvinism and sanctimonious protection of the pre-born while abandoning the post-born.
Factual analysis is not the modus operandi of Americans feeding on our culture of celebrity, pathological individualism, reality TV as entertainment, gun fetishism, violence, and Fox "News." We now have a significant emotionally impoverished cohort with strong narcissistic tendencies and access to the internet/cable to feed and augment their proclivities.
Small narcissists adopt larger narcissists, sources of validation and vicarious greatness. Trump taps into a deep vein of emotional longing and belonging, giving him a dark charisma impervious to facts or reason.
For Trump followers "He is me." Any criticism of Trump is a personal emotional attack on them, a "fact" Trump emphasizes continually.
Watch a Trump rally with the volume turned down. He struts, mugs, exhorts the crowd, commands the stage. They respond with animation, vehemence, adoration. Trump puts his chin up, leans back, closes his eyes, inhaling and savoring the emotion directed at him. He smiles, motions for more, inhales deeply, and seems to swell. Ritual communion, visceral connection. No room for logic.
1
I would like the editorial board to stay closer to standard English and eschew jargon and words that I don't understand (see examples below). Lively writing is one thing, but don't revert to a shorthand word that is a coined phrase instead of standard English.
I don't understand what "props" means (Nancy Pelosi still deserves props for not seeking to kneecap...); what does "lib-owning" mean? "dog-piled by Trump fans" is another example of where I would prefer standard English!!!
3
A neighbor/friend when asked for his insight on Trump responded, "the American people are stupider than you can even imagine". This from a man who retired after selling his market research company and who had spent a career looking at his fellow citizens close up.
3
Stop "assuming the american democracy endures". It is dead at your feet and rotting.
#calexit - or else shut up and obey trump.
2
“Assuming that American democracy endures...”
As sentence openings go, that’s an extraordinary one. Perhaps the editors of the Times could write more forcefully on that subject.
2
The new GOP: Grand Old Bullies (and their enablers)
The GOB smacks of entitlement, arrogance, conscious disregard for human suffering, deceit, fraud, and quite possibly treason.
No wonder the numbers of Trump GOP supporters is dwindling.
All the fear driven haters that support Trump will now show their true colors as discrimination rears its ugly head. This country is losing its stature as the great place to emulate around the world that we once had. Our experiment in freedom and created equal has taken a back seat to them against us. We will go through this cycle and come out better for it after we embarrass ourselves with Trump and his bases bigotry and myopic views.
1
A new Trump Slogan for America:
AMERICA UN-TIED !
The NYTs insists on stating unproven so called Russian misbehavior is a problem. Trump has so many places to attack politically. But the NYTs insists on claiming that the Russians are under every bed and plotting to destroy democracy in the US. US voters do a much better job. Then the NYTs states the Russians brainwash voters. Hate speech is a particularly home grown phenomena in the US. Trump is a major trafficker in that behavior. The NYTs wants to introduce a foreign source for it. A form of xenophobia.
2
The Republican members of Congress despise Trump, but they also fear him -or his big weapon, the tweets- and have benefitted from him, having passed the tax reform that their patrons wanted.
Trump also wanted the tax reform because he is benefitting from it to the tune of 100 millions.
They give him lip service but continue to allow the Mueller investigation, putting a fence between themselves and Trump on that subject.
There is no loyalty in politics, specially in these times. If they see negative polls or the imminence of serious charges from Mueller they will denounce him more strongly that the other French revolutionaries denounced Robespierre when his hand became weak and he could not send them to the gallows.
1
To answer the questions in the end of this editorial opinion, if Trump has his way America will be Russia's subordinate ally. Republicans will be the party of continued Russian domination and massive pillage. Trump will finally have joined the small group of elite oligarchs favored by Putin and allowed by him to have enormous fortunes running into the billions. Trump will loot America and get pay-offs from Putin as well - e.g. from the exploitation of Russia's enormous Kara Sea oil fields.
The GOP has for over 40 years pushed racism, nationalism and win at any cost as a party platform Trump only brought it out into the open for all to see what most Republicans always thought behind closed doors...
Trump is only a clearer representation of goals, policies and lack of morals of the GOP and it is a road that leads America to lose its soul and reputation in the end.
2
yes, GOP brought Trump to life and they own it. Pl don't let them get away that it was Trump.
They're the one who elected him and are enabling him every minute in Whitehouse.
GOP is undoing all the international trade agreements and making allies to enemies.
Maybe this is just how the world goes. This country has devastated the lives of so many millions of people with reckless abandon. Now we get something of a disaster in bloom in return.
The cult of Trump exists because of the cult of Hillary. Even before the primaries started I warned that she was from probably the most hated political family in the country, which was a bad way to start a campaign. The cult grew as she was a women and many were convinced that we would finally have a women President. The DNC certainly supported her, and the media who fed the cult had everyone convinced that she was a shoe-in. Instead she was merely the tip of an iceberg of failures by Democrats going back over decade.
Cults have a downside, regardless of party. Maybe Democrats will do better this time around, as we need two viable political parties.
4
"where will the party, not to mention the country, be when it finally wakes up?" - says the article. THAT - is THE question badly needed to be raised, again and again, by as many voices as possible, including, most so, the Democrats. wherever they talk publicly. the realty is : anything which is printed here is sermon to the choir. the real audience which really needs to be confronted ( let alone read and hopefully reflect on)by this printed ideas are not reading the NYT. ( if they read at all). and that's the crux of the problem : trump. who doesn't read, was elected by a swath of the population which doesn't read as well - and we got the explanation for the unlikely presence of a despicable person at 1600 Penn ave. our only salvation : Robert mueller.
1
The US is at a crossroads. Either Trump will take us along a path to the destruction of our democracy to preserve white privilege, or our democracy will self-correct as it has in the past and will continue the slow course to a truly multi-racial/multi-ethnic society upholding the founding principle that all men are created equal. History has taught us that when a country tries to counter demographics with force as South Africa did with apartheid, the short-term benefits for the privileged class will not end well because the resulting level of violence and suffering are not sustainable.
3
Are these people enamored with Trump or are they addicted to Fox? It would seem many of these people have no other outside source of information other than Fox and other Fox viewers.
1
FOX is the new Tokyo Rose ... ripping this country apart 24/7.
There's no difference. FOX and Trump are one and the same.
The president is a criminal. Any Congress Member who attempts to run interference in an attempt to obfuscate or obstruct in the prosecution of crimes against the United States must also be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
2
The US was founded on democratic principles, and these principles brought the US prosperity and a future that looked bright for our children. We’ve seen a gradual diminution of our freedoms, especially since 9/11 when the Bush Administration brought in the “fear factor”. Instead of dialogue with the World. We had some rays of hope early in the Obama Administration, but then there came to be a Republican Congress whose sole objective was to block any legislation Mr. Obama put forward, and a lot of the same folks are still hanging out in Congress. In the background is the influence of “Oligarchs” like the Kochs whose main objective has always been to use the American institutions to enrich themselves.
Along comes Trump, a lousy businessman but a charismatic media personality. His sole purpose is to become wealthy and to be powerful. He is borrowing heavily these days from Vladimir Putin’s playbook which is founded on what Timothy Snyder calls the “politics of eternity”. The death of of truth and constant denigration of democratic institutions such as a free press, an untainted justice system, a clear separation of powers feature in “the politics of eternity”. Doesn’t this sound like Trump? But Putin perfected it first.
Now, Trump is the person to support if you are into “the politics of eternity”. This means that you support fiction in threats and enemies. So, if you are into paranoia and not peace and prosperity, then you are with Trump.
1
Okay, if we consider this the Cult of Trump, what do we know about cults in general and the interventions that can help to "deprogram" people? Because if we are taking this idea seriously then a version of that tactic is needed now. We need people approaching individual @GOP members to try to shake them out of it perhaps. What other way is there? The Resistance needs to get serious about this and elect / find food soldiers willing to learn about cults, how they form, the commonalities between them and what helps to break through the veil of deception for people on the inside.
The character of Trump is well established. Liar, thief, ignoramus, slanderer. But the republican party, at least as seen by former house leader John Boehner, no longer exists. What we have is something that calls itself republican but has adopted the same characteristics given in the second sentence of this posting.
Our only hope for restoration of what the USA should stand for is a clean sweep of so-called republican conservatives from every legislative body, federal to village, in the midterm elections.
Whether the Democratic party is capable of doing this remains questionable. It would be wonderful if we knew what sort of united front the Democratic party has in mind.
There are so many issues. Taxation, the environment, welfare,medical, the bloated military budget. Where to begin?
You can blame the republican politicians if you like but their problem is getting elected and a significant part of the American electorate has bought into the idea of a president who revels in insult, coded race baiting, overt immigrant bashing, fighting with those who defend the concept of the liberal state and embracing those who are unapologetic autocrats and despots.
There is no other explanation except, for all we might want to believe in that silly phrase "American exceptionalism", the only thing exceptional about America at this point is how it has embraced the opposite of its own professed ideals, and perhaps the seeds of its own destruction. The fault lies not in our politicians but in ourselves.
1
Trump is trying to make this all about himself and distract the Americans and in particular the democratic party and the media. If the democrats need to win the house, senate or the white house, they should not play Trump's game. They need to make this about "issues" that matters to America. The media should back them up ignoring Trump's tantrums, tweets, rhetoric, racism etc...Don't give him the attention that he needs.
Also, nothing can be done to change the minds of any of them who are in the Trump Bubble. Best to focus and channel the energy towards the people who are in the middle.
Republican presidents seem to be blessed with recessions and depressions, basically always of their own making. Trump has already put in place the ingredients for another whopper of a recession. The shock to set it off will come within the next six months.
Trump, and his unholy band of sycophants, shall then be exposed and they will pass. The question then becomes, "How long will it take for the United States to purge itself of the Trump-mania disease?"
1
"...and for the party wandering in the wilderness to show greater openness to new ideas and new kinds of candidates."
That might be fine if the result is innovative, something normally regarded as a positive force. The amoral, Godless, lying exploitation of America on behalf of an elite few is not innovative.
This is not a "cult of personality:" it is a cult of kleptocracy. When you are as wealthy as GOP donors (look at the Kochs!) buying a politician is like a trip to the grocery store for you and me.
It's old news that you cannot make a politician believe something when his campaign donors demand that he disbelieve it, so they don't believe in education, health care, sensible tax and trade policy.
They are bought and paid for. They have traded their oath of office for money. That's not a "personality" thing: that's a corruption thing.
2
McConnell and the rest of the sleaze who make up the Republican party are not happy but they are content to let Trump carry the ball and mow down the opposition to their quest for an ever more powerful wealthy class. I think they are just biding their time waiting for Trump to run his course. They are betting that he won't completely destroy their party their base while he savages the country. They are hoping against hope that he'll ruin the Democrats, crush their (my) hopes, and minimize their opposition.
Given the fact that Trump is actually the President, I would not bet a whole lot against this scenario. Trump has 87% approval from Republicans right now. That is astonishing to me. I simply cannot wrap my head around it. It would seem that alternative facts HAVE become reality.
"This week’s primary elections underscored the striking degree to which President Trump has transformed the Republican Party from a political organization into a cult of personality..." Funny, just 9 years ago they were saying the same thing about Obama, but now it's BAD!
1
The GOP is in a bad place of their own making. It is a sinking ship that's trying to pull all of us with it. Unless they endorse the craziest possible candidates, there is no "enthusiasm" and their base does not come to vote. On the other hand, when they endorse crazy candidates, they lose other voters forever. They won in 2016 because enough baby boomers too old to any longer understand what's happening around them and probably plagued by different forms of dementia voted for the craziest class of GOP candidates yet. The only option for the GOP now is to go all in and throw all the red meat that there is to this constituency because they have lost everybody else. They are past the point of no return and play the only game left for them. Good riddance because they won't be anywhere close to power in about a decade from now.
GOP voters aren't blindly following Trump. He has followed through with many of his platform issues, something that few politicians have done, while you focus on his personal issues instead of the big picture. He's tackled immigration, tax reform, federal judges and most important the Supreme Court. Wall Street is working again as it should, ISIS is all but dead and something big could come out of North Korea. So amidst all the noise, real progress has been made. Time you jumped on board instead of whacking him every chance you get.
3
Maybe we’re critical because we don’t agree with his platform issues? It’s not all about Whinin’ Donnie.
I no longer have faith that this is an excessive pendulum swing in the two-party tit-for-tat, but that it is exhuming the latent--though historically dressed up and mitigated--American sense of exceptionalism, coupled with the ravages of poor education and income inequality. Americans: somewhere down the list in terms of math scores among nations, but NUMBER ONE in confidence about their math skills.
Is this aberrant, this Trump era of insults and degradation of office? Or was this always going to happen? The lesson of World War II has been lost, partly because no one fought on American shores and the result of the conflict was the United States having the same GDP as the rest of the world put together. What a war! Less US service personnel killed than in the fight over slavery! New technologies! Thriving economy!
Other countries had greater urgency to get moderation in place for governance after the catastrophe, find ways to tie economies together, while the United States supported this and saw the sense in it and ultimately benefited from its pre-eminent position in the world.
Now? What's happening? America's unexamined default racism and "better-than-thou" attitude orient it in the current era? Latent. Now exposed. And the lessons for the country will be hard.
1
Cults are nothing new in American politics but it's worth pointing out the changes that have taken place in a little over 50 years. Kennedy conjured up images of noble Camelot. Trump? Self-service and Mar-a-Lago? Kennedy was handsome, well-spoken, and intelligent. Trump? A pot-bellied, baggy-eyed bully to boss us or toss us around?
What does this transformation of the archetypal American hero say about the related transformation of America and its prevailing self-image? As Alfred McCoy aptly puts it in the title of his recent book - In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of US Global Power!
The longstanding fantasy of American exceptionalism has run smack into the brick wall of 21st Century international realities and that has left the more insecure among us (think of Steve Bannon) gasping for the "good old days". Trump is not an exception. He's the expression of imperial decline... complete with all the fuss, feathers, and farce.
1
I am glad to see many references to The Southern Strategy. Consider that move, and it's success; consider the Tea Party, and its success; now, Trumpism.
And, Trump, a merit-less scoundrel, in the White House, a genuflecting GOP, and strong, mindless, ( but minority of the electorate ) support among the populace. This guy has been lifted to the most powerful position of the planet!
Citizens, prepare to man the barricades.
" The highest office in the land is not president but citizen." President Obama. As citizens ACT, in November VOTE.... and squash.
2
In that sense GOP supports and in collusion with Trump who requested Russia be allowed back into G7 and already has ample sign his team is in collusion with russian operatives with the indictments already in.
1
One commenter wrote: "How can American democracy survive when so many people seem to see critical thinking a a burden, and would rather just have Glorious Leader tell them what color the sky is?"
Answer: Create some opposition. Put some people in office who will stand up to Trump as the majority party. Vote for Democrats on November 6, 2018.
And please spare me the propaganda that Democrats don't care for the middle class, don't care about global climate change and the environment, don't care about financial regulation, don't care about education, don't care about working-class jobs, don't care about a fair tax system, and don't care about sensible gun laws -- any more than the Republicans do.
They do, and you know it. If you want to keep our democracy: VOTE. And vote for Democrats.
2
"Where will the party, not to mention the country, be when it finally wakes up?" Complicit in the land of opposite speak and treason.
This is not about a cult, but about a whole party complicit in supporting Putin's Puppet, and the facts of his being compromised by his adherence to supporting Putin's ideas, in the United States of America's Constitution Article III Section 3 constitutes giving "aid and comfort" to the dictator of a foreign hostile nation. This must be considered treason.
Richard Painter, W's ethics czar, now running as a Democrat for the Senate in Minnesota, first said in January of 2017 that - "what is happening can only be described as treason." Richard Painter presence as a Democrat in the Senate is essential to Democrats & Americans leadership and the future of our Republic - to stop Trump & his treasonous Republican Congressional cabal.
Americans need to become seriously brutally candid about what is happening. Denial and avoidance of using explicitly objective words to objectively create mutual comprehension is imperative. What is happening is not about a cult or meddling, it is about corruption, Republicans dismantling the public good, and our Democracy in disarray directly due to the treasonous activities and corruption of Republicans whose sociopathic greed is more important than being patriotic Americans.
This is not about port v starboard, this is about right ship America.
5
The GOP deserves Trump. His race-baiting, hate-inciting, anti-intellectualism is the the culmination of GOP politics for the last 30 years. Let's hope he destroys the party.
4
Guys - It is not Trump - It is the fact that he took off his sun glasses and verbally addressed issues that concern the vast majority of Americans who do not live in the elite bubble that produced major economic winners as a result of globalization. Try to understand that politicians whether Democrat or Republican need to provide some tangible benefit to the regular folks out there. You might get a few votes if you try that. (FDR did, Teddy Roosevelt did, JFK did, Bill Clinton did)
3
Good point: he "verbally addressed issues that concern the vast majority of Americans". Unfortunately, he's done exactly the reverse or nothing, depending on the issue, since taking office.
What people who voted for his rhetoric didn't know or care about is his history of being a con man and liar. The Democrats need to focus on delivering a coherent, positive message and results when their elected and not simply campaigning against the GOP.
2
"Mr. Trump’s favorability rating among Republicans is at 87 percent"
Context: fewer people identify as Republicans now. In other words, almost all the sane ones left the party and what's left is almost entirely pro-Trump.
11
When will today’s republican party wake up?
A more likely outcome, hopefully, would be that they will drift into a deeper and deeper political sleep and become nationally irrelevant. Pooff!
And then our Congress may return from the parliamentary state the deeply divided republican party has created to some sort of bipartisan legislature.
3
Great analysis by the Editorial Board. Yes it is true:
"Through his demagogic command of the party’s base, he has emerged as the shameless, trash-talking, lib-owning fulcrum around which the entire enterprise revolves."
Republicans are the poorly educated party. However, we note the intelligent segment who were formerly tagged with the moniker of "conservative". Today, poorly educated Trumpists have usurped that label.
Republicanism is now Trumpism that is composed of the unthinking majority and their manipulators who seek tangible gain from them. Their behavior is reinforced by an irresponsible, Trump-groomed Right Wing media that seeks market share in the dumb Republican electorate; it feeds them lies. Republican-driven news is now entertainment. Republicans don't know the difference.
And what many don't know is that the Trump presidency is marketed in his properties, from which Trump has refused to financially separate. They sell Trump campaign material unabashedly. An intelligent conservative would squirm at this reality, but Trump has realigned Republican ethics; even evangelicals have been forced to accept adultery to get the legislation that they want.
Republicans are taking us into fascism; it is something with which the party has flirted in the past. Having uncritical allegiance to Trump by Right Wing media finally projects the party there.
Uneducated Americans may be tired of our grand democracy and, in its stead, vote for simple-minded fascism.
10
I'm a Republican who supports the President, but I'm also a firm believer of the system of checks and balances foreseen by our nation's Founders.
I haven't seen enough oversight of the Presidency from Congress, which is why I will be crossing party lines and voting for Democrats for the House and Senate, and am encouraging other Republicans to do the same.
13
Trump did not defeat Hillary, and the Republicans did not defeat the Democrats in Congress, State Houses, and Governorships.
The Democrats defeated themselves. It was their own internal divisions that did them in.
The Republicans were not that strong, and Trump only exploited opportunity he did not even fully appreciate until it dumped him in office unexpectedly.
The problem in 2018 and 2020 will not be a cult of Trump, or even Republicans. It will be Democratic divisions.
The Democrats suffer deeper division than they acknowledge. It comes from the institutionalizing of Republican-Lite and donor interests, via triangulation, which took for granted that other interests of Democrats had nowhere else to go.
Well, they could stay home. They could just rebel. Finally, they did.
It is possible to unify Democrats. That would look like the major concerns for reforms accommodated by the stability of the center.
That means real reforms on major issues, not empty words on hot topics that will never be fixed.
We know they are not going to repeal the Second Amendment, nor get 2/3 of the Senate to remove Trump. When they talk like that, they are avoiding talk of donor influence and economic justice and neo-liberal abuses.
Yesterday I got a call from a polling firm asking about the positions of local Democrats seeking our seat in the House. Three of the five focused on Trump. Only one of them mentioned any Progressive cause. That is how Democrats will again defeat themselves.
5
Given the state of the robust economy and his impressive handling of North Korea, Iran and China it is understandable that many would want to follow his lead. On the hand, given the remarks he has made and his personality it is equally understandable that many would decline to follow his lead. Ultimately, it is an issue of what is more important to you, results or unfitting personality for the presidency.
2
1) The economy is weaker than it was under Obama
2) Iran is now building nukes, and North Korea scored a huge win over South Korea
You seem to be the victim of the MSM narratives that you lot pretend to despise.
Not a Trump fan here but a realist. The establishment Dems have refused to take any responsibility for the 2016 defeat. They keep trotting out Hill and Bill and blaming Bernie. Remember Bill lost 52 congressional seats and Obama lost 63 seats not to mention the scores of seats lost at the local and state level. If the Dems can't capture 23 seats that is a rousing defeat and a continued endorsement of Trump. In fact unless the Dems can hit the number of seats the Republicans gained under Clinton and Obama , Trump retains a good shot in 2020.
4
You should be out here in southwestern Ohio totally Trump territory. It takes some time to find others who speak Democrat as I do. And when I do find them we form lasting relationships. These relationships are blue islands in a red sea. My county is so red that there is no Democrat in an elected office and hasn't been for years. Republicans run unopposed decade after decade. There are no checks and no oversight here--just like DC. The Trumpers hang together socially, civically, religiously, and of course politically. I have no doubt who my real friends are these days because acquaintances are very easy to spot.
12
You have your work cut out as we're all counting on you to convert them to Blue. Good Luck!
1
It figures that the vast majority of elected and core base Republicans glorify Trump.
Elected Republicans are fearful that Trump will pull their rug out next election by supporting someone else in their state or district. And the base is happy Trump recognized them by flying into their district or state, giving a speech, and yelling at the top of his lungs that Hillary is the reason they have problems in any facet of their lives.
What does not matter to these supporters is how Trump trashes the poor of our society:
-tax policy (rich people get huge tax cuts; poor people and their children pay for the astronomically increased deficit),
-health care policy (remove as much existing health care as possible from the poor, and make it as impossible for low income folks to afford comprehensive coverage),
-worker health and safety (remove as many worker health and safety regulations as possible),
-environmental health policy (remove regulations that provide for clean water and air).
-gun control policy (allowing machine guns to be bought by anyone, causing more school massacres to occur).
In two years, study after study will show how difficult it will be for the base to get comprehensive, sound medical insurance in a majority of states - when compared with costs in 2016 under President Obama.
Maybe then, when their pocketbooks are fleeced and health care is non-existent, will the republican base understand how their choice for President actually matters.
9
"Mr. Trump’s favorability rating among Republicans is at 87 percent — the second-highest rating within a president’s party at an administration’s 500-day mark since World War II."
Without mentioning that Republican party affiliation is down to its lowest levels in decades, that statistic is less telling.
According to Gallup, Republican affiliated voters are around 22-25% of the electorate, compared with 28-30 10-20 years ago.
So, Trump has a grip on a shrinking base. Independents meanwhile are growing and Dems are generally holding steady. If independents follow through after leaving the GOP and don't vote GOP, then the Trump of Cult could get shellacked in November.
12
I really hope you're right. I thought about that this morning: sure, he can have 87% approval of a shrinking base. It can be 100% of a very tiny base. That's fine.
We'll just have to see...
7
The latest average of the polls at Real Clear Politics has Trump at a 42.4% approval rating among all respondents.
Don't be too confident.
4
Well he got 46% in 2016, so he's lost nearly 1 in 10 of his supporters. Not too good.
So, the GOP, the Party of Lincoln, has become the POT, the Party of .......you know.
3
Cult of Personality Disorder. Or, more precisely, Cult of Borderline Personality Disorder.
9
Mididak. Are you referring to Bill or Hillary here!
1
Best editorial (almost poetry) ever on this subject. It's not Trump, it's the Trump-Cult. Of course they'd be intolerant of diversity, multi-culturalism, and pluralism. The Nazis were a cult, once. Then then it took an international war to stop them. Now they're back, and their furher is the donald. What makes a population susceptible to cults? Humiliation. And what causes humiliation? The inability to admit that one has made mistakes. Trump vindicates his cult followers because he is an object-lesson of what you can become when you make interminable mistakes and just won't admit it. This is what makes him a most dangerous cult leader. His followers, like the old Tareyton cigarette ads, would rather fight than switch, even if it causes them sickness unto death. thanks NYT Editoral Board.
23
Traitors.
Collaborators.
9
Where is the article titled, The Cult of Obama and the Liberal Media Who Adored Him For Way Too Long.
8
Because it never existed. Like most of Trump's fantasies.
2
You have to admit that Obama was worthy of adoration, unlike the Angry Orange Cheeto.
1
Cult of personality disorder
1
He appealed to the basest instincts of the lowest common denominator, by definition a significant minority. Coupled with gerrymandered districts, aide from a hostile foreign adversary, quirks of the electoral college and a fortuitous confluence of circumstances, we wound up as H. L. Mencken predicted, with the white house now adorned by a downright moron. He actually lost the popular vote by over 3 million but in our now perfected idiocracy, truth, facts, morals and ethics have no place. As others have said, an entire political party has become a cult of personality.
There is no clean way out of this, we're in too deep, the damage is widespread. If there isn't a tectonic shift in our course I fear the alternative can only be armed insurrection. Now that everyone has been given not just permission but is encouraged to act out, I see that as distinctly possible. Franklin said we are a republic, if we can keep it, he understood the constant danger we face. I fear few of us today share that realization.
9
The Democratic Party has evolved into a party as far left in rank and file as the far right is on the extremes. To suggest that it is pluralistic is incorrect and betrays the stunning lack of diversity on the Times editorial board, which, itself, is as far left as the Democratic Party. Having subscribed to the Times for 50 years, and finding it to be a fascinating paper, I'm not the "I'm gonna cancel my subscription" type. but really, for those of us who truly want to hear both sides of the story. the Times is suffocatingly claustrophobic, as obsessed with extreme views on race as the Democrats, and as extreme on cultural issues as the far right Republicans. Practice what you preach: hire a bunch of people who see the world differently, or take on the fate of an Al Sharpton mouthpiece.
7
Did you even watch the recent election results? It was not the far left who came out on top in the Democratic Party.
Wow. The NYTimes has been whining since Election Day. It never stops. Not ever. You would think that after nearly two years, they'd settle down, enjoy the tax cuts they've received, the unbelievably robust economy and start cheering for peace on the Korean peninsula. But no. Another unhinged editorial instead. They just don't get it. And once their behavior finally helps turn "The Blue Wave" into "The Blue Nothingburger," they STILL won't get. So here it is in a nutshell: Americans despise leftist elitists more than they despise Donald Trump. Full stop.
9
Exactly what about Trump and his gold-plated world does not scream ‘elitist’ to you? And since when do true blue Americans (as opposed to those ‘leftist’ types) embrace and excuse Russian meddling in our nation’s politics while antagonizing our actual allies? Inquiring minds yearn to know.
1
Then why are those Americans shrinking to 22% of the electorate?
1
You mean Trump supporters despise those who take the time to educate themselves on a subject rather than allow their emotions to control their thinking while watching the hate and lies that are promoted by the far right and Fox.
1
And where was the New York Times during the entire presidential campaign? Reporting slavishly on Trump and Hillary Clinton, and virtually ignoring Bernie Sanders. And now you're wringing your collective hands?
6
Bernie lost ... get over it.
1
Trump won ... get over it.
Was Time Magazine's King Trump cover inspired by Mad Magazine?
Thank God the RINOS are on the run. They are bad for America. Trump represents the second coming. Hail Trump.
1
If one grew up with traditional conservatives, one would think Ronald Reagan would be "rolling in his grave," watching the debacle and debauchery of the Trump Presidency .. But then again.. Let's cut to the chase.. would he really be rolling or just silently resting in peace..? I tend to think the latter. Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump are one in the same.. White, racist elitist jerks.. with a cadre of "yes men and women," who'll follow them to the edge of nowhere.
13
Aaron. Reagan was just packaged better.
2
Structural repairs to your constitution to avoid these ironically monarchist patterns and pressures on the sole figureheads would possibly incorporate the actual science of personality types. For example, you would likely see multiple Vice Presidents with voting power.
The Republican Party continues its descent into hardcore heart rate positions putting it at odds with two thirds of the country. Sadly, it bought its way into power. Democrats must win back control of Congress and then immediately move to nullify the effects of the citizens united decision. Only when big money is removed from politics can some form of democratic norms be restored to our country, which is in desperate need of them.
10
“Such timidity (GOP) is hardly surprising. Mr. Trump’s favorability rating among Republicans is at 87 percent — the second-highest rating within a president’s party at an administration’s 500-day mark since World War II.”
Trump has a colossal capacity to command the media’s rapt and voluminous attention — day after day after day. No matter the particulars, how positive or how negative the content, he in some sense wins with uncanny consistency. His celebrity status and power is astonishing. This is a momentously dangerous combination given the state of our hyper-adversarial political culture.
The absolute criticality of a strong November rebuke of Trump and his movement and power to shape America’s political process and dialogue cannot possibly be overstated.
3
With the monetization of politics (thank you Supreme Court), Republican (TM) is now a brand owned by Trump. Like any trademark he owns, he can dictate how it is used. There is no Republican party anymore.
6
There isn’t much hope for a country with such a sizable percentage of ignorant people. Even if Democrats prevail in the next two elections, attempting to maintain control is basically like fighting an endless wave of zombies, except the zombies have higher scruples and are better informed.
Interesting to read this Ed board piece: they criticize the conservative media for fawning over Trump but neglect to mention the non-stop criticism of Trump from 90% of the media including CNN, The NY Times and NBC, just to name a few. That Trump is still so powerful and has done so much is just a tribute to the greatness of this man who, in my mind, will go down as one of the great American presidents akin to Lincoln, Reagan and Washington.
6
I said several years ago, seeing this coming storm, that the best thing to happen is to let this entire thing run its course. To wit, drop the ACA, jack up a trade war, stack the Supreme Court, do all that Trump wants to do. After all, those that will be hurt the most will be those that voted for him. Its just that, well, elections have consequences and those of us that know better, well let it happen and let it hit bottom. We will come out all right and once and for all, the cockroaches will flee once light falls on them.
2
The fraudulently attained executive branch of our government gained by a sex predator and serial liar could never have happened without Citizens United and voter suppression tactics by republican operatives. FAKE REPUBLICANS in Congress will slavishly support him until Trump's base realizes they've been conned. That day may not come as Dear Leader may convince his base that their free fall to penury is the fault of penny less refugees, insufficiently patriotic football players, liberals.
6
The idea of the greatest democracy on Earth is officially dead.
4
There is no more Republican Party. They are all Trumpians now and that is why they all must be defeated.
3
“There is no Republican Party,” he told the crowd. “There’s a Trump party.
___
So true. The remnants of the Party of Lincoln were labeled RINOs and sidelined by the Teapublicans not that long ago. Apparently once a group of dogmatists accepts one deranged method of governing, going on to the next version is much easier.
2
Look, Donald Trump is an autocratic racist, sexist, chauvinistic, homophobic, immigrant-bashing religious bigot.
The people who support him are either bigots themselves, or they don't mind that he is. What's the difference?
I have faith that the great majority of the American people don't accept Trump's fascist world view and will vote against him and his spineless minions.
3
Trump stole the Republican Party establishment's white rural Christian base, leaving them discombobulated and politically butt-naked. Over thirty years, they built the base over guns, abortion, big government, climate change, gays, then got Trumped biggly. If Trump wasn't such a threat, it would be a humorous Newman/Redford The Sting. Trump, if impeached, will not be removed from office, requiring a 2/3 vote of the Senate. Don't like Trump? Join the Resistance.
5
At this point if Mueller comes up with zilch it's just a waiting game. We wait until Trump is done with this "show" and goes back to NYC and reaps the rewards of this gig. I see unfettered development of Russian hotels branded with the Trump logo, resorts, gold courses and strip malls....from Moscow to Siberia. That's all this is to Trump....a branding op.
Ever wonder how an entire nation of decent, God-fearing people were able to be morphed into a gang of thugs, murderers of woman and children? I'm talking about German in the 30's and 40's. History is repeating itself with the Republican party and the Trump followers.
Rallies based on fear mongering and hatred.
Self-promoting lying propaganda. Cult worshiping for sure.
We are seeing history repeat itself right in front of our eyes. We can only hope that some Republicans will step back, read the Constitution again, and do the right thing. Otherwise, we will soon have a King that our founding fathers tried to escape.
1
Headed abroad in Sept. and looking for a button to wear- I am a NY'er living in MA- we voted for her. I am so disappointed in the manner in which our country has disrespected long time allies. We can disagree but the incivility, ignorance and stupidity are an embarrassment to the citizens of the US. There may have been an "Obama Cult" but it represented intelligence, respect and serious attempts at resolving world problems. The current cult is well... cartoonish at best.
1
I donned my McGovern button for this past election, but I was beat by a guy with a Stevenson button. And so it goes.
1
When millions are spent by the hundreds to make followers stupid, stupidity prevails.
Bros Koch and Rupert Murdoch, how do you sleep at night?
6
I became a #NeverTrump #Never Hillary voter the day Trump announced his candidacy. They're both very bad people and unfit to be president and succeed Obama who is as dishonest as they are.
The reason I would vote for Trump in 2020 is that the Hard Left wing of the Democratic Party will decide which of their extremists runs against Trump.
Having been disappointed when my votes for Carter and Clinton in 1992 proved to be disastrous mistakes, I will not vote for an anti-American, race baiting and dishonest socialist for president. I'd rather see Trump re-elected because even though he's a terrible role model for Americans, he won't destroy our country the way the folks on the Dems' shallow presidential bench would.
The Hate spewed by the "Resistance" cannot be endorsed in any way by American voters.
3
All started with the 2010 passage of Citizens United, allowing an unlimited influx of $$ into political campaigns. The $$$ flouted by the Kochs and all those PACs, which disguise their vile political intent under ambiguous titles like Americans for Prosperity(run by the evil Karl Rove, backed by the Koch's) are responsible for blinding and dividing rational people. The legitimization of hate along racial profiles, gender discrimination all add to this environment. Above all, it is fueled by Rupert Murdoch's Fox News and communications conglomerates like Sinclair Broadcasting.
13
Not to mention all that vile Union money, also unrestricted.
1
"President Trump has transformed the Republican Party from a political organization into a cult of personality."
Uhhh Yeah!
What an burst of insight.
An adult with the DSM-V diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, who has a proven record of Russian money laundering, plays with former congressional officials like a Sopranos final episode.
Yep. That is a cult.
4
They will take their impending humiliation to their graves
a possible explanation of why #45 seems to admire to others like him: Putin, Duarte, Kim, etc.
1
I have this nauseating feeling that trump has actually become the face of the USA. Any pride I had in my country is now out the window. trump is not alone - millions still support him. I cannot identify with those millions or with their dear leader. They are foreigners to me.
11
“Assuming that American democracy endures”
For the Times to even write that line scares me.
2
Good Post!
Trump Cult: a soup containing
-Bad Boy envy
-Wealth worship
-Economic displacement
-Demonization of the Democratic Party as a quasi-communist socialist party intent on writing government checks to illegal immigrants
-Bad judgment
-a death wish
6
The NYT persistence in making Trump supporters evil, crazy, etc. is just mean and lazy. Never did you project this type of severe criticism on the followers of either Clinton or Obama. This bias is crystal clear to those you constantly denigrate.
5
Trumps favorability is high largely because his policies are a slap in the face of increasingly radical policies promulgated by the other party. Of course NYT overcomplicates it.
1
Good wages, proper health care for all, transparency in government etc ohh so radical Matt. Who sounds elitist?
2
Mencken was right. “As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
We are now governed by people who have no interest in governing just plundering. They have no knowledge or concern of history. Spouting Canada burned the White House or D-Day was the beginning of our relationship with Germany. This is now a carnival act/reality show. It's designed to inflame people as ignorant as the man at 1600 is, they're as thuggish as their base. They, quite literally, scare the bejesus out of the rest of the Republican party. It's almost like all the denizens of a crazy dive bar, all drunk, have taken over. Trump also gravitates to leaders like himself (Putin or Duterte) and away from people who make him feel inadequate (Trudeau, Merkel, Macron, even May). He's happily destroying relationships that are crucial to us. I don't think there's any plan to it, it's just that the rest of West's leadership makes him feel inadequate and when he gets that way he lashes out. When these people try to collaborate or advise over things like Iran or N. Korea he feels talked down to, he doesn't do that, ever - he's Trump. This bluster and bloviating is what he does. When it was on a reality show it was one thing - this is dangerous beyond words. Congress, grow a spine.
12
I don't know if that's 100% accurate about "Trump love"--DeWine won over tea party darling Mary Taylor in Ohio. Anthony Gonzalez won over gun-totin' Christina Hagan.
“I like the uneducated.”
4
"pungent dating tips". Perfect.
1
The Trumpublican agenda: “lock her up.” It is all they need to know.
Ok, now bring him down.
1
"But where will the party, not to mention the country, be when it finally wakes up?" To answer that question perhaps the editorial writers should bypass David Brook's current opinion piece about being "woke" and read its learned commentary.
Toss out the combined millions of brilliant words we've previously read or written about Trump.
It all boils down to tribal power dynamics, and the GOP loves what it sees. It works and it's fun! Trump is a man of the people, he sounds even dumber than us and tweets up a storm every day! He's perfect for us!
Sure, still once in a while you still might have to sort of or maybe not disavow a pedophile or two in a down ballot election, but no biggie!
And yes, he's personally profiting from the presidency, what a tragedy. Because he's SMART! This isn't cold war Russia were talking here, this is the U.S. of A., we're capitalists here or are we all suffering from collective amnesia?
Note to Boehner. I like it better when you stay gone. Why don't you go get a new hobby, like vaping or something?
"There's a Trump party". Brilliant, John. Go back to your round of golf now, please.
What a stiff.
I am utterly puzzled by this cult of personality around such a joyless, greedy, duplicitous, cruel, erratic tyrant wannabe, but it is the only thing that explains this slavish loyalty. It clearly has nothing to do with policy, positions, or priorities. This slavish, unthinking devotion to one person, especially one who is so clearly NOT on anyone's side but his own, is exactly what the Founding Fathers did NOT want America to devolve into. Sadly, you don't see cults of personality around wise, ethical leaders; the most vicious, capricious, piratical, power-hungry personalities are the ones around whom such cults accrue like barnacles: eg, Mao, Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, and the Korean dynasty, among others. It amazes me that a large majority of Republicans still approve of this guy, when he wasn't even Republican until recently and his policies fly in the face of much Republican thought. I can only hope that the truly sane, compassionate, and patriotic among us--and those Trumpies who can admit they were duped and move ahead chastened but ready to embrace a better path--will get engaged, VOTE, and rescue the nation founded on such idealistic principles from this nightmare hijacking of our system--the systemic vulnerabilities of which are now all too clear--before the wheels come completely off.
1
It's appropriate to be very cautious in comparing Trump to the 20th century archetypes of the cults of personality (Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Tito, Mussolini), but just where are we now? Three quarters of a Peron on the way to half a Franco? (Or should the order be reversed?)
This is an old song and it always ends sadly, for someone.
Lay off of Jeff Sessions. He and Nicky Haley are the only people in this administration who are doing their jobs.
3
Yes, a cult of personality surrounds President Donald. J. Trump. This is not the first time a president nor has a political party been such enamored. Arguably Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and Barrack Obama enjoyed cult status that shaped the politics of their respective parties. FDR’s impact on the Democratic Party was significant and lasting. New Deal progressivism steered Democratic politics well into the 1960s. Reagan’s election, a reaction to the progressive and activist spirit, reined in the federal government. George H.W. Bush rode the Reagan cult into the presidency, but failed to carry it off, and succumbed to the rise of Bill Clinton (with the help of Ross Perot). A cult figure in his own right, Clinton led a centrist approach to government, borrowing from the FDR and Reagan legacies. The Democratic Party thrived off the Clinton cult, but Al Gore distanced himself from it, which cost him the presidency. Obama enjoyed cult-like status but more for reasons of personality and race than politics. Hillary Rodham Clinton failed to capitalize on her husband’s cult status, alienating huge swaths of the Democratic electorate in favor of the political fringe, and dismissing half of the citizenry, whom she would rule, as deplorable for supporting her opponent. Now, we have the cult of Trump, which for me and other Americans, is more desirable than one cultivated by HRC. Thank you.
5
Hardly, a cult member follows the leader no matter what he or she does. Obama, Clinton, Reagan, Roosevelt, read your history!
1
The Republican Party has been officially Trumpified. They have become pawns of the president; a lying, delusional narcissist who seeks to serve only himself. So Congress won’t act, so we must in November. We must really get these sickophants out of office.
1
When does all this end?
2
Before January: When the Chief Justice gavels silence.
After January: When the new Speaker and/or the Chief Justice gavels silence.
Most certainly: When the majority actually votes.
The NYT is pulling out the big whip up the base guns a little too early. The election is still five months off. Most of the country has already moved on from the Russia collusion Putin puppet stuff. It was centrist Democrats that won the primaries this week not the hard left that this Editorial is directed at.
Trump has successfully framed the trade issue as one of fair trade as opposed to anti-free trade, something the NYT Editorial writers willfully ignored to score a point here.
Republicans, despite themselves, have a chance at DACA relief in the next two weeks - which will allow them to hold both the House and the Senate in November.
5
After 13 years it’s about time, but don’t hold your breath.
Humans are stupid animals (actually animals are smarter). If we weren't so stupid we would have world peace, poverty would be eliminated and no one would be hungry.
3
I have been calling Republicans the CULT OF TRUMP since 2016. I said the Republican Party became the CULT OF TRUMP when they gave him the nomination in June 2016.
You are welcome to use that name.
Glad to see you (finally) woke up, editors.
3
Con men can't con, unless they have willing victims.
3
It isn't where the country will be when it wakes up it is where it is now, because it is not asleep. We are as awake as we have ever been.
Trump's tax cut benefitted Republicans and Democrats equally, Congress and the Judiciary are in synch with the President, gated communities are thriving, privatization of schools is preferrable, street people all have tents, unwanted immigrants are being rounded up and deported, kids are taken from their undeserving parents at the border, shoot first and avoid questioning is the new norm, the military budget is at an all time high, employment is in such demand it takes one person to do two jobs, private jails are as full as they have ever been, there are more guns than people, torchlight parades are in vogue, only a few kids and teachers are killed in school shootings and all is well in Amerikkka.
What could be better?
Who would notice?
2
Political propaganda is a remarkable tool to observe. Rational Americans are quick to identify foreign propaganda and political lies. so why is it that they accept the lies from the Trump Presidential administration?
Is the answer simply that the lies are dismissed because however extreme Trump lies are, the Republican Polical Party is viewed as a better alternative to the Democratic Party? Repeated lies about the Mueller investigation are thus considered acceptable? His TV spokesman Rudolf Guiliani is a character so deceptive & full of lies, and a caricature of Heinrich Himmler....the round glasses, the serious, sincere tone and stone faced deadpan, including eye contact!
I recognize there is astonishment at the extremity of Trump administration lies by the political left in America. Perhaps my greatest astonishment is the Trump buy in from federal, elected, Republican politicians. My only conclusion is that there is no leadership potential among elected Republican politicians interested in not lying to Americans. Further, to re-elect present federal Republican politicians to office again would be a consent to continue the pattern of extreme, dishonest propaganda exhibited by Trump.
The lying by American federal politicians to the American public is a cancer that must be cured.
6
“a cult of personality”
“tempted by Trump apostasy”
“lib-owning fulcrum”
“cycle cravenness”
“brief heresy”
“genuine ferment”
“fulminated obscenely”
Marvellous word combinations by the Editorial Board about old fairgrounds occupied by theatrically spooky All-Dramaericans. But...
“With registered Republicans down to 25 percent of the Golden State electorate (putting them slightly behind independent voters)”... if Democrats, Independents and other non-Minion zombies take nothing for granted, that percentage sounds like the future of the whole country as well.
We may be moving toward post liberal democracy.
Reduced importance of elections, reduced accountability, fewer rights.
History will show Republicans stabbed democracy in the back.
Love my live the dictraitorship
1
Editorial Board might want to ask Hillary about a DNC Politburo "organized around a single extreme personality seems like a brittle proposition."
He left office; she fell short--Party was over.
4
But our democracy—our long defended and fought for democracy—cannot be a cult.
I ask: how could the United States of America have grown such a creature, let alone allow it to become cult president?
2
Republicans have been stoking anger and bitterness at government since Ronald Reagan and now they have elected a champion who does it all for them and then some. Gerrymandering and other moves have disempowered voters and now we have the government that the super rich have wanted and paid for. We have not yet begun to taste the sour and foul consequences of ignoring those who hurt economically and who are encouraged to blame other groups instead of understanding how global trade operates.
4
Deep State. Flat earth. Coal is coming back. Canada threatens our security. Obama bugged Trump Tower. What do Trump partisans believe? Whattayagot?
2
Political scientists would do well to engage in more field work to get an idea of the tenacity of Trump loyalists. I have personally heard female Trump supporters applaud Stormy Daniels as an example of Trump's great taste in women. I have nothing personally against Stormy Daniels.... yet I wonder how a GOP supporter can perform the philosophical gymnastics necessary to defend a hardcore porn performer. This lack of critical thinking does not bode well for America's future. I fear that the most radical and fascist elements amongst Trump's base will eventually morph into mainstream Republican ideology. Happy times ahead.
1
I see absolutely no harm in the decline and fall of the Republican party into white populist racism. I see great harm in allowing them to remain in my country where they no longer even pretend to hold American values.
4
"Such timidity is hardly surprising." That is certainly letting Republicans off the hook. Did each and every one of them not take an oath to protect and defend the constitution of the United States? Are they not abdicating responsibility and yes, honor, for the self serving cause of their own reelections? Gee, it's good to be a senator, a member of congress, so I'll publicly play along with a malevolent idiot that I curse in private. Not surprising, you say, but deplorable (deserving of intense criticism, wretched.)
2
The only solution at this time is to vote against every republican candidate, local and national, in 2018, and splinter that party into a trillion fragments. History, if we make it that far, will show them to be traitors and cowards unparalleled.
2
Let them eat cake, ice cream and CROW. Seriously.
1
After experiencing the Cult of Obama for the preceding 8 years, it should come as no surprise that it would be followed by the Cult of Trump.
2
The Cult of Trump reminds me of the followers of Jim Jones, they all have a lot in common.
2
trump gives us a BAD name ... try going abroad , most people encountered anywhere have BAD things to say about trump and the US .... this is a 180 degree change from when we traveled when Obama ( areal POTUS) was our great President . Trump is like getting your nails pulled out everyday and then putting salt on the wound....
4
Of course the President or the Standard Bearer sets the agenda for the party. Where was the editorial railing against the "Cult of Obama" or the "Cult of Hillary"?
2
The Republican Party is not taking a nap. It will morph into the Grand Oblivion Party soon.
2
We are living, indeed, in highly dangerous times, all of it brought about by a runaway narcissist that pocketed a cowed republican party into a shameful submission, a clear insult and injury to this suffering democracy. Who would have thought that such an ignorant beast could convert his constant lies in to the dogma truth, by strapping emotionally an adoring base? Of note, intellectualism is glaringly absent, and long-term plans subverted by the 'spur-of-the-moment caprice' of our 'weather vaned' president, a most vain and unscrupulous despot in our midst. Now, recognizing Trump's stupid behavior in the rash and thoughtless and unilateral actions he so freely displays, it could never have come to fruition if it were not from our complicity in allowing it without a firm and courageous push back...to stop the outrage. We are witnessing hysteric politicking, not politics (the art of the possible). Hypocrites Paul Ryan and John McConnell, have you no shame, no resolve, to stop Trump's idiocy? Trump's 'cult' is dogma (no discussion nor doubt allowed), religious nonsense that will come back to bite us. And sooner than we think! As Trump goers on insulting our Allies, we shall remain pariahs, isolated, and justifiably denied a seat at the table of decision-making.
1
It is not a given that Trump and the Party will go down in flames next November. All that is needed is complacency on the progressive side of the political ledger and, Voila, Trump wins. Don't take the bait that Trump is "dead man walking", RESIST.
1
A cult by definition is a group of people who give up their ideas and thinking to a charismatic leader. Trump followers claim to be independents who think for themselves. But when they take Trump's verifiably false statements as truth they show their true colors as friend becomes foe and enemies friends.
This morning told our allies that they should accept Russia into the G7, something that republicans would think heresy and traitorous just a few years ago. Now they just roll over and accept the dictates of their cult leader. this goes as well for their claims of being deficit hawks. When republicans give up their ability to think for themselves they also give up their honor and any claim to wanting to help our nation.
2
Let’s face it, Trump, a vile liar, is also a cult leader, a myth-maker, and the country is in thrall to his myths. When the fog lifts on the wreckage, will those enablers complicit in furthering his fantasies admit it? Unlikely. Rather, we need to stop drinking his Kool-Ade. His myth-making has come to dominate our national conversation, pro and con. But let’s stop that. Let’s start to rebuild, let’s start to recapture what this country is about. Like the countries of the rejuvenated TPP, like the G-6 today, let’s ignore him as irrelevant to what the world needs. It will be hard, but until we dismiss this malign Oz (the worst possible fate for him) and get to recapturing what is good about America, we’re like a needle stuck in a record.
The booming economy: the one Obama policy he did not change, yet.
This Trump presidency has such a bad influence on the young. I teach high school students and the discussion in my classes has at times become very extreme and down right mean and nasty, to the point where I don't have as many discussions.
Many comments, I hear now are -let's round up all the illegals and get them out-one student would not read an article because he called it fake news.
It's sad.
2
Independent of politics, independent of what's reported in the media and how it's reported, Trump's words and actons speak for themselves: you either approve of a man who comports himself in such a manner, or you don't; you're a good person, or you're not.
1
Imagine if you're Europe, and what you face is the prospect that the United States and Russia are about to team up and carve you to pieces.
Never mind NAFTA. NAFTA is chump change. Putin's long game is: no more NATO, no more WTO, no more European Union. Trump and his party are on that train. If the demolition crew succeeds, America's post-World-War-Two era is over, and the time of trouble will begin.
4
They will rue the day they put all their eggs in Trump's basket, because they will wind up with a lot of yolk on their faces come November.
1
" (William Jennings) Bryan, at his best, was simply a magnificent job-seeker. The issues that he bawled about usually meant nothing to him. He was ready to abandon them whenever he could make votes by doing so, and to take up new ones at a moment's notice. ... Bryan was a vulgar and common man, a cad undiluted. He was ignorant, bigoted, self-seeking, blatant and dishonest."
--- H.L.Mencken
Who does this remind you of?
1
The hatred and venom that Trump supporters have for liberals is palpable.
They were seething for years when Barack Obama occupied the White House. And now with the bull in the china shop president at the helm wrecking institutions, undermining the constitution, shooting from the hip, they are finally having their say. And we have to take it.
But all that can change in six months. If the pendulum swings back to the center and the Democrats take control of the House and the Senate – be still my beating heart – then finally a checks and balances protocol will be in place.
1
Cult is just so right. "Christians" fully supporting this supremely un-Christian person. Law and Order GOPers bashing our law enforcement. People believing totally opposite statements just because Trump says both. No thinking. Just obeying. Make America Great Again, to be sure.
5
The "Party of Lincoln" has morphed into the "Cult of Trump".
"Let me think. Where have I seen this before?"
"Um, a Cult Figure, who made himself synonymous with the party he headed, and then started very roughly disciplining any in his party who he disagreed with --- or who were dis-loyal?"
"Oh, now I remember, but it was not in America, and I think it was called, 'The Night of the Long Knives' --- yea, that's the ticket".
Yea, that's the ticket to the train we're riding on, folks!
Thanks to Emperor Trump's sway with the lumpenproletariat.
1
Time to pay attention boys and girls. Our neglect of this politics stuff has brought us to a crisis. We are approaching the times that try people’s souls. The Republican Party with its virtual total control of the electronic media as well as its ability to manage many people’s emotions has seized our government. They run everything except a few newspapers. Our institutions from the Universities to the professions to the media to the Electoral College have completely failed us. We are moving toward fascism. I don’t know what to do, but a lot of you out there are much smarter than I. Time to get those brains going and figure it out and do something.
I think it is time for all to wake up to the fact that POTUS is not a well man, and that he will do anything when he feels trapped. He will be willing to destroy much of the globe if need be. The cowards that are fearful of his mob tactics need to get together and fight this madness.
2
The authoritarians are now out in full force. Dr. Robert Altemeyer conducted 30+ years of research into that type of personality and repeatedly validated three basic features: total adherence to authority, aggression in the service of that adherence, and conventionality (or, lock-step mentality). Sound familiar? Dr. Altemeyer's findings are free online and even entertaining reading. This so-called Republican Party is the greatest irony--the people who broadcast the loudest about patriotism and individual freedom and liberty will be the ones driving this country to a dictatorship. Of course, the liberal/progressives will be blamed, continuing the craziness. The sickness is being led by a sick person, and we must do all that is lawfully possible to rid ourselves of it/him, a.s.a.p.
All i know is that if you kill by the sword, you will fall by the sword.
Yes leftists eat your heart out. The best employment picture in fifty years, the highest minority employment since calculations began, strong sanctions against Iran, a tax package that already has states getting revenue from corporate profits, talks with N. Korea, etc. The election is over and people vote with their pocketbooks. And not for socialism, Sanders, wealth redistribution, big gov't, and the rest of the craziness loud mouth socialist, anti american democrats preach.
1
Keep embracing him, GOP. Then we can be rid of a party that has ignored the working class and the environment, all for short-term profit.
Your own grandchildren will curse you. So, begone. The next cleansing of bad ideas will come in November.
1
Sad. Very sad. And danferous.
The NYT and its opinion writers are the one needing to wake up. Whether you like it or not, HE WON! Get over it. This divisiveness you seem to promote, does NOT help our country.
I do not know if we are talking about "the Cult of Trump", or the fact that America has been losing it's standing, to the rest of the world, for way too long.
Perhaps, a change was necessary!
4
Any people who can condone what is going on with the migrant children at our borders have crossed a basic line of compassion. I wish I knew how to reawaken basic humanity in those who support this cruel and inhumane administration.
Get used to it, because you are getting at least 4 more years of it based on current Democratic Party "strategy".
1
Noble no more. In desperation, the once Grand Old Party has evolved to become a territorial scrapyard dog collective. Rabid with borrowed potency but truly weak and invertebrate- ignoble cowardly henchmen, willing pawns in the classic bully model.
the cult of trump was created by television, which manipulates citizens into believing lies and flimflam. tv is a shallow, flat and greedy media, that has hooked people into becoming zombies for whatever they have to sell. tv must change…it is making the whole world sick…sucking our brains for profit and power. money is the root of all evil, and evil is pooling at the top.
1
"Assuming American democracy endures..." It is amazing that we have reached the point that the Times would say that.
3
Not really a cult.
Most are neither beguiled nor immoral nor stupid.
Most are cynical and nihilist.
Not just about Trump, but about America--maybe even about life.
And when they grow into even a significant minority, that becomes the slow death of a state.
1
Jim Jones had a following too.
1
It would appear that the majority of Republicans perhaps need to find a new vocation as their dominant skills (lying and obfuscating) are not terribly well suited to the job of being a public servant.
...They do, however, seem to have down pat the tactic of brown nosing the boss.
The Republican Party is complicit. Complicit in it all.
1
John Boehner. Responsible in no small measure for the rise of Trumpism. Have another cigarette.
I’d like to know when someone, a politician or reporter is going to confront trump or his minions about lying... not telling an alternative fact or a misstatement but a ... lie!
1
DJT has not transformed the GOP. He simply lets its members be who they always have been, deplorable. They feel that they no longer have to hide their self-centered beliefs; they have unleashed their id. Being a jerk is in fashion.
What he has done is shaked the bushes and added to the GOP pot.
1
Cults generally lead to disaster for their followers. A perfect example is the cultural revolution in China led by Mao who brought China to its knees when he finally died. Trump supporters and all deplorables are heading that way; all they need is a little red book to teach them the Trump way.
I have never understood this fear that Congress has of Trump. I mean the Republican Congress, of course. They must have figured him out by now. He doesn't care about them or his dreaded fan base. He likes their adulation, and when he gets that, he's ready for some golf, or a summit with Kim Jong Un.
1
On November 6, 2018, vote for a Democratic majority In the House and Senate and Trump and all his Trumpians will slither back under the rocks from whence they came.
Then the work begins rebuilding the trust, faith and good will that Trump and the Republicans have destroyed in 506 short days.
Roby got caught in the original loyalty trap: the Access Hollywood tapes. Contrary to what rational America believes, those comments by Trump were not damning indictments of the man. As Steve Bannon stated in an interview, that was the critical moment for the loyalist: those who were disgusted enough to speak out were forever branded; they would probably also balk if Trump turned out to be a cold blooded murderer, another loyalty test Trump himself recommended.
Bannon was right. The base rallied, boasting about rape was deemed locker room talk, and the Trump train proceeded down the track never looking back.
Yes, it is about the deathly fear of brown and black hordes overwhelming our borders, and on that front Trump delivers. Not much else is relevant.
It's unfortunate that the NYTimes would refer to the "Top 2" system in California as "wacky". This paper has railed against extreme elected officials and the Top 2 approach is one way to minimize that occurrence. And judging by the results from the recent primaries, I'd say that it's working.
When the "Republican Party" finally wakes up, it will be from a long snooze in the servants' quarters of the Trump International Hotel in Washington DC. Then it will be evicted from the Hotel.
What is this essay even about? Members of a political party support their president? I'm pretty sure you could have written this during 8 years of Obama and it would have read equally well. Plus Trump may be personally questionable, but his policies have been reliably conservative. And Democrats are more pluralistic? Well, maybe. But if Democrats disagree it is because a) there is no untarnished standard bearer (Hillary? Biden? John Edwards?) and because a good number of them are now open socialists, ready to rip into anyone with a hint of reason (sorry Diane Feinstein). So spare us.
2
In an argument to propound the failure of the American educational system from 1960-1998, the rise of this bigoted nativist demagogue would be proof. And it has gotten worse.
1
Eventually, as in all the escapades of dictatorship cults, they will turn on him and blame the cowards around him. Mobs, or cults, are all the same. Once the game is up the firing squads are locked and loaded.
How did we come to this point with a 72 year old corrupt demagogue to take over ?
Every single day is a nightmare and it is not even two years , it has become not a Republican Party, not even a Tea Party but a Putin lover one !
.
Be worried, as I am .
1
Perhaps we need to go beyond partisan or party analysis and ask ourselves how a nation allows a line to be crossed with this job -- from a president who heads one of the three branches of government to an autocrat who develops and exploits a cult of personality -- that at least partially was created as a bulwark against tyranny. One way to explore the answer is to look at how the job itself has changed, and one simple metric for that transformation is a quick look at how long Presidents have served in that role:
It took 80 years for us to go through Presidents 1-17 (post Civil War), or an average of 4.7 yrs
It took 44 years for us to go through Presidents 18-27 (up until WWI), or an average of 4.4 yrs
It took 104 years for us to go through Presidents 28-44 (through the last election), or an average of 6.1 yrs
This crude math certainly runs the risk of mixing causation and correlation as well as cherrypicking historical markers, but we may have been in the business of executive branch kingmaking and personality cults for a bit longer than we want to tell ourselves.
For argument's sake, let's concede much of what you say is true (debatable). What then, does that say about the Democratic party? It's ideas are so bankrupt, rife with gender identity and class warfare politics, without a coherent strategy on immigration, with no vision on taxes nor on spending, and indifferent if not hostile to business and it's place in developing jobs. The Democrats have been eviscerated locally, at a statewide level, and nationally over much of the last 10 years in much of the country. The fact that they are only 50-50 to take back the house and likely to lose seats in the Senate speaks to how out of touch this party truly is. The Republicans have significant issues - it's just that the Democrats have even more.
4
Not at all surprising. The Republicans have been a party of authoritarians for a long time.
I think that all this attention being paid to Trump hides a more fundamental problem: Trump's base. The US needs to acknowledge and come to terms with the fact that a significant minority of its population yearns for authoritarian rule. Germany and many other democratic countries have had to face this fact and adjust to it. Wanna-be dictators will come and go. Some may, I'm afraid, be much more skilled than Trump. Changing the number of people who yearn for someone to tell them what to say and what to think and who will sternly banish all who disagree with them is a much longer and difficult process.
2
I was just watching Trump answer questions from reporters as he left for the G6 summit in Canada. Every event with him is a self-congratulatory and lie-filled opportunity. I had to turn it off. He combines boastfulness, self-promotion, and true ignorance—a really bad combination.
Can this be happening? How does a man with such disgraceful personal qualities retain support from voters and from his equally disgraceful, supine Republican Party?
2
It is telling that the only Republicans willing to speak out against Trump have announced they are going to retire. The GOP needs to go away. They serve no purpose. Trump can run the country without them. He is already doing so. When this nightmare is over we will see the GOP trying to rescue itself by claiming it wasn’t apparent that Trump was a national security threat. Well it is apparent, and if Republicans don’t gather their collective wits about them soon we may not salvage our democracy.
2
The novel "It Can't Happen Here" and the movie "Idiocracy" were once considered works of fiction.
In the world of Trump, they are now considered blueprints for how you create a dictatorship built around a clueless population.
America First is more important than party. Why Trump will keep winning. Identity politics and social justice is another nail in the dems coffin. Both parties are dead men walking. People are demanding that the politicians put American citizens first.
2
And if you think that's what Trump is doing, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you.
1
That is exactly what he is doing. And that’s why the uni-party (corporate run dems/Republicans) who are protected by the MSM are so against him.
I’ll have to wait to buy the Brooklyn bridge when my 401k goes even higher.
What the NYT editorial pages seem to get wrong, in my view, is that that many voters appear to like Trump despite his vainglorious over-the-top personality, not because of it. They know he's a bit of a jerk and they accept that. Bit it's hard to find an editorial here that is not reaching to unsubstantiated "he's-a-jerk" trivialities to found broader anti-Trump themes. Who does this resonate with?
Trump appears to be doing as president what he said he'd do as a candidate. It's hard to accept that the historical approval levels cited here among republicans is not also reflected in the broader electorate. Many of the democratic focuses seems to be away from the interests of the mass of the electorate. That leaves ripe pickings for the Trump republicans.
3
The Republican Party is not taking a nap. A hostile takeover took place in 2017 and this is the Republican Party, this is America now.
Vain, selfish, not nice and hopefully with a very limited life span.
The old man is tweeting to his believers and apparently there are a lot of people that also have nothing better to do with their lives than sit around, get outraged and then send opinions into the echo chamber.
Myself included.
What can you say when you realize that educated people believe in a swamp king whose administration is composed of clowns. What in the world do you think he is going to do to help you and the country. Are these followers people who have never had a clear thought in their minds. Are they so anti democracy so much that they would let an old man take everything from them.
We always knew the Republican party were haters of everything that was good in America, health care, education, minorities, small business growth, nfl football players etc. despite GOP trolling about family values. However it is a moment of sadness that insanity rules the day. Trade wars and now Russia back into the G7. I am glad Europe will not dance to Trump studio 54 music, they know the midterms are coming and a check and balance will begin. Europe can be just as angry as the clown king. I cheer for people who want to think and grow. Despite Trump we are Americans not Russians.
1
The Civil War did not start with the purpose of outlawing slavery. It started with the desire to keep slavery only in the southern states and keep free labor out of the new territories so white settlers would succeed there. The driver was economics not morality. Check your American history without the Manifest Destiny lens. It's a white makes right, take what you want by violence to any non white group in your way.
Do we keep to that path or do we admit reality? Does white America actually want a true democracy?
1
Face it. The Republican Party is as dead as the proverbial "dodo". It gave up it's last resemblance of an authentic political party when it embraced Trump and all he stood for...which was obvious before the election. Their subsequent devolution into the "cult of Trump" was a foregone conclusion when it became evident that there was no spine in any of their so-called leaders. If the country wants a two-party system it will be up to conservative Democrats and the moderate Republicans (who seem to be in hiding just now) to form one. Political parties have come and gone before in the history of the United States, (Whigs, Democratic Republicans, Federalists, the American Party [also known as the No-Nothings]), Free-Soilers), so there is no reason why the Republican Party is sacrosanct.
1
As much as I detest the Republican Party your assertion that they are dead couldn’t be further from the truth. The hold more governorships, state legislatures, house seats and half of the senate not to mention the presidency of the United States. Couple this with their all powerful Fox News propaganda machine that has a strangle hold on American public discourse, the Republican Party is alive and well and stronger than ever.
"But where will the party, not to mention the country, be when it finally wakes up?"
Why not wake up, now? Why tolerate Trump's nonsense anymore?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trump is so full of hate. He reminds me of the bitterness of salt.
Can we come up with ways of linking our feelings toward Trump, and things, like the bitterness of salt? Why not give it a try?
From this geopolitical vantage, it isn’t even 50% the personality’s leadership potential on the world stage. You would need about a 45-year-old just to get started again.
Americans who voted for Trump are going to get a terrible hangover from the reactionary moonshine he and the Banana Republicans have been peddling.
Actual conservatives (versus quasi-theocratic, neofascist reactionaries) haven't been in the majority in the GOP since Eisenhower's time. I don't expect that to change any time soon.
Bizarrely, the mainstream Democrats are closer to Eisenhower Republicans these days. And it's still insufficient for what the country needs to really progress.
You get what you vote for, so choose carefully.
Many years ago I was a member of a firm that had a self-anointed manager who, like today's Trump, was a nasty, disrespectful bully. At first, the company was run on a short leash, made profits and seemed on track. But within a year or so the tactics backfired. Employees left in a huff, arguments over collateral issues prevailed and five years later the company broke up and dissolved. A once promising, upbeat business was lost due to bad behavior and a poor 'observing ego'. Thus, I predict the same for the Trump presidency, and, no, Boris Johnson, there is no method to his madness.
2
If his many of supporters are evangelical Christians, then they are already prepped for cultish behavior. These are folks who are too weak minded to handle freedom and democracy.
3
Hey NYTimes, why do you keep calling California's primary system a "wacky primary system?" Remember...
1) There is no formula in the US Constitution for the formation of political parties. No Republicans, Democrats or even Whigs. How these organizations have created the rules of governance based on maintaining the power of their political parties (at the expense of individual rights) could, at a certain level, be considered unconstitutional.
2) California's "wacky primary system" is the exact system used to elect the President and Vice-President of the United States until the ratification of the 12th Amendment in 1804. So I guess Madison and Hamilton and the boys didn't think it was too wacky. And just imagine the various combinations this would have created: Washington and Adams or Adams and Jefferson... no wait, those were created by the wacky system prior to 1804.
I'm just sayin'
He is a modern day Joseph McCarthy. No lie too big tell, no treaty too important to trash, no fellow citizen safe from demonizing if it furthers his popularity.
It only really ended for McCarthy when enough of his cohorts said "enough". But what will it take for that to happen today? And what permanent damage will be inflicted in the meantime?
1
Trump doesn't appear to have "coat tails" so much as "contrails" those ice crystal jet traces in the upper atmosphere that a certain Alex Jones crowd puts such stock in.
He's more of a pharaoh than president. He wants his image everywhere, wants to be treated like a diety, and seeks to deface and erase his predecessor's achievements from history. Also like rulers at that time, compassion was not a prized commodity. McConnell and Ryan have been high priests of this cult rather than public servants.
I think it's to stop calling Trump's cult his supporters. I think Trump followers is more apropos.
If the GOP fealty is now solely to Trump, they have lost any claim to patriotism.
To elevate an ignorant, grafting TV huckster to an unaccountable position of power is a betrayal of our nation.
2
There is no cult of Donald Trump. As appalling as he is and will be, DJT is an absurd but necessary reaction to the corrosive and divisive identity politics and contempt for the average voter that Democrats now rely on. Millions of people, including me, barely tolerate the man but are thankful the Democrat Party’s corrupt plan to foist the venal and duplicitous Clintons back on this nation failed miserably. Let’s all try to do better in 2020.
1
What’s the over/under on Trump ignoring all laws and separation of powers to call off the 2018 or 2020 elections and the Republicans fully supporting him in doing it? Is it within the realm of possibility he’d stage his own burning of the Bundestag?
1
The GOP as we knew it throughout US history, is dead. Any party that vilifies its members for daring to have morals and values and ethics has lost its meaning in America. Speaking up against sexual harassment or sexual predators should be celebrated. If your key candidate does these things, then that person should be expelled from your party, end of story. The fact GOP members cannot challenge the ideology du jour is chilling. What are we, North Korea?
This is a key indicator that the GOP isn't a party anymore, it no longer has beliefs nor values. They've replaced humanity and high ideals with quotas and numbers. The only ideal they pursue is power. Greed just rides along with it. The lack of humanity is free. Disgusting. Depressing. Dismantle.
1
Forget Trump. What does this piece say about the character of the millions of Americans who seem to worship him? His behaviors are racist and misogynistic; he is an adulterer several times over; he admires authoritarians; is a bully; degrades our Allies; destroys our democratic institutions; flouts the Constitution; and may even have committed collusion with the Russians in influencing our election. Yet, millions embrace him, including the so-called Christian Evangelicals who seem to forget that Christ probably would have found him changing money in the temple. Have so many Americans lost all sense of values and a concept of what is right and decent? Or is a steady diet of Fox News and Celebrity Apprentice enough to brainwash the masses. I don’t get it.
2
[Cults/cult leaders] "come off very nice at first, they go for vulnerable people who are looking for answers, lonely, what you'd call 'normal people.' They're very good at what they do and can get people to believe anything. You might think you'd never get taken in, but don't bet on it. " --- Margaret Singer, Ph.D
I am happy to see that the editorial board once again picking up on its readers in seeing this as a cult. It is a dangerous one as it is at the heart of government.
10 warning signs of a potentially unsafe group/leader. - The Cult Education Institute
1. Absolute authoritarianism without meaningful accountability.
2. No tolerance for questions or critical inquiry.
3. No meaningful financial disclosure regarding budget, expenses such as an independently audited financial statement.
4. Unreasonable fear about the outside world, such as impending catastrophe, evil conspiracies and persecutions.
5. There is no legitimate reason to leave, former followers are always wrong in leaving, negative or even evil.
6. Former members often relate the same stories of abuse and reflect a similar pattern of grievances.
7. There are records, books, news articles, or television programs that document the abuses of the group/leader.
8. Followers feel they can never be "good enough".
9. The group/leader is always right.
10. The group/leader is the exclusive means of knowing "truth" or receiving validation, no other process of discovery is really acceptable or credible.
I am wondering if there is going to be some responsible, smart, truly patriotic American who is going to sit right next to Trump an be ready to lay duct tape across his lips when he starts to give away the store - all because Kim smiles at him 'nicely' and 'really means it'. Is that Mike Pompeo? John Bolton? Anybody? Bueller?
I've never been so terrified in all my American life, and at 66, have seen and experience and learned a lot about my country. No one is protecting us. The Republicans will not and the Dems cannot - yet. But my faith in Dems is not strong. Where ARE they? I hear nothing from them. Maybe their voices have just been so dimmed by this despot that they can't be heard. Maybe they're spineless and will not fight back and fight like Republicans fight. Whatever. Point is - NO ONE IS PROTECTING US. Trump wins each 24/7 news cycle and the fear churns on.
So....after Giuliani's horrid remarks about Kim coming back to Trump on his hands and knees (like a dog is how I finished that image) and nothing at all comes from the White House to counter that, I just feel plain old frightened.
I pray the duct tape is at the ready - in someone's trustable hands.
4
Let’s describe this for what it is. For Trump’s “base“ (and base it is), this is all about keeping (or putting) minorities in this country in their place. And keeping others (not Norwegians) from polluting the population any further. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less.
2
You're giving Trump far too much credit and far too much publicity to go along with it.
Krugman did a fine job with his editorial piece this morning -- just a sober review of the pettiness of the corruption and the low thread count of the moral fabric of this Administration.
Threadbare doesn't quite describe his paucity of character.
More worrisome, as you rightly point out, is the complicity of our Congressional leadership with all of it. Calling it "leadership" at this juncture really constitutes hyperbole, wouldn't you agree?
1
As this editorial shows, as have numerous other articles, the right wing propaganda machine has found the perfect head to rally round. I fear that nothing that the reality based press, or other media can do will counter the effectiveness of the machine.
1
The most frightening thing before America is the blind support of Trump. It is beyond appalling. I truly wonder if Republicans will ever awaken.
2
"The Republican Party goes all in for President Trump. We’ll see how that works out." Upon reading this kicker, I immediately had mental visions of ground and aerial photos of Berlin in May of 1945. A little too apocalyptic? Sure, but while "I alone" resides in the White House, it's my nightmarish sum of all fears.
2
To the "left" its all about reparations, affirmative action and social justice. They deny the reality of mankind and do it with zeal. Conservatism is the only positive and reasonable way to deal with the tragic existence and flawed human nature (something the left is in denial about). The left believes the fantasy that we can supersede all inequality and strife if we can just let government (the left's government of course) take over. Nothing can illustrate this nonsense better than the discussions of "Universal Income". From the Democrats point of view one need not work but only hope! Everyone should insist on support by the government. The cult of Trump is what was formerly referred to as the American Spirit.
4
Fox News is a huge problem: Dangerous propaganda that distorts viewers’ perception of reality. That, combined with Trump’s narcissistic personality and his followers’ deep frustration with their lives, has created what is essentially a cult.
1
"Cult" seems to be the operative word here. Blind obedience to a figure or philosophy/theology is not rational no matter how one manipulates it.
Trump, the NRA, extreme "isms," all seem to appeal to the same subset. We can only hope another Jonestown or Waco is not in the making.
I guess I am just naive, but if you are a Republican representative, why not just do the right thing? Backing Trump's non-stop lying, or even keeping silent about it, is clearly not the right thing.
The "cult of Trump" is really the faction of supporters of the 2nd Amendment, for whom Trump is packing the Supreme Court. I can feel your pain...
There really isn't much of an ideological divide between traditional free market Republicans and today's neo-liberals on trade and the economy.
Both sides (rightfully) promote free trade agreements, open markets and a world economy. But no one ever explained the effects on that policy on the American worker nor prepared the US for dramatic change. Moreover, no politician, thus far, has dared attempted to enforce the terms of agreements for our benefit and risk getting in the way of corporate profits.
Trump is the first politician who promised to look out for the American worker. The verdict is still out on his policies. This is not a cult, however, this is populism and basic politics. Look out for the people who you are elected to represent.
I have my own take on this. It's marketing. It's really very simple. People like Trump because, deep down, they're anti-republican. They're pro-the-thing-that-republicanism-was-ostensibly-forged-to-replace. It's been said more simply: These folks simply want a King. They're tired of being citizens of a republic.
Of course, this underlying psychological reality can only be supported by a staunch mischaracterization of Trump supporters as "true" Americans.
The reality is that it's plainly apparent to anyone who has an abiding interest in the American experiment with republicanism that Trump supporters couldn't actually care less about all that.
1
As a former professional Republican operative, I view this Trump phenomenon as a 48 hour flu. It just has to work its way through the system. It will wipe the party out and cause us to mess ourselves. The rebuild will take time. A lot of people will be embarrassed, or worse, when they or their families look back on their involvement.
3
The relative handful of Republicans who dare speak out against President Trump’s bizarre conspiracy theories (actually, Sean Hannity’s theories) or his imposition of tariffs on our allies fall into two categories.
There are the cautious dissenters like Mitch McConnell, who speak only of the “futility” of such dissent.
Then there are the conscientious dissenters like Trey Gowdy and Paul Ryan, although neither of them are running for re-election.
The bottom line is that unless Democrats at the state and federal levels work tirelessly to win seats, Donald Trump is not going to be stopped.
In other words, things are going to get much worse before they get any better
5
God forbid the economy continue to grow I’m sure you’re doing well and after all it’s really only about you isn’t it..no trump is not likeable and for many liberals that’s very important..and don’t get me started on conservatives..
1
I believe, marty1234, that while typing your short reply you lost your way. Donald Trump has the same problem with attention span and linear thinking. Your point was . . .?
I no longer think in terms of Left and Right in politics. The pragmatic view.... the divide is the decent vs. the indecent.
I can't help but find that those who support and enable this Administration are either duped or just not decent people. It's not policy (although that's not good and often destructive, imo), but it is character, integrity and respect that is sorely missing.
3
How anyone would find the personality of Trump so appealing is beyond me. But worshippers in a cult have the ability to block out the unsupportive truth and dive deep into the adulation. Weak minds? Too willing to follow as opposed to thinking and acting for themselves? Swallowing the propaganda willingly. Most parents or family who find one of theirs involved in a cult have to spirit them away and do interventions to re-educate their loved one back into 'reality'.
So what to do the GOP masses who have dived head first into the Cult of Trump? What would happen to them if their leader was no longer there? Would they find a substitute leader?
Trump exists because the GOP party has structured itself in such a way as to support and cultivate such a 'leader'. While this shows the broken party structure and total lack of party defined ideals of the GOP, they are going with what they've got because right now they have power and money. They bought their control of DC and they are not going to give that up regardless of what Trump does or does not do.
As is applied in many other areas, Follow the Money. Money is what it's all about. For the GOP and Trump.
In 2018 America, money defines who what when where and how.
Trump's personal greed just happens to fit neatly with the rest of the GOP/conservative money machines that have bought their way to the top. They use each other and Trump's appeal just helps the 'shy' such as the Koch Brothers work behind the screens.
5
Where is the party of the New Deal taking its nap?
3
Spot on. Would The Cult’s “She Sells Sanctuary” help awaken the new rallies?
I grew up in the south and questioned the values of my neighbors when voting for people like George Wallace, Strom Thurmond, and Jesse Helms. I was comforted in the belief that they were outliers and their views could be held in check. I now realize that there is a strong 40% of people in this country that I don't like and question whether it is worth my time to associate with them. This is the sad legacy of Donald Trump. He has become the champion of those kept in check by political correctness and now unleashed to publicly be the people they always were.
17
I considered myself a Reputblican when I came of voting age. Richard Nixon cured me of that affliction, and that was before Watergate. I don't believe Nixon's assault on Democracy, the radical rightwing takeover of the NRA, and the beginning of the transformation of the Republican Party in the 1970's independent, isolated events just coincidentally occurring simultaneously.
Partisanship and, in particular, Republican intransigence, having gained its foothold during Reagan's administration, was the order of the day under Newt Gingrich's House and is now chiseled into stone in Mitch McConnell's Senate. It is no exaggeration to say the Republican goal is a single party state, in the mold of Russia or China. Under Trump, the likelihood of even a token opposition party's presence, even for the purpose of the appearance of allowing dissent, is in peril, ala North Korea.
Our allies of old are distancing themselves and this will accelerate during the G-7 summit this week in Canada. Is America headed for the same fate that it levies against countries that Washington deems a danger, sanctions and embargoes, being applied to us by Europe, Japan, and others?
Smart, Trump may be, in a limited, conniving, sense; intelligent, as in being capable of learning, he is not.
The Republican Party by subjugating itself to Trump's whims, every one of them, is guilty of treasonous acts against democracy as it was defined by the founders of the United States.
9
The 60’s wild swing to the far left needed to be countered. It amazes me that when leftist express their ideas, it is termed as democracy in action yet when the right pushes back, that is an assault in democracy.
2
@ From Where I Sit
That's because democratic thought on the right is replaced by racism and intolerance.
Which, N.Smith, can be lumped under the term, xenophobia. Also, I wonder, would a poll of Trump's cult members find them in favor of or aghast at the genocide of the native peoples of this continent during the 18th and 19th centuries. Perhaps their success at building and managing casinos, compared to Trump's dismal record in the industry, is an affront to his supporters. There is concern among them that Trump is not supportive of their revenge on the white man.
87% approval of the hands down worst president this country has ever seen? That's simply an indictment of what people who call themselves "Republicans" really stand for, now and always, no matter what they have said in the past.
8
Every Cult Needs a Martyr
Mr. Trump has good policies. He blurts out thoughts in speeches and on twitter which are intentionally not carefully scripted and the 87% are just fine with that. Disjointed and flexible outlines are raised up the flagpole so the end result looks like a Trump miracle - (a bit like his election).
The Democrats and Mr. Mueller have given him an opportunity to develop much sympathy and character to overcome the playboy image of his younger years. Mr. Trump is now the strong suffering martyr that takes more punches than he gives. He suffers for all of us to make America Great Again. Only the constant over-the-top attacks from the extreme left could have made the Trump revolution possible.
Today only Mr. Trump:
- cares about family and job creation
- has mercy to help people get out of prison
- appoints smart and fair judges
- cares about the life of the unborn
- combines military and economic might around the world
- eliminates business regulations that were not necessary in the first place
- tolerates LGBT folks without special favor
- has an intelligent and integrated approach to immigration issues
- cares about safe neighborhoods
The above hype and spin is far better than anything on the left because it is a reaction to the shortcomings of the left. It looks even better the more the left tries to kick Mr. Trump when they think he is down.
5
We need more politicians acting like leaders and fewer acting like politicians.
Many Republicans have acknowledged and even condemned Trump's behavior and words. Many have acknowledged he is a racist and a bigot. They have admitted he is a bully who is sowing division in an already divided country he should as president be trying to unite. They have noted his attacks on the free press. But when it comes to choosing between siding with decency, civility and respect or grubbing for votes at any cost, it is very clear that any moral or ethical standard, as well as the country's best interests, are far outweighed by their desire to maintain their own personal power and their party's power. When they refuse to attempt to lead us towards a collective better future and instead follow the basest instincts just to maintain or regain (Mitt Romney, anyone?) their own power without seemingly a thought for the long-term negative effects on the country they claim to love and serve, it is clear they have forgotten they are supposed to be servants to the public as opposed to just self-serving.
Enough of the politicians. We need a few leaders in DC and for this country to really heal and get onto a better, more optimistic path, as much as I may not like their politics, we need some of those leaders to come from the GOP. I'm certainly not holding my breath.
1
"Assuming that American democracy endures"
This phrase is terrifying, particularly because it's not hyperbole. The loss of our democratic system is unfolding before our eyes as Congress loses its spine and its soul to a man with neither.
13
The cult will survive as long as there is TV.
You will never convince a Trump supporter to leave the TV (or shoot it with their AR-15), go outside, enjoy Nature (I would often leave my NYC apt to gaze at the spindly tree outside on the street; sometimes it would host a bird), greet someone they don't know, and godsforbid get some exercise.
1
This column does nothing but repeat things we already know, and then it asks a question without answering it. Where are we headed? Well, the answer is obvious. We are headed for totalitarianism. That is what Donald Trump wants. He is so jealous of Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin for setting themselves up as leaders for life that he has set this as his own personal ambition. That would be the ultimate validation of his personal conviction that he knows everything better than everyone else and therefore no one deserves to be in power more than he does.
And the Republicans will play right along because as long as Donald Trump is in power they can remake the country according to their anti-intellectual, ideological dreams and steal the dreams away from the majority of the American public. That is the path we are on and only courageous leadership will knock us off. The question then becomes whether there is anyone withing the power structure who has the guts to stand up. I am not holding my breath waiting for the answer.
11
I thought that people have the leaders they deserve. When saw that man talking about the rapists Mexicans in front of a crowd that cheered his comments, I knew that his victory wouldn’t surprise me.
For many years, I heard the type of comments he makes in private settings; now those comments are becoming the norm and in some cases, policy. Many Americans felt the way he does, but now they’re free to express their feelings without fearing shame or any kind of consequence.
Trump is just the reflection of an America many of us always knew it was there: unapologetically racist, tragically ignorant, and sadly ignored by politicians of all colors. We may just be surprised of how large -and decisively influential that America is.
18
People would rather believe a simple lie than the complex truth. LAO TZU 600BC Of how about Mark Twain who said, "It is easier to fool someone than to convince them they have been fooled."
8
Apparently the 87 percenters love a guy who makes promises he can't or won't keep, throws "We'll see what happens" at them when he's at a crossroads, and otherwise spends most of his time making noise about Dems, fake news, and other things he creates in his gut (not his brain). And those former leaders of the GOP? They are where? Do they care? Ryan and Gowdy now dare to squeak-up during the waning days of their departure.
8
Assuming there isn't a massive groundswell of voter opposition, so large and varied that tried and true Republican efforts to ensure its permanent hold on power, gerrymandering, fraud and physically preventing voting (mainly directed against black voters) fails, assuming this, I suggest two numbers: 1789 and 1917 as the only viable way to reclaim our country. Is there another way?
1
Trump is an experiment in American experience. Thinking and acting differently has changed the way we look at a business person and a novice politician who made bombastic promises and kept them. 500+ days of Trump have been earth shattering in a good way and unique at the same time.
The welcome sea change that I find has been in overseas policy for which the world could remain a better place. Decent working relations with Russia and China. Cementing of the strategic ties with the largest democracy, India, evicting ISIS from its primary stomping grounds, bringing to a near end wars in Syria, Yemen, Libya and Iraq thereby reducing the massive scale of the epic migration of people leaving their devastated homelands, that took place during the Obama years and finally forcing the Afghan government to come to terms with the Taliban to fulfill the promise of a possible end to America's longest war.
This week on the Sentosa Island, Singapore, history could be made if and when Trump meets Kim and they have a productive summit culminating in the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Whats not to like with the global results of the so called "Trump Cult"?The US economy is stable and the best it has been in decades and the world is a more peaceful place. With regard to trade, if one does not engage in fear mongering, it may play out well and friend and foe will have to realize, America will no longer stand for unfair trade that disadvantages US businesses and American jobs.
3
I perceived a change in the GOP nearly forty years ago. As if in backlash to the social upheaval of the 1960’s and resulting positive gains for all Americans (Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, Medicare, Medicaid, desegregation, Equal Rights, etc.), the GOP appeared to embrace fringe elements and individuals created organizations that validated a political ideology intent on reversing these gains as well as those benefitting Americans of the early 20th century. A simplistic and petty explanation for such political opposition to what I perceived as positive change was jealousy of the rightness of changes - the fairness and Justice of the changes - initiated by Democrats as well as the popularity of social programs. This petty emotion can lead to hate and it appears hate drives the GOP today.
The difference between then and now is the hate is politically organized into one political party rather than in a scattering of cultist organizations, clubs, and fringe affiliations. Trump appears to embody this hate.
Organized political hate is recorded in history books and is a receptacle for bigotry, racism, superiority, and consequential authoritarianism as a governing principle. This type of governing is a forceful way to reverse human gains and redirect benefits to those deemed deserving.
There are too many examples of authoritarian political hate performed by the current administration to list on this limited platform. I am a Democrat because I do not hate.
14
I registered as a Republican for my first election in 1980. I voted for George W Bush, a moderate in the days when those still existed...think Mac Mathias, Nelson Rockefeller, etc. As the party slid into cultural conservatism and race baiting in the 80's I switched teams. To paraphrase Ronald Reagan...I didn't leave the republicans, they left me.
4
Evidently the Russians didn't stop with Trump and his campaign. I have read - but not seen substantiated - that the Russians made secret campaign donations to the top Republicans in Congress, ostensibly to buy their cooperation and support of their puppet in the White House (and also their silence). This would certainly explain why people like Ryan and McConnell, reportedly two of the recipients of this largesse, do nothing to stop the enemy of the state who calls himself president.
3
If it weren't Trump, Republicans would worship some other shiny object. The real story here isn't Donald Trump; he is a thoroughly ordinary man. The real story here is the authoritarian mindset of modern American Republicans. For all of their rough tough talk of fierce independence, they ultimately crave a strong daddy figure to command them. It's not about conservatism, or spirituality, or capitalism, or any other ideology. Rather, we simply have millions of Americans who embrace subservience. And when Donald Trump is gone from his very temporary stint in the White House, these people will still be among us. These people can't be reasoned with, because they don't follow reason. We simply have to outnumber and outvote them.
22
The GOP, at least for the last decade has always been a shallow collection of intellects whose only real belief was in cutting taxes---however that was done. Beyond that belief was mixture of racism and militarism. Now, they were able use this shallow platform to dupe the electorate, mostly in the west and south, that the democrats would take their guns, take their religion, and take their jobs into a winning formula, but their political profile was Trump lite before Trump.
1
The artwork accompanying this article is brilliant.
An alternative, please !
The opposition must provide a vision of what a thoughtful America could be.
The age of a thoughtful American vision is over. The new American is everything that is being repealed, replaced, rolled-back, undermined, cut, gutted, and put up for sale. The message is becoming more and more clear—the G7 will take it from here.
Yeah and the Democratic for 8 years didn't rally and support the Obama Presidency. Lots of reason to not like Trump I get it, but there is more division in republican party over Trump then there ever was over Obama in the democratic party.
1
RE: "there is more division in republican party over Trump"
And that is where? Ryan, Gowdy, and Flake who aren't running? Roby who was turned out because she wouldn't defend Trump's defiling a women? Abusers want their victims to love and defend them.
That people can't see the difference between supporting a President and the cult following where people give up their previously strongly held beliefs, are willing to suspend disbelief, ration, and reason, accept a figure who turns everything they believed on its head and runs counter to every character and qualification put forth as sound and desirable isn't surprising when they are enraptured.
Trump cannot seem to get it done without attendant personal drama and contention! He reminds me of the kid with the ball, who wasn’t very good, and no one wanted on their team, but if he couldn’t play, would take the ball home!
That was when we were kids; a long time ago. It is well past time to have learned we are no longer kids, do some much-needed maturing and get some cosmopolitan virtues. After all, you don’t any longer have the only ball!
Republican party, which became spineless soon after Trump arrived in their party and started decimating the entire party's mechanism with his Trumpism, is now a headless party too.
With very few Republicans trying to stem the flow of Trump's barbarism, G.O.P. right now is "Trump party" as the ex-Speaker John Boehner told a gathering of fellow party men.
Actually it is not too late for the Republican stalwarts like Mitch McConnell to stop the slide of his party towards abyss.
But being another spineless, gutless Republican, the Senate Majority leader has very little idea in winning the midterms for his party.
No wonder like a reluctant sycophant, the long standing Republican Senator from KY has folded his arms and kind of the knelt down in a stupor and agrees to a buffoon's rhetoric from the White House.
Actually it's not only Mitch but Lindsey Graham from SC and many others of formerly anti-Trump Republicans're showing no character that the G.O.P. was known for : Anti-Russia, pro law enforcement, zero tolerance of the anti-Lincoln rhetoric et Al.
Yes, just to win the upcoming elections in November, the republican party establishment has embraced Trump's low blows.
The G.O.P. which felt that it is in dire straits after the last election held on Tuesday where all the Republican candidates except for the Governor's seat in CA have lost their steam.
That is the main reason why we see the Republican party embracing Trump's supporters because they can feel their apocalypse.
1
You wonder what it’s like to be these guys. A majority of Americans see right through them. Wonder how they rationalize their behavior.
1
I was mistaken, and I am distressed by my lack of insight. In 2016 I voted against Hillary Clinton because I saw her as blatantly dishonest (huge bribe-fees for hidden talks-assurances to the very wealthy) and I believed that the Republicans won because the Democrats had fielded an entirely inappropriate candidate. I could not imagine that someone as vulgar, as ignorant, and as boastful as Trump would win on his own merits. (For that election I became a Libertarian.) But now I believe that Trump actually achieved popularity among a large segment of Americans; they believe in him, in his abilities, and fully support him. What has happened to this country? How could such a destroyer of American values--such a liar and incompetent--be popular? Have we become a nation that could accept a cruel dictator as our sole leader? Of course the billionaires benefit from the man who hurts the weak. These billionaires are able to throw a torrent of ads into the media . They benefit when the government allows them to pollute air and water. They benefit from tax cuts. Has the art of advertising reached the stage where it can get people to do the cruelest things and get them to think they are doing what is right? Tearing children from parents , deporting fathers or mothers of families that are mainly American citizens, showing no mercy or heart in this attack on the powerless--is it all a reaction to loss of income,loss of a good job, lack of a good education--what has happened?
1
You didn't understand that voting against Hillary was voting for Trump? I'm trying to understand. You thought a person with no public service experience, who had bankruptcies, cheated students & workers, demonized immigrants, denier of climate change, pusher of birther lie, name caller had to be better than Hillary and all her crimes.
3
You're absolutely right. I was stupid--the same stupidity that made so many vote for the Idiot in the WH. But I am not entirely responsible for this debacle. Obama and the party leaders should have pushed for an honest candidate.
The cult-following mentality - yes! And many thanks for using piercingly truthful qualifiers such as "Assuming that American democracy endures..."
But let us not forget that the flames of this cult are doused generously by bigotry and xenophobia. Dwelling and thriving within US citizens, it is an indispensable fuel.
Switching metaphors: Unless there is an antibody (of public outrage) that swarms this almost literal virus, it is destined to become much worse.
1
With Trump's nearly universal approval ratings, It's time for non-Republicans to stop fooling themselves that if only the electorate would see how despicable Trump is. It will not happen because he is exactly what they want and is doing exactly what they want.
Trump IS the Republican party and vice versa. They have been salivating for decades to deconstruct Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the public school system, the Voting Rights Act, the EPA...
Reverse the FDR's New Deal, LBJ's Great Society and of course expunge Obama's entire presidency.
Obama's great 2004 speech where he spoke eloquently that there is no Red America or Blue America was aspirational but completely wrong. We are two nations living within the same country.
Only one can survive.
6
You and the like minded are free to donate your entire incomes to your favorite causes but keep your hands, via government forced charity, out of my pockets. I’ll take my chances without a safety net.
1
“There is no Republican Party,” he told the crowd. “There’s a Trump party. The Republican Party is kind of taking a nap somewhere.”
Except he then went on to say that he agreed with most of what Trump is trying to do. This is conveniently left when reporting this statement in most of the media; maybe in the hope that there are actually republicans who would truly stand up against trump with action and not just finger wagging?
Perhaps we might see an article admitting to "The Obsession of Anti-Trump," to which this journal, the Washington Post, Hollywood, and most of academe can be founding members, convinced this President can do nothing good, every action of his demonized from before he even entered into office?
2
I cringe when I see political commercials lauding the candidate's support of Trump and denigrating those who have said anything against him. What has this country come to? June 6 was the anniversary of D Day.Certainly, divisive rhetoric and unwillingness to compromise is not what those brave men and women fought and died for?
1
Fortunately, only twenty four percent of Americans identify as Republican. This is according to Gallup. Saying Trump has an 87 percent approval rating among Republicans isn't saying very much. In terms of total numbers, he only has about twenty percent support from the electorate. This seems to gibe with his consistently underwhelming national approval ratings despite a decent economy. Republican candidates are hitching their wagon to the wrong star. The problem they're having is there isn't really an alternative. The majority of voters don't actually like conservative policy. It's Trump or nothing. Republicans better brace for a tough election cycle. Structural advantages will only take the edge off the pain.
5
In Jon Meacham's newly released book, "The Soul of America - the Battle for our Better Angels", he writes about different points in our history that have been tumultuous and we survived somehow. Just finished the chapter on the McCarthy era, while Eisenhower was President. So many obvious similarities between McCarthy and Trump, both men so much alike. Initially there was great support for McCarthy, but he went too far and created his own demise. The Republican Senate finally censured him and he went downhill after that. And now we have a President like McCarthy only way more powerful. When will our GOP Congress wake up and save our country?
5
Thank you for this astute essay on a deeply troubling dynamic. As a professor of religious studies, I wrote on this topic as well which some may find of interest. Here's the link and thanks again for your important analysis. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/politicsblue/2018/02/cult-trump-dangers-cha...
6
Anyone who laments the demise of the "decent and reasonable" Republican Party of the 20th Century is giving far too much credit to the Republican Party of the 20th Century.
14
The biggest issue with this piece is the conflation of "conservatives" "Trump supporters" and "the Republican Party." Trump's election has meant that not all these terms mean the same thing.
4
The confusion is between method and motivation, over two classes of issues.
Trump is aligned with many of his voters in his dislike and disdain for people not-like-me, and in a playful disregard for the system and norms. Both he and they delight in his maverick acts of destruction which he had promised and has delivered, at least in theatre.
Trump identified, amplified and articulated a widespread dissatisfaction. Many loved to hear their concerns become the talking points and slogans for this so-well-known celebrity- he became their voice, so of course they vote for their voice. What they misunderstood was that the voice was mere mimic, Trump does not speak his thoughts or intentions, he simply repeated theirs to better recruit their votes. The deep-seated anxieties of many of his voters are real but Trump’s promise is not, he takes these issues only as far as the polling station.
His method was to play on people’s despair, his motivation was their vote, his actions will coincide with their wants when they match his, with their needs not at all.
6
This election, more than any, shows America as 2 nations. As different in perception of what’s right and what’s wrong as 2 nations can be. It’s Ted tv vs reality tv and we can only pray (religious tv) that smart wins.
6
In my long lifespan, the Republican party has always been the pro business, anti labor, racist, extreme right party that Trump is. So there is no change for that party.
What has changed is that the curtain has been pulled away from Oz, and they are seen as they are.
Today's announcement that they will no longer support the existing condition regulation in health care shows their complete disregard for the people in favor of business.
20
The Republican parties two latest stunts are to line up behind insurers being able to deny health coverage on the grounds of previous conditions; and to collude with efforts to contaminate the water supply.
6
There is no Republican Party any more.
What used to be the GOP is the party that wants to do away with the USA as we once knew it.
It has never been more important to vote, or become active in our government then it is today.
9
All I can say is thank God for term limits. I will do what I've always done. I will vote away from Trump and his cult of personalities. Now that both of my children are of voting age, I will ensure they are fully informed about the candidates (across both parties) so they can make a well informed voting decision which was totally lacking in the last election (again..across both parties).
4
Yes, credit to Nancy Pelosi for not trying to do harm to those running who do not endorse her. That said, it’s time for her to step down and let the next generation assume leadership roles (BTW, I’m on Ms Pelosi’s generation so this is not ageism). She’s done a commendable job but, Ms Pelosi, it’s time.
8
The fact that few--certainly no one on the left--saw the Trump Presidency coming explains why everyone is in a hurry to explain it now. And, like so many things in America today, the explanations can be fitted on to a bumper sticker:
He gives voice to the failing middle class
He speaks for Angry America
He speaks for older undereducated white guys
Most Americans neither like nor trust the "elites"
The simplicity of the explanations intrigue me. I can't say they are wrong, but they don't help much. My own explanation is Trump is an amalgam of PT Barnum and Marshall McLuhan.
McLuhan wrote The Medium is the Massage, a clever play on words, which emphasized the fact people see what they want to see or expect to see. Trump tells people what they want to hear, and they ignore what they don't wish to see or hear about him.
PT Barnum provided entertainment in continuous bursts, like our celebrity President.
Frankly, people that receive their information from 30 second bursts of light and sound are bothered by more laborious messages--books, articles published in the Atlantic, position papers. These things are hard work and just don't resonate with people in a hurry.
Trump's medium is his message--immediate, harsh, entertaining. Easy. The huckster runs deep in American lore. Trump is neither an anomaly or new. And, he is very good at what he does.
My friends get angry when I say he is "good". That is not what they want to hear.
6
The Russians saw it.
Actually, it's worked out pretty well for them so far. He got elected. The economy is booming. Peace on the Korean peninsula seems to be possible. And the GOP has a pretty good shot to retain power after the mid-terms.
5
"The economy is booming".....Trump is responsible for the booming economy in the same way Obama was responsible for the 2008 recession - they were both inherited. Not to mention that in the first two years of Trump the budget deficit has increased by 50% and will be more than a trillion dollars annually by 2020.
14
@John Jabo
The economy has been booming for at least six years (we're in the 92nd month of continuous job creation); there is peace in the Korean peninsula and has been for 66 years (you really think NK is going to give up nuclear weapons?).
8
But it cant last. Where will we be when it all comes down, and who will get hurt? He's ignoring too many things that matter, and he and his cronies are stealing everything not bolted down. How does it end?
The question I keep asking is, how many more, or fewer, Republicans are there since the creature's election? Is the party growing or shrinking? Here in California it's obviously shrinking, how about elsewhere?
9
Yes, we're in a strange and rather scary time. Our President just flames that fire.
People don't know what to do: good jobs are disappearing, the 'social contract' is falling apart, we're becoming more and more selfish and even antagonistic.
We've been slow to respond to the end of the industrial age of factories and pensions, and the growth of the information age and concentrating wealth, income, property and power. We've been used.
Billionaires are not good for us. They are not saviors. This mad concentration of money is enslaving millions while destroying democracy by destroying equality. This path has no hope.
Trump is our worst impulses writ large. So narcissistic, so self-congratulatory, so prideful. We like to talk Christianity but our walk is surely closer to love of money. Jesus said turn away from riches and help the poor and be humble. This is not America today. Trump having the support of evangelicals is truly hypocrisy at it's worst: claiming some sort of spiritual morality by voting for the moneychanger, the adulterer, the liar, the thief, the prideful draft-dodger.
Wow, to skip Vietnam service 5 times, then say McCain was no hero because he was 'captured'. Our President said he likes soldiers that weren't captured. And Republicans find him more of a patriot than John Kerry? How can a veteran vote for him?
He said he's a 'star' and can grab women by their genitals. Wow. Christian? How? Because he lies about his love of guns & hate of abortion? Lies. Cult.
18
More than the cult of Trump, it is the cult of Fox News. If they did not exist, the country would be in a far better place, without Trump and his ilk in leadership roles.
13
yes, this! upvote! Fox News needs to be reported ON.
1
Sometimes, in a bad dream, I see a civil war as the only logical outcome.
12
We are in a civil war already. The reason being, that there will never be a classic uprising in the country. The Kochs are Louis XIV. But no one cares about that.
I invite all to view the video of the FEMA meeting. First Melania was there though I have read no account of the purpose of her attendance. Second, Trump takes his bottle of water and places it on the floor. Reflexively, Pence does the same.
It used to be that conservatives would have been enraged by those two occurrences. Crickets.
Sheeple is the term they used to bandy about.
8
He Was a Crook
A scathing obituary of Richard Nixon, originally published in Rolling Stone on June 16, 1994
HUNTER S. THOMPSON
JULY 1994 ISSUE
Google it
Sound familiar. History repeats itself.
Many believe hater Trump is worse.
8
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.
5
It may take a long time, but my hope is that the Republican Party will eventually be small enough that you could drown it in a bathtub.
10
I only ask that Trump supporters tattoo the letter "T" on their foreheads; so when it all comes crashing down, they can't deny their responsibility in the aftermath.
33
That would be a great service. But just like with the about 41% Nazis who voted for Hitler in the last free German election before usurpation they will deny and pretend after the crash.
The oligarchs are running the country like a plantation, not motivated by profit - they always had huge profits - but by control. Their guy is in the purse opens. Their guy is out the purse is shut.
So what'll it take? A war? A major recession? A worldwide depression? What?
"Do not," it says in Exodus somewhere--or is it in Leviticus?--"do not follow a crowd to do evil."
You listening? You diehard "Republicans"?
I am floundering for words. Remember the major dot com collapse almost twenty years ago? People at the time noted something odd about SOME startup companies.
They weren't selling anything. By "anything" I mean "stuff on hand they could sell people."
There was tremendous excitement. Of course. The electronic age was in full swing. The wave of the future. Where it was AT.
Only it wasn't. With no merchandise (in many cases)--no viable business model. . . .
. .. that whole boondoggle went belly up.
I dream--and I'm sorry, New York Times, I DO dream--of the folly, the emptiness, the vanity, the plain idiocy of this man being shown up for what it is. Shown up pitilessly. And in detail.
"Cause he--and the party that supports him. . .
. . .they have nothing. No wisdom. No vision. No long-term strategy.
As for those millions--MILLIONS!--of Republicans that so blindly, so obstinately, so NOISILY follow him.
I say to them what I would say to today's GOP--and the President now riding high.
You have let down your country.
Big time!
Congratulations.
Sleep tight.
18
Actually a war would be just the thing to cement his hold on the country by silencing his detractors. The, win or lose, America would be lost.
1
Where will the country be, you ask? We don't lack for object lessons, do we? Try Putin's Russia, for starters. Then take a gander at Rodrigo Duterte -- a man Trump was quick to praise as a 'strong leader,' and whose murderous tactics Trump heartily endorsed in one of his early chats with 'world leaders.'
I would throw in Stalin, and move on to that German fellow with the slick hair and silly moustache, but I doubt Trump is possessed of the maniacal intelligence or the sheer psychotic verve required to take the U.S. quite so far - but that could prove to be wishful thinking on my part. It's still early innings. There's plenty of game left.
As for that stellar 'approval rating' among Republicans, it certainly demonstrates the effectiveness of an around the clock, wall to wall propaganda program, does it not? So long as the Trump Flat Earth Network and its affiliates continue to blanket the tv, radio and internet with blatantly counterfactual idiocy that would make the staff of Pravda blush - Fox 'News,' Breitbart, 'Infowars' and the rest will hold tens of millions of poorly educated, ill-informed, and in many cases drug addled or senile minds in the palm of their hands.
Trump's 'best minds' are all of one mind.
Not a pretty picture, that's certain.
5
If the Republican Party ever does come back it should be held in nothing less then utter contempt. To support this vile man they gave up all they stood for. I can only hope the Democrats treat them with as much contempt as they have for the American People.
20
So what is being offered in opposition to Trump? What clear voices and policies are being presented to the public that show a way out of all of this? What confident voices are being heard by the American public? I don't see anything changing. Being opposed to Trump is not enough to win voters. Democrats have to offer something solid. Democrats have to get their hands dirty and go into Trump Country and find out what the people need and offer solutions to their problems. So far they seem to be following the Clinton roadmap of turning up their noses at Trump -an easy no-brainer task, and by proxy, turning up their noses at the people who voted for him. They are alienating an entire population of voters simply by assuming they were idiots to vote for Trump. That ain't gonna work. They weren't idiots. They were desperate. They didn't see anything coming out of 8 years of a Democratic White House, and looked elsewhere because the 2008 crash was and still is part of their lives. Get past Trump, find out what they need, find ways to help them, and then work to improve their lives. Give them something to believe in beyond Trump.
8
"So what is being offered in opposition to Trump?"....Real solutions are more complicated than sound bites. They require reflection, facts, and rational thought; all of which would appear to be in desperately short supply.
4
Except thats not true. Further data research reveals that Trump voters are whites discontented with demographic change and NOT all financially hard up. That cant last as a governing issue.
3
In 2009 and 2010, I was “desperate” as well – both my husband and I were simultaneously laid off from our jobs, resulting in employment that lasted for two years. Instead President Obama (who hadn’t even taken the oath of office yet) or nursing paranoid grudges or developing an opiate habit, I enrolled in school (which I paid for myself) for continuing education so I could better compete in the job market. During that time, the Republican leadership in Congress wasn’t interested in what I needed; they were too busy calling me a “parasite” and trying to take a way unemployment insurance that I had earned because I had worked. I went back to work because the economy improved – under President Obama.
The animosity toward Trump voters is not because of snobbery or “elitism” but because they choose to believe lies, entertain conspiracy theories and hold education, minorities, LGBT citizens and women in contempt. They also appear to be violently disposed toward anybody who disagrees with them. While visiting a flea market recently, I saw this in full effect: One vendor had a sign in his booth declaring “The Trump Train is coming through!” and that we had to “get on board or get run over!” Another poster exclaimed “Don’t like Trump? Here’s our solution” with a photo of a pistol pointed at the viewer. Why should I give any consideration to people who want to kill me? This kind of behavior causes alienation as well, Michael, as the Ceausescus discovered in 1989.
2
Well if conservatives were thoughtful and analytical people they would know what will be left of their movement post Trump. But the time when they were rational appears to be long gone. The Democratic Party became solely about Obama and now that he is gone it seems to be in disarray. Once Trump is gone and his personality cult collapses I don't think that there will be much left of the Republican Party either, which is the most hopeful future I can imagine for our beleaguered country. Whether democracy in the US will survive this assault is very much up in the air in my opinion.
7
This is a cult controlled by mass hysteria over national security using hate as a trigger. This man definitely has a cult that lives in fear of up setting him or making him angry. Remember the cabinet meeting last year when all praised trump & how blessed they were that he chose them to be in his cabinet. Those are not the words of independent minded people. Those are brainwashed followers of a “David Koresh” or “Jim Jones” cult leader. Yes dictator is coming into being with a cult family following of American citizens.
21
We need to stop entertaining intellectual curiosity items about this guy and hold him to account for doing everything from obstructing investigations to enriching himself by refusing to divest interests. His henchmen keep trying to normalize the abnormality of his behavior. Nothing about his time in office has been normal and nothing about him has changed. He is grossly incompetent and proves it daily. He is using the office to enrich himself and his spawn, and proves it daily.
28
No. We need to elect people to Congress that will do that. And that is not going to happen. Blue wave? I will believe it when I see it. Democrats are just so hapless.
Dear John Boehner,
You are correct, "There is no Republican Party,” "There's a Trump party," but we regret to inform you that "The Republican Party" is not "kind of taking a nap somewhere," it is taking "The Big Sleep."
The stupor started when Nixon used the Southern Strategy to rip the country to shreds, but the Big Sleep is Ronald Reagan's doing. He totally delegitimized the idea of good government. Reagan stated that "Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem," and "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help." Reagan and his proxies never stopped. Did they even consider that it might work too well? That a half century later a Republican narcissist would crawl out of that vat of Republican hatred and lies and try to burn it all to the ground and replace it with authoritarianism? Trump obliterated a Republican establishment which cynically thought it could control the maelstrom of distrust, bitterness, misanthropy, bigotry, and hatred it had unleashed. Republican voters euphorically cheered the death of the Republican Party, just as they cheered for America's end.
"What did it matter where you lay once you were dead? In a dirty sump or in a marble tower on top of a high hill? You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that...You just slept the big sleep, not caring about the nastiness of how you died or where you fell."
Raymond Chandler
10
All these folks who cling to Trump like Velcro need to understand he actually has no allegiance to them, only to himself. Eventually they will need to recognize the shortcomings Trump is imposing on them. They will be kicked off health insurance due to pre-existing conditions and premiums will rise, inflation will eventually increase due to deficits and rising wages, farmers will suffer due to trade wars, gun violence will not get addressed, our allies will "sit this one out" when Trump has to call someone's bluff and use the military, and storms and sea levels will continue to get worse. And eventually they will have to decide who to blame. I am sure the banks and contractors who used to do business with Trump thought "This is great. We are going to do pretty well with this guy". Until they realized he was stiffing them. He discards them and goes in search of other people to do business with. In places like Russia. That may work in the business world. All these giddy politicians and voters who are so enamored with Trump that they think they will never lose will eventually lose. It will be very interesting to see them peel away one by one. They will find very few people willing to let them cry on their shoulders.
6
Soooo your saying that one party is riding the president that presides over a roaring economy and is strong in law enforcement and foreign policy while the other party is breaking away from their do-nothing leadership? Fascinating.
4
Trump has had nothing to do with the booming economy, has completely screwed foreign policy, and theatrics does not substitute for strong law enforcement. What is fascinating is the shallowness of the observation.
10
We no longer have a two-party system.
The Republican Party is nothing more than a relic of a genteel time when the GOP would knock off their bankers’ hours and retire to the walled-off refuges of their watering holes to end a leisurely day in which they told America that their benign brand of paternalism was just what the country needed to keep it from descending into a pit of sexual freedoms, organized labor demands and the continued annoying insistence of civil rights “agitators” who threatened all the established norms of a (white-dominated) society.
With the coming of Donald Trump, the legendary names on the party’s long masthead have been silenced by either apathy or fear. An aging George H.W. Bush has tossed grenades into the Trump camp circle, as have other Republicans of more recent vintage. However, they’re leaving—and leaving behind a party of zealots and liars and ideologues that long ago abandoned any semblance of “conservative” philosophy. What the Trump adherents want now is no government but a dictatorship of an unhinged and increasingly unstable man without any political experience or interest in governing prior to 2015.
The party is now a crocodile pit of rapacious specimens who are willing to devour any opposing opinion—on any topic—and has in its pocket a major cable television news outlet (Fox) and a far-reaching network of hate radio stations in which to appeal to people with anti-American sentiments—for that is what they are—signals the coming end.
9
"But where will the party, not to mention the country, be," this editorial asks, "when it finally wakes up?" Miranda Carter asked a similar question in the New Yorker yesterday. The real problem for Germany, as it turned out, was not the unpredictability and narcissism of Kaiser Wilhelm II during his 1888-1918 leadership, but what filled the vacuum after him.
3
It's the newest iteration of Stockholm syndrome except this is willful.
5
One would think that, in a cult of personality, people do not just find blind devotion -- they find a model, someone who inspires them to aspire. Perhaps people are willing to ignore Trump's many faults, his narcissistic, nonsense blather, because of what Trump symbolizes for them. He's an everyman in the sense of reveling in his no-nothingness. His nothing is a golden nothing (not solid gold, just a veneer), the shine of the 'American Dream.' He's an everyman in his outspoken, supposed love of country (America 'FIRST'), in his fake admiration for the Bible (which makes his real sinful behavior oh-that-much-more-forgivable).
But I have a hard time imagining anyone actually wanting to 'be' Trump. We have had Presidents that people wanted to sit down and have a beer with, because they could talk like a straight-shooter. Who would want to have a beer with a lying narcissist? We all know how painful that would be. He is also a man devoid of humor, devoid of music, devoid of literary references. The only reference this POTUS can muster are B-list, and lower, celebrities.
So who wants to be someone without a sense of humor, but who instead enjoys cutting others down? Who wants to be someone who revels in 'deals' -- many of which have been dubious, outright failures? Who exults in not reading? Who lies? Where is the inspiration, the vision in that?
The GOP accuses the Dems of playing 'identity politics,' yet all I am left with is that the POTUS is white.
3
We can only hope the cult of Trump ends better than other cults. In the interim we are witness to an orgy of political pornography. Try as we might the obscene spectacle of Trump pulls us in. But, again hopefully, just as one is quickly sated by standard pornography, so to will those still enthralled by Trump soon become bored and disgusted by his vapid ignorance.
1
how did this horrible person come to be in charge and get to decide our futures. When will enough be enough?
6
Had there been an American president who during the campaign promise, pushed all of them when became president? Take for instance putting the embassy in Jerusalem every one of them promised but never dare to do it. Like it or not Trump promised to go hard on immigration, tariff, eliminate the thousands of regulation that were strangling the economy, appoint conservative judges, tax cut, eliminate obamacare, take back the one side deal to Iran, eliminate issis, attacked Syria when crossed the red line, went after ms 13 with tooth and nail finally town like long island are having some relief, provided 4 billion in combatting the opioid epidemic. 67% of American believe now is the right time to find quality job, confidence level reached 17 years high. Foreign policy, rogue state like N. Korea begging us for a meeting with no precondition as oppose to in the past where our leadership passing handout for them to continue their nuclear program like the Obama horrible Iran deal. So take aside all the drama and few past president had done what they promised during the campaign.
3
87% of Republicans may approve of Trump at this point in time. I’ll be curious to see to what degree sentiment changes when this fool posing as a president is forced out of office.
4
Let the Republicans continue to nationalize the mid-terms as a referendum on Donald Trump. Ed Gillespie tried that in Virginia and lost to Democrat Ralph Northam. Then Rick Saccone tried it in Trump western Pennsylvania and lost to Democrat Conor Lamb. And, of course, Roy Moore tried it in deep red Alabama and lost to Democrat Doug Jones. In baseball it's usually three strikes and you're out. But, the Republicans seem like lemmings going over the Trump cliff one after another and the Democrats can only smile as they continue to do so. The "cult of Trump" may be more Jonestown than they think as the blue wave washes away the toxic Trump Kool-Aid.
10
It's really scary that this many Americans are out of their minds.
7
History will not be kind to many of these Republican politicians.
3
I think of the moment when it all fell apart for another demagogue, Nicolae Ceausescu. His speeches look and sound on tape very much like Trump, and he successfully deceived and manipulated his people in a similar way. Then came that speech when he suddenly knew that he had lost his power over them. Obviously a coup and violent death is thankfully not in the cards in America, but I think that in other regards Trump may be headed to such moment when even his cult members finally awaken.
4
There is no Republican Party. Only the Alt Right with some Randian help from Speaker Ryan.
3
Donald Trump's is the Republican party, and the Republican party is Donald Trump. Remember that in November.
2
Trumpsters will not rest until he fulfills his subliminal message to them: the full dictatorship that they, and the GOP, all yearn for.
2
The idea that John Boehner represents anything other than Trumpism is laughable.
He may have had a different a style, but his right wing extremism was the same.
He had a religious zeal to deprive millions of health care, in effect indifferent to suffering and dying.
Just one nauseating example.
2
Sigh. The chest-thumping, flag waving, might is right party turns out to be a bunch of weak-kneed sycophants. In contrast, Pelosi shows her strength again. Shocked I tell you, I'm shocked.
3
I realize that books have been written, and will likely continue to be written, about the cult of Trump. While there are surely a lot of factors that both predicted and facilitated his rise, you can simplify and distill it down to a true head-scratcher, which is: How can anyone really be charmed by this charmless, vile man? If he was one of your office mates, or some guy trying to sell you a new TV, any adult with a baseline of life experience would be repulsed and see through his bull in seconds.
2
The most intriguing thing to me is how fast we have come to this level. Before Trump one lie could take the President down and now the lying is going on a daily basis, literally.
Now there are facts, alternate facts, relative truth, changing recollections, fake news even if it is not,
In the new dictionary fact is what Trump says it is, not actually what it is.
Next our national anthem should be “God save the King”
5
Republican leaders are spineless cowards. And self-professed anti-Trump conservative pundits aren’t any better. Instead of focusing on Trump’s historic incompetence and disgusting behavior, they continue to bash Democrats. Ben Shapiro is the perfect example. Claimed to be anti-Trump, but spends his time obsessing over identity politics (even though “SJWs” represent a small fraction of Democrats and don’t even turn up to vote) and tearing down the Parkland survivors. David Brooks does the same thing. He should be devoting every column to analysis of the decay of the GOP and his role in it. But he, like all conservative Trump-detractors, still refuses to accept any responsibility. I think they still genuinely believe liberals are to blame for Trump’s rise.
Boehner is right. There is no Republican Party, and anti-Trump conservatives are ensuring the “nap” becomes a coma.
5
Trump appeals to two sorts - the dishonest bigots who call their brand of bigotry 'patriotism', and the clever sort who see him as a useful distraction while they stuiff the courts with anti-abortion judges whose principal qualification for the bench is their fundamentalism.
The rest of us stand appalled.
3
The Trump Party will wake up like Rip Van Winkle, and find that the country has moved on without them. And they will be angrier than ever. Not a good thing.
3
Yeah, but they have had Congress for the last 7 years.
If the Cult of Trump becomes fixed and he names himself King as Time Magazine suggests (in modern parlance "President -for-Life") what are we, Americans and lovers of our Constitution going to do?
9
We are better off supporting Trump and the Republicans. How else can we fend off the Democrats, the party of Socialism, free everything and reparations. It is somewhat of an intelligence test, the economy is setting records in the stock market, wealth and job creation. Deregulation and tax cuts are driving this. The Dems want to take that all away. Remember when the Dems and this paper said Trump’s GDP growth projections of 3% were too optimistic? Now we are experiencing them. Let’s not vote back in the Dems that want sub 2% growth. Or maybe it is that Obama foreign policy you yearn for, Benghazi, Syria, North Korea, the TTP, or the toothless Paris Climate Accord, or China stealing our intellectual property with immunity. When the facts get in the way of the Dems they fall back on how Trump threatens our very democracy and Russian Collusion Conspiracy. Stop drinking the Kool-Aid.
1
The GOP has had Congress for the last 7 years. Congress is where laws and budgets are made. And the last time the GOP had the Presidency and Congress we ended in the Great Recession. Your statements do not match the real world. BTW, We still do not have 3% GDP.
3
The gop has made a choice - trump over country - caveat emptor!
6
"But where will the party, not to mention the country, be when it finally wakes up?"
The Republicn Party will be dead when it wakes up.
If we elect a Democratic majority to the House and the senate in November 2018, the country will recover.
If not, our democracy may well be over.
Vote a straight Democratic ticket in November because our demcracy depends on it.
3
The mere fact that donald trump is president mean the political/governmental system of the US is irretrievably broken. It is an absolute sham.
9
TRUMP – Proof that everyone does not deserve the right to vote, because they are immune to facts and empirical data, and prone to swooning emotion and fear mongering.
1
We move closer and closer to Germany in the 1930's and toward Sinclair Lewis' *It Can't Happen Here* with President Buzz Windrip touting his dictatorial powers to the electorate he wooed with fake populism.
Will American's wake up and realize what a terrible bargain they have made with Emperor Donald? Cult leadership is not governance, not national leadership. Trump loves his own cult. He has an infinite capacity for flattery and pandering. He is quite sick and deluded, but the toadies somehow can't see it.
I hope Americans will wake up and throw him out. Emperor Trump has no clothes, and his supporters are going down hard when he goes.
2
I don't think any additional berating of the Trumpian Party, serves any purpose, so I'll forgo it.
With respect to the Democratic Party, the idiom should read "wandering in the wilderness of their own minds", a phrase I've used often, I'm flummoxed as to how it is possible that they are so hopelessly adrift, circling the Klieg light that is Trump, repeatedly showing their impotence, and after 18 months of the Trumpian Party laying waste all our nation ever symbolized, the Pelosi Schumer Party aka the Democratic Party, has yet to do anything to mobilize the tens of millions of Democrats yearing for a Trumpian Party exile.
I hope I'll wake one morning and discover that the Democratic Party has had its first epiphany in 50 years, and as evidence of such I will see a full page advertisement, in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and even the Wall Street Journal, a statement setting out in some detail a new no-nonscense progressive platform, a la Bernie Sanders, with no punches pulled, thereby creating the kind of adulation that put Obama in the White House, twice, and like it or not, because of the same kind of unwavering adulation of Trump, by his acolytes,
mindlessly enabled by the policies of the sclerotic elders of the Democratic Party, we now have Trump and his loyal party.
Sadly, in vain I hope, as I know there is no redemption for the Democrats, nor do they want it, because Trump is their foil, a foil which gives them cover while they benefit from his policies.
3
One part of me wants to become self-absorbed and let the proverbial chips fall where they fall. The other part wakes up every day to a new assault on my senses; trying to understand the depths of almost gleeful abdication of responsibility from people like Paul Ryan, MitchMcConnell, Ben Carson, Scott Pruitt, etc. Then, there are the 62 Million who willingly supported a bonafide con artist because....well....he was rich and; we know the other part. The twin evils of malice and stupidity -- creates an almost unbreakable bond. That it will take decades to undo the devastation is disgraceful and disgusting.
2
Repubs are proud of Trump. Dems are ashamed of Pelosi. Any questions?
3
As a liberal, I am ashamed of Pelosi because of the Dem's inability to deliver a decent message and win elections. That is different from being proud of Trump for hurting women, minorities, and the poor.
1
Why does Trump have the uncritical support of his base? One reason is his press coverage. The Times, for instance, is amazingly critical and condescending in its REPORTING - not just its editorials! The Times is perceived by many as being elitist. (Why? - Well, for example, I’ve had to look up definitions for words used in Times articles three times in recent weeks). The constant negative tone makes people tune it out and suspect the information is simply bias. And the “style” has, in fact, become more elitist in recent years. To the Times and other “liberal intellectual” media: please understand the role you are playing in this phenomenon.
3
So, according to you, we should continue to lower our standards...?
2
Self inflicted blindness... the United States has brought the cult of personality to unimaginable levels. The Kardashians, followed by all the trashy reality shows, right wing people seemed particularly prone to this pathology. Billion of dollars spent creating disgusting tv shows, in the process filling the pockets of the shameless reality “stars” Trump has the power to captivate with his sickening style, all those weak-minded followers.
7
Cult = a system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object and a relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister and a misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular person or thing.
The editorial board chose the right word to headline this article. But usually cult's are limited in numbers, i.e. the largest in the last 100 years was the Japanese cult (Supreme Truth) that released the nerve gas Sarin in the Japanese subways. They reportedly had 10,000 members in Japan and 30,000 members world wide. That is small potatoes to the millions that have bought into the president's cult. When the dust finally settles on this administration, we can then assess how we go about returning the country to a civilized body ruled by men and women who have love of country as their singular quality.
4
Stop talking about him as trump and refer to him as the president. Dude makes his money by having the Trump brand out there.
1
It just keeps getting worse as the days go by.....
My heart is broken.
My beloved America has been ruined.
1
There are some Rs in a cult of Trump but as a group Rs seem far less enamored of him than Ds are of Obama. Obama got a Nobel for being elected. Trump got George Will, J. Scarborough and others leaving the party. Obama passed the ACA with only D support. Trump couldn't get enough R votes for repeal. Even over the TPP, which Ds largely opposed, D's did not trash Obama. Rs regularly trash Trump - the list is long. Obama's prolonged war in Libya was clearly unconstitutional, but only Kucinich said impeach. A number of Rs have mentioned impeachment with respect to Trump if he fires Mueller. There was no "never Obama" movement among Ds. There was a large one among Rs.
Far from all on the right are cultish about Trump. Of Rs I know personally, some like or love him, some dislike him but like his policies. Some, of course, hate him - Ask Ralph Peters or Bill Kristol. I don't know any D who hates Obama - do you? I couldn't find a search hit for the topic. Try it with Trump.
I'd say, relatively speaking, there is a much smaller cult of Trump compared to that of Obama. Of course, if you are in the "resistance," anything short of utter condemnation of Trump is considered being in his cult.
1
Trump is highly dependent on his two most important enablers...Rupert Murdoch and Sheldon Adelson.
Murdoch, through the FOX Empire keeps Trump connected to his base 24/7.
Adelson, the most important private citizen in Israel and the US, IS the foreign policy establishment in right wing politics in
both countries.
2
John Boehner, past Speaker of the House prior to the spineless Paul Ryan : “There is no Republican Party,” he told the crowd. “There’s a Trump party. The Republican Party is kind of taking a nap somewhere.”
Trump’s gang of grifters is essentially trying to seize control of the government by besmirching every standard of our Democracy from Law and Order (Justice Dept, the FBI, our print and broadcast media, and our Court system.
It is time for Congress and the voters to rise up and stop the Chief Con Artist and charlatan.
Every day the left gets weaker, and we get stronger. Did you think you had this in the bag? Trump is just the beginning. Trump is a moderate.
Republicans do not build. Republicans only destroy. The Republican Party is delighted to watch Donald J Trump destroy America and run roughshod over the free world, shattering democracy worldwide. Vladimir Putin knew the way to destroy America and weaken democracy was to elect a Republican. Vladimir Putin conspired with the unpatriotic, eager and willing Trump campaign and the despicable Republican Party to accomplish the destruction of a once powerful country, which is now a pathetic, bankrupt and wounded laughing stock. The good news: America edges toward full slave employment.
3
From a responsible Conservative party to the negatively inclined Tea party of the rabble rousers to the captive party of Trump in disarray today the degeneration of the Republican party is complete with little prospects of revival until Trump with his raw base calls the shots.
Trump did not take over the party, he exposed Republicans for what they have become. Faced with an ever shrinking base, they opened the back doors of the tent. They welcomed a series of extreme fringe groups with unRepublican ideologies but reliable voters. Beyond excepting them, they always bowed to their demands. They have accepted the cult of personality, following characters like Newt Gingrich over cliffs. They have become the party of “no”; no to any new programs, new ideas or compromise. They have become the war party, attacking countries big and small based on questionable evidence. They adopted the flag as a totem, providing them a symbol with which they could savage their opponents. This has occurred in plain sight over the last 30 years, beginning with Reagan. It is hard to watch one of the two major parties make such self-destructive choices which unfortunately effects us all.
10
87 percent of Republicans support Trump? If true, there is nothing anyone can say or write that will restore democracy in America. We are lost.
6
What a spectacle at just how fast the so-called “successful businessman” in the oval office is proving terribly unfit for the job, and how spineless and feckless a group of cowards McConnell, Ryan and the rest of the GOP are in refusing to come to terms with this reality. It’s a shameful national embarrassment now on full display for all the world to see.
7
I am a member of the pre-boomer generation, who has voted Republican for ever. I hold to some of the tenets of the platform, cannot hold to some of the Democrat tenets. I am socially conservative to a point and I grant that some of the results of the current administration are what I have desired. HOWEVER, I cannot tolerate the man in the White House. I do not believe that the ends justify the means. I have a very difficult, almost impossible, time understanding how my friends can tolerate POTUS's behavior, his poor treatment of the friends of the US and the good treatment of those who are not friends of the US.
3
"… but Ms. Pelosi still deserves props for not seeking to kneecap candidates..." What's going on here? It was OK for Bernie the to kneecap Hillary but not OK for Nancy to kneecap candidates who dare to defend political moderation?
Will the real Democrats please speak up?
1
That around 80% of Republicans are foolish (and immoral) enough to continue supporting the would-be dictator is shocking enough, but unsurprising, given the authoritarian tendencies of conservatism in general. However, given that only 1/3 of voters are registered Republicans, then only about 25% of Americans actually support Trump. Sadly, the rest of us are paying the price for their collective ignorance and blindness.
6
This is not going away. This is all the result of our lack of more objective, balanced, news, like we used to have, for the most part, when news were gathered and delivered by serious, professional journalists. People were better informed. Now, we can choose our news, so we can hear what we want, and we lap up the propaganda happily.
This is how democracy dies.
3
With 87% of Republicans supporting Trump, I can only hope that there are a lot of Republicans who are too ashamed to classify themselves as such when asked. Otherwise that party has become so morally rotten, it would be beyond hope.
With such a mindset it can not be restored for at least a generation.
3
Former House Speaker John Boehner's, statement at a policy conference in Michigan, is right on the mark: “There is no Republican Party,” “There’s a Trump party. The Republican Party is kind of taking a nap somewhere.”
Shamefully, Republican party leaders Senator McConnell and House Speaker Ryan have caved in to POTUS way too many times instead of standing up for their integrity and the principles their party.
POTUS is a cunning real estate businessman who has one priority - - making deals that will money for himself.
When I read a media report that our nation's Secret Service spent at least $137,505 to rent golf carts to protect Trump at his private clubs in New Jersey and Florida - it was no surprise the money went into POTUS' business empire.
This is one issue ignored by the Republican party and its leaders without any fear of Congress raising a 'conflict of interest' charge. The party is not only talking a nap somewhere - the party and its leaders are on an extended lunch break somewhere outside Washington, D.C.
6
Trump managed to secure key swing votes in key swing states. That's what it takes to win the presidency. As long as I can remember it hasn't been any different.
Come 2020 that's all that's going to matter again.
Meanwhile ... 2018 ... DEMs absolutely need to block where they can and that means getting a majority in Congress. To achieve that they need to get BOTH their Left wing and the centrist voters who "swing both ways". Any candidate who is a thrill to the Left, a galvanizing "get out the vote" Leftist, will certainly lose the swing voters.
Compromise is the only answer and it must happen at the Left. Gaining seats from the GOP column means finding candidates who can appeal to centrist swingers. Then the Lefties need to bite the bullet and vote as well.
(I'm very much to the Left myself. I'm not advocating this because I want to see a centrist DEM party. I'd much rather have a Left leaning USA. But that's not going to happen in 2018 and we must block upcoming SCOTUS nominations. That's crucial.)
4
It's been difficult to refer to the Republicans as a political party for years. Ever since the cult of Reagan gave way to the Tea Party created by the Kochs and Dick Armey to obstruct any and all programs to save the economy or help the poor and middle class it has been little more than a mob, bent on gaining and holding power as a way to enrich the rich and abuse the rest of us. Should Trumpism finally kill it, the country will be better off, and will not mourn its loss.
6
With Fox News, social media, echo chambers, and the ready willingness of media outlets everywhere to chase the Trump birdie, Trump is more than capable of achieving a profound level of influence and mind control over his followers.
Both Ralph Peters and the NYT editorial staff are right that there are disturbing cult-like characteristics to this cult of personality. It also bears troubling similarities to the more insidious process of radicalization and the lines between terrorism and "hate cults" are blurry.
While most research is directed at Islamist terrorists, the radicalization pathway has essential features that can easily be applied to the Cult of Trump. That said, it also raises the troubling fact that de-radicalization is never painless and rarely easy.
4
It's really unbelievable, as Trump is such a despicable person. How is it that someone so awful can create this situation with so much loyalty? What does this say about the American public, or at least about the 87% of Republicans that support him? They really like or respect hatred, greed, meanspiritness, and corruption?
5
"With a bit of luck, genuine ferment and debate among Democratic candidates and officeholders over the right direction on issues..."
"Foment" -- no?
My grandmother, Katie Boyle, arrived here in 1917. She raised 10 children on the meager salary brought home by her ditch digging husband, and made sure that all of her kids - seven girls and three boys - went to school - went to church - went to work and that her sons went to war when called to do so, unlike Mr. Trump, who was a draft dodger (How can he lead our armed forces when he was a draft dodger?)
They were so poor that when my mother, the oldest child, won a fully paid scholarship to high school, she couldn't go because they couldn't afford the 20 cents a day for the trolley, and my mom had to go to work full-time at the age of 13, but neither she nor my grandma ever blamed our country. When George, the oldest son, was killed in World War Two, they never blamed President Roosevelt. They loved the United States and were, as immigrants, grateful for being welcomed here.
If they were still alive, they would be livid at what Trump is doing, and still wants to do, to their beloved United States.
Trump is not a person who loves this country; he wants to remake it in his own image. God help us!
11
Who cares. The future will not belong to those who like, follow, vote for, or support Trump or the social/political philosophies that led him to the White House.
Let them have their wallow in retrograde joy, because before they know it be over never to return. Trumpism is a 20th Century movement the future will swallow it whole. And they know it.
1
All this says in living color is that conservatives have no stones.
Big bad and tough talking so long as someone else is doing the fighting and dying.
Loud about life while foster kids languish and the homeless sleep on the streets before them.
The hardest working folks are the newly arrived immigrants working day and night, after a long nightmarish trek to freedom.
What does the GOP stand for?
Not much of anything.
5
It is interesting to watch GOP-Types slide deeper into the abyss seeming unable to use logic or empiricism. The same thing occurred in history and now parallels Mussolini's Italy. Many do not remember that history but America is repeating those same mistakes.
4
It is nothing new that the members of the republican party are tossing people off their ship who don't agree with an extreme person or position. The GOPs main tactic to get out the vote has always been to find one issue that can be used to demean democrats as weak (and thus that GOP members are strong). "Welfare queens" and those dems who would take our money to support them; "Read my lips, no new taxes" and those dems who will tax you while you sleep; "drain the swamp" and leave the reptilian low-life dems behind, etc.
Now, in the person of Trump the GOP base has the most sure fired way to demean the Dems yet: a totally horrible, dishonest, greedy man who beat those dems once already. That's all they want or need for their elections, even though the marriage between big money and big religion that has been ongoing since the late 70's in the Republican party is now clearly and abusive one. The religious institutions that support conservative causes had been trained to follow this path of demeaning the dems as a way to political power and victory (because it has totally worked), but now has lost, completely its right to call themselves the party of morals or morality.
This isn't as much a cult of Trump as the absurd result of simplistic bullying as a rallying cry. The American flag, when carried by the GOP represents people who feel empowered through hatred.
3
When trying to understand why Trump does the things he does I think that the key is THE BASE.
It’s not only THE BASE, the people Hillary Clinton called the notorious basket of deplorables, which we tend to think of as this mix of right wing Christian zealots, 2nd Amendment absolutists, white supremacists, zenophobes and some genuinely frightened Americans who’ve seen their living standards drop precipitously and are terrified for the future of their children. They are important because they would crawl across broken glass to vote for him but the people who call the shots are Trump’s REAL BASE, the right wing plutocrats, people like the Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson and that lovely couple profiled in the Times the other day. People who far more successful in business than he ever was who find in him him a useful tool to enact tax cuts and eliminate competition.
The BASE get crumbs and a champion who says out loud what the think and they love him for it but the REAL BASE holds the purse strings. A Republican office holder defies them at his peril.
4
Republican leadership is loathe to unsettle the appearance of disunity in its ranks, especially as it navigates a challenging mid-term election season, so any impulse to express dissent will be muted. The GOP's pretense to respecting a balance of power among branches of government was eroded well before Trump took office, and Trump's term in office has been marked by a near-dictatorial manipulation of legislative power from Devin Nunes that GOP leadership has allowed to proceed, unchecked. Whatever unease the GOP may feel about Trump, the legislative victories they have secured (tax bill, in particular) and their successes in deregulating business and finance are more than enough reason to sustain the partnership, such as it is. What, you expected ethics to intrude?
1
It is unclear to me why Republicans have fallen for Donald Trump. He and his family and cabinet enrich themselves at tax payers expense, stomp on the Constitution, he is a bully, a liar, has shred most of our good standing abroad, and has purposely ignited the culture wars at home. They explain their devotion to Trump in terms of victim hood, that despite the slings and arrows headed his way he is always America First. America First actually means Whatever Obama Did Last leading to Business and Wealthy People First. He is a classic con man making deals and there is a fool buying them every minute.
3
The Republican Party has been heading down this path for decades. We are no longer a country of policy but of ideology. Trump's ideology of fear, xenophobia, nationalism and racism found a fit with the Republican Party, rather than the other way around. He simply amplified the ideology the GOP has been fine-tuning since Nixon.
Let's not pretend that Trump is separate from the GOP. They are one and the same. He simply has done a better job than others of communicating the GOP's basic premise: that its ideas are the only ones that matter in the U.S. , and anyone who opposes them is unAmerican at best and criminal at worst. It's no wonder that the GOP has embraced Trump. He's the purest purveyor of their central message.
12
I think I'm past the "let's try to understand the Trump supporter" stage of grief. I'm into the "basket of deplorables" stage. The masses that continue to support this man are at best hopelessly naive, at worst malicious and vile. Whatever they are, they're living in a different reality than the rest of us are. How on earth can we continue to share a society with them if we can't share the same reality?
But I don't know how we would split apart. All of the cities can't just secede. Our geographical separation isn't as clean as it was in 1861.
2
The news in this newspaper today about the chemical industry's hijacking of scientific investigation into the harm chemicals might do to our air and water tells it all, and not for the first time. The American people can go stick their heads in the vile swamp created by Trump's disregard for their well being and die. That's the message to us, not making America great but elevating corporate greed to levels not seen since robber baron days, no matter the cost.
11
How could any average person, let alone a low-income one, have thought that Trump, the self-proclaimed billionaire, would be their voice, drain the "swamp," and look out for them? He has a long history of looking out for himself and himself only and making "deals" that financially enrich him and only him. If the results of his presidency were not so poisonous for all of us, I would be telling these gullible voters that they got exactly what they deserved, falling for the con. Donald Trump wouldn't let you get into an elevator with him, let alone let you ride with him all the way to the top. Grifters like Trump know how to identify a mark and take him or her for everything they're worth, smiling all the while. Except in Donald's case, it is not a smile-it's a smirk.
8
I agree with the many comments stating that we must vote out Republicans to save our democracy. But, we must go further: actively campaign for good candidates by volunteering to phone bank and canvass; register new voters; if you can, donate to good candidates; write letters to the editor; bombard your Republican representatives with phone calls; and support groups that work every day to protect our rights and freedoms, such as the, ACLU. The right wing, which has metastasized into a dangerous, anti-democratic movement, has been characterized by activism for years. It is well past time for the too often silent majority to reclaim our nation’s values.
Throughout history it all starts out like this. The "it" is the deterioration of democracy. From the Roman era to the present. It skips a generation each time. Empires come and go. The United States may be in the beginning of its death throes, all because of a government which doesn't stand behind its people, but is structured up for its own benefit. So, if you have never experienced history, such as the collapse of a nation, and have only read about other nations and empires which are no longer, welcome to not a reality show, but welcome to reality. In 100 years, the end chapters in, A History of Civilization, may reflect upon the demise of the United States of America, in an edition published elsewhere.
1
It's only a matter of time when Trump will attempt to abolish Social Security and Medicare. This has been the GOP's prime directive since FDR and Johnson.
The last chance to preclude this moral crime will be the Nov. elections. If the Democrats fail to at least take the House of Representatives, then prepare for the worst.
13
The polls have been consistently wrong since the last Presidential primary cycle. Why then are we to believe them now?
Are they polling all Republicans and get 87% favorability ratings for Trump. Or is it the Trump base that gives him 87% favorability?
Based on my conversations with Republicans who have voted for Trump, most are extremely disappointed with his behavior and his proposed policies. They express concern for our country and where it is headed.
I only wish that at least one Republican, who is not seeking re-election would stand up and be counted as a Republican who puts Country first.
I also wish that Mueller would subpoena Trump. An innocent person would gladly answer Mueller's questions.
Until then, the Democrat and Independent voters are who we have to rely on to get us out o this mess come November.
15
“With registered Republicans down to 25 percent of the Golden State electorate (putting them slightly behind independent voters), the party is as likely to capture the governorship this year as Jeff Sessions is to be the next head of the American Civil Liberties Union.”
Reminds me of how likely it was that Trump would capture the presidency . . .
4
When I talk to some of my Republican friends these days, I can't believe I'm talking to a Republican. Their defense of Trump's crass behavior alone would make Ronald Reagan shed tears. Not to mention this so-called president's mendacity, cruelty, narcissism, amateur business skills, misogyny, racism, and complete lack of respect for the United States of America or its heroes. A "cult" following is the most accurate definition of this phenomena that I've heard to date. Thanks, NY Times for nailing it.
13
As in a cult the people are willing to give up their past beliefs, their values, their money, their friendships and family to be in the cult. To follow their leader. Reject all that doesn't conform with the cult.
A few of us have been saying "banana republic" is the wrong analogy, a cult being more accurate.
1
Until this nation makes the right to vote an unencumbered law of the land, we will see another Donald Trump and another iteration of the current GOP.
Every individual with a felony record should have voting rights automatically restored otherwise they are being punished beyond their crime and sentence. Of course, this terrifies Republicans because black men who are demonstrably more likely to be charged with felonies and disenfranchised- will unlikely vote for them:
A civics-ignorant population combined with voter repression creates a Donald Trump.
5
With any luck, Mr. Trump will weaken, if not destroy, the Republican Party. Now, if only we can find someone, or something, to do the same to the Democratic Party. The sooner we rid ourselves of this two-party system in which both parties are pro-corporate and pro-war, the better. Until then, anyone paying attention can see that we remain on the slide towards extinction. Mr. Trump is merely a symptom of a far deeper rot.
8
The problem is not Donald Trump. It is the modern-day Republican Party, which is really the modern-day Confederate Party in all but name. It uses the same ruthless tactics and is animated by the same racist animus and same spirit of oppression. This movement is dominant in the South and has ardent followers in many other regions of the country, especially rural areas.
After Trump predictably runs the country into the ground, the very people who support him now will claim that he was really a Democrat pretending to be a Republican, just like they say G.W. Bush failed because he ended up implementing Democratic initiatives (!).
These people have been apparently indoctrinated by Fox-TV and right-wing internet and radio, or something. It is impossible to reason with them about the policies that Trump and the other Confederates promote to appease them. Trump is saying and doing what they wish to hear. That is why they support him.
It is mass insanity. That is our problem. It is also the world's problem, since our modern-day Confederates are causing serious harm across the board (e.g., refusing to acknowledge or address global warming, disrupting world trade, stirring up all manner of controversy every day, etc.)
When Trump is gone, the Confederates will eventually find someone even worse. We must recognize that they are our problem, not Trump alone.
12
The fact that the speaker of the House is not running for re-election in his safe district should tell us everything about how Republicans view Trump. Paul Ryan, Bob Corker, Trey Gowdy and others can no longer consume the poison spewing from Trump's Twitter account. These are not honorable men. They are cowards who are slinking away from the monster they have nourished with their "conservative" ideology, which is nothing more than hatred for the less fortunate. All that "Home of the Brave" baloney needs to cease, and all decent human beings need to take a knee. There's not a man in the entire Republican Party that's worthy of carrying Colin Kaepernick's water.
15
Right wing America has been primed for 20 years with relentless media propaganda to fall prey to being indoctrinated into the cult of someone like Trump.
I doubt that anything less than a national crisis will be enough to break the programming of those ensnared by it.
10
Don't cry for Trump's supposedly bait-and-switched constituents. He gave them back their sense of status and dignity, which they lost when a black man was elected and re-elected president. Of course that sense of dignity is in fact undignified, and a badge of low status to their country and to the world, but it is more valuable to them than their health, safety, welfare, or their religious beliefs. There is no point in discussing things with them. Outvote them--that's all.
15
Trump is an expression and and agent not the cause of the political rotten forces. The diminishing power of the fossil fuel economy is on the ropes and centered in Russia, Saudi Arabia, and especially in the United States.
8
This love for Trump does appear to be a cult. An irrational attachment to an indecent figment of a human being. Why and how it happened will be debated for years to come. In the meantime our concern is the survival of our democracy as we knew it - it has changed now with these Trumpists who have brought with them a pandora's box of evils - racism, hate, misogyny, injustice,
lack of compassion, ignorance - a break with our American traditions. Where did this come from? We are the descendants of
FDR, Kennedy, M.Luther King, Lincoln and the men and women who fought and died to preserve freedom. What happened? We've
lost our way. Pray for us.
9
I live in Oklahoma. I'm a lifelong yellow dog Democrat. I live in a college town.
This afternoon I had to travel to a very small town on an errand. While there, I stopped at the only gas station-quickie mart there and went in.
There were five people in the store. They were standing or sitting here and there. No one was interacting. I was extremely nice -- as I always am in those situations -- and they were appropriately pleasant in return. Of course, I am a white lady. I bought a bottle of water and picked up a candidate's brochure at the cash register. He touted three qualities -- he supported the second amendment, the rights of the unborn, and Donald Trump! (The ! was his, not mine.)
The store was dirty, lifeless, unkept. The shelves were a mixture of grocery items and litter. It was a Diane Arbus picture near the end of her career. Many of the fixtures in the bathroom were broken, and the walls were randomly scrawled with graffiti, mostly profane.
I grew up in Oklahoma at a time when white men were king and everyone else knew their place. The conclusion I've drawn, after living all over the country and now being back in Oklahoma, is that the reason for the fervid devotion of Trump Nation is that in their heart of hearts, they know America will never be "great" again, at least not as they define it. But Donald Trump gives them the illusion that it can. And that lessens the sting.
18
Do we remember the "cult" of Obama?
Beyond some of President Trumps more obnoxious and divisive comments, perhaps, his supporters, including those running for public office, support the policies Trump has promoted, and the results of those polices, rather than the Presidents flawed personality.
The economy? The vast improvements in minority employment, real wages and economic growth?
Foreign affairs. The defeat of ISIS? Setting a real red line with Assad in Syria? Setting tougher sanctions with NK and Iran? Arming Ukrainian resistance and establishing tougher sanctions against Russia.
Populating the federal judiciary with conservative justices including Gorsuch on SCOTUS.
Repealing the mandate on Obamacare
Requiring our allies in NATO to pay their fair share for their own defense.
All campaign promises made and kept in 16 months.
Maybe, just maybe that is the "cult"?
1
Indeed, we are shocked when Republicans like Trey Gowdy point out that the emperor has no clothes. Ryan, in his own weasily way, qualified his answer by stating that while he agreed with Gowdy, much more information needed to be reviewed.
I am fascinated by the cult with it's own propaganda machine (Fox News) and Trump's anything goes if I say so attitude playing out before our eyes in the USA. I think people love his hard line attitude towards everything and soap-opera quality. But what's going on these days is absolutely surreal.
16
I know this sounds despondent but maybe the fact of the matter is that the country actually got the 'leader' we deserve. That maybe we need to talk a long, hard look in the mirror (or better still a road trip around the Red States) and realize that the decline of America is accelerating. That decades of failing education and unchecked capitalism have finally produced an ignorant population manipulated by the greed of corporate boards, financial institutions and funds and lobbyists.
14
The Republicans seem to be deaf to Trump’s silly talk. They seem to think he’s some master manipulator, a wizard, who is going to deliver everything that they want if the stick with him. How long before they grow tired of him is anyone’s guess.
10
At some point, reality will hit Trump's followers. I can't tell you exactly when it will happen. I can't tell you exactly what will cause the awakening. Many Republicans in the house and senate have chosen to retire like rats deserting a sinking ship. Michael Cohen, Trump's fixer, is dirty. He will implicate Trump and Cohen made audio tapes.
9
It astounds me that the rabidly anti-abortion fundamentalists and evangelicals mesmerized by Trump are so quick to approve of his adulteries and their subsequent Trump-arranged abortions--the latest of which took place just last year, while Trump was in office and married.
And the same group of true believers have remained silent while Trump rips babies and toddlers from their mothers' arms and dumps them into ex-Walmarts, where they're stored like cordwood on floors and in cages.
Maybe the evangelicals and fundamentalists see Trump as the first harbinger of the mythical End Times they so deeply crave. If that's the case, they may be right.
9
I think the bottom line is, many 'pubs don't want a democracy. They want an autocracy. There's been a lot of changes for people to deal with. We've had a major economic meltdown. The vactory jobs went - elsewhere: China? Mexico? Robots? The "same job for 40 years then retire" is a distant dream. So is white supremacy - people of all colors can perform jobs satisfactorily.
Given the oft-dismal performance of dictatorships economically and on many other metrics, I don't think this Trump-worship is a good idea. With luck, that great silent mass of independent voters doesn't, either. The Republicans seem to have decided that democracy, where you sometimes have to do what those noisome liberals want, is a failure.
6
Cult of Personality is an apt description of the current state of the Republican Party. I'm not surprised by it; seeing as how they've been basically kneeling before the altar of Reagan since the 1980's. It was a given they'd look for another totem to worship. It's who they are as a party; always in need of some central controlling influence. But regardless step back and take a look around.
Look at our country; look at the way we conduct ourselves these days. The Cult of Personality is everywhere. It has been in ascension for some time and, with the current leadership caste, has reached its apex. The whole of our society is awash in the filth of a self-centered, "look at me," narcissistic delusion; all while the ship of state careens in uncontrolled fashion all about the place.
We are a out of control, privileged (in the eyes of the world) people in desperate need of a comeuppance. And that, by our actions, is exactly what we are setting up.
John~
American Net'Zen
5
I get that the media thinks Trump and his base will feel shame with pieces like this, but unfortunately they only serve to feed his insatiable need for admiration and power. He doesn’t feel shame and never will. What Trump sees when he reads this piece and others like it (and he will read it because it has his name in it) is rocket fuel to get him to the next stage. Please stop. Find his kryptonite instead and write about that.
9
Trump does not read the news or even one-page summaries. Literally. He receives his information from Fox-TV and what his staff and cronies tell him. He might hear about this article. He will never read it.
2
There is still some hope in America that Trump's "loyal" supporters will gradually "wakeup" and feel sick to their stomach by comprehending the larger significance of this editorial.
The word "vomit" may be the more appropriate term to describe this sham, but I'll settle for the wonderfully appropriate words: "fulminated obscenely." --
used in the context of "G.O.P. congressman who, while publicly Trump-philic, fulminated obscenely off the record about the president," --- as reported by one of the few remaining honest conservatives, commentator Erick Erickson.
Erickson still has a moral conscience -- while others have lost all sense of decency.
5
"Assuming that American democracy endures..." Never in my lifetime did I expect to see these chilling words on the editorial page of the NY Times. The Times' analysis is correct. Trump's followers have assumed a cult mentality that is only flourishing under the fawning deference of the Republican Party. Because cults are a form of fanaticism, they cannot be reasoned with. All that those not in the cult's trip can do is conduct our own intervention, by voting Democrat or Independent in every election large and small to ensure American Democracy endures.
15
It would be nice if congressmen and senators could grow a backbone and stand up to this vile cult of personality. It makes me wonder if the GOP will splinter into the SNP (Scammy New Party) and the traditional GOP. Personally, I think American politics would be a much better place without Trump and his acolytes.
5
This is very much reminiscent of the McCarthy era, when then as now, Republican legislators were too afraid to take on a powerful demagogue. Even the enormously popular President Eisenhower refused to do so when importuned by those close to him.
McCarthy fell when the Army-McCarthy hearings gave the American public a glimpse into his true nature. At that point, Congress felt bold enough to censure him.
We badly need an Army-McCarthy moment. Criminal investigations are our best chance, both into the Russia business and the Trump family finances that he has warned the special counsel not to look at. And that requires at least quiet cooperation by Republican legislators. They do still yield the power of impeachment, and they have to make it very clear to Trump that, should he interfere with the investigations or otherwise go too far in his dismantling of our democracy, they will unite and use it.
3
The Republican share of the population has been falling and is now around 25% ( Gallup) compared to about 35% in 2004. At an 87 % approval rating, that means the GOP members of Congress have forsaken their oaths of office for the sake of about 20% of the voting population. In this process they are ignoring the real needs of 100% of the country, i.e the common good. It is amazing to me how low our leaders have fallen. We have to vote them out.
12
"And although she has been a loyal Trump supporter ever since his win, many voters back home are still sore about her brief heresy."
Am I supposed to feel sorry for her? Like Reagan and the Bush family her policies are the Trump policies.
5
It is more than a little difficult to have an intervention for a cult comprising 35-40% of the population. The group is self-reinforcing. Deprogramming cannot work on this scale--assuming it could do more good than harm (maybe not). Natural attrition is not yet too obvious.
This particular cult leader--with arguably the biggest megaphone in the country--is helped along by massive amounts of disinformation, pounded into the heads of followers on a minute-to-minute basis with the help of established social silos.
The best bet still remains the voting booth and that, of those who show up, at least 50% are no longer sleepwalking.
10
@ JSK, Brilliant post! Thank you.
Trump is exercising leadership and it's working (ask Warren Buffett). Not only are 87% of Republicans supporting him but overall, 53% of the electorate as well. There's nothing wrong with full employment & a roaring economy. That's what Trump promised and he's delivering.
The cult of personality includes quasi religious fealty. This probably explains evangelical's loyalty despite any semblance of morality on the part of Trump better than the explanation of top-priority policy overlap. It also explains how the base continues to revere him despite his dizzying inclusion of yes, no and maybe in almost every statement.
2
Hillary Clinton was both politically accurate and politically incorrect. Those who are "all in" for Donald Trump, despite his politics of hatred and his patent unfitness for the job, are indeed deplorable. That goes for most GOP congressional candidates, and the 80+ percent of Republican voters who would support him even if (as suggested by Rudy Giuliani) he were to commit a violent crime. This is mob mentality, not a political party.
6
Cults have a rise and fall. Political movements
revolving around a singular charismatic figure who has no
clear coherent political program and generates
loyalty by intimidation of the basest sort collapse
at some point when reality hits squarely between the
eyes.
The questions are practical and
reduce to physical coercion. Where do the forces of the state line up, with or against the sole leader?
Can a sufficiently large part of the population be intimidated into abject passivity?
The loyalty to state institutions and an ideology that is not
merely infallible hero worship makes it difficult to see how,
when the chaos arrives in the form of reality checks from
all directions, the leader in question can insure a
rallying around just his figurehead.
On the other hand, the derangement seen in the massive swallowing of the current propaganda machine's operation is really quite remarkable and does not bode well. Who would have predicted the durable power within the Twitter to F-x faux to talk radio daily
cycle of recrimination and repetition of gross lies to control
discourse and maintain authority over congress for so long?
The cult leader has been shrewd in dolling out qualitatively different favors to his coalition without generating
significant dissension within the ranks. Loyalty of congress remains stable because of the intimidation factor from outside.
Only electoral defeat can destabilize this, and that
needs an engaged majority.
2
More than objective reasoning, people tend to side with a political party according to their innate personality type, and by extension, tribal loyalty to its leadership. Even if people don't pay much attention to issues or news, saying their leadership is wrong or bad is like saying they themselves are wrong or bad, so they react defensively.
Trump wallows in such undiscriminating loyalty and proves the extent of this failure of reason in human nature. You can bang your head against the wall with reason and logic on issues and not be persuasive, because it is not objective reasoning that forms the basis of political loyalties.
How to counter this? I don't know. I can only hope Dem party leadership understands it and strategizes accordingly.
2
For most of my career I was a factory rat, working alongside those who made things in a staff position. I don't know the minds of everyone who supports Trump, but I have a clear understanding of that very large segment of society and let's call them "those who do good work while enduring often boring, often exhausting and seldom rewarding labor to survive." These are people who have come to feel disenfranchised by the political process. They have watched while the media and the powers that be in the country have performed autopsies on their ways of life and they resent that no one has noticed their contributions in what seems like decades, not the Republican Party of their bosses nor the Democratic Party that seems to care more (in their minds) about unisex bathrooms than keeping up with the need to keep them working. Trump hasn't, to my mind, done a thing for this group and has instead engaged in policies which in fact have hurt them. But he knows where their buttons are and they admire him that they perceive in him the Anti-Democrat and Anti-Republican. This is where the iron is hottest; where votes have been lost by Democrats; and the task of getting them back should begin with worrying about what they worry about- survival.
2
It's iworse than that, it's in the ICU. Too much war and austerity are breaking this country.
1
Live by the sword. Die by the sword.
For all the Republicans in Congress who have attached their lifelines to Trump, they are at the equivalent of the his casino making a gamble. His fortune is theirs.
They would be well advised to check his history with casinos.
10
America is primed for a fake democracy autocracy like Turkey. Watch Trump go a step further every week, without any objection by his party. Hate and blaming the wrong people will continue to blind the masses. The Mueller investigation will not lead to impeachment, because the votes aren’t there in any scenario. The result of the probe will be covered and perceived completely different in Red and Blue America.
Life in America will be great for the rich, the same for the upper middle class with skills needed to run the companies and somewhere between being in a developing and advanced country for everyone else.
It’s too late to stop.
3
Sadly, for the first time in my adult life I seriously fear for the future of my country.
I trust neither the intelligence, nor the integrity of Trump voters.
They are sacrificing our democracy for something loathsome, and history will not be kind to them or their purported 'leader'.
5
I can't tell if the Republicans have lost their souls by supporting Trump or if by supporting him, they are baring the truth of their own. Republicans always pandered to the rich, but now they salivate over the idea of cashing in on privatized resources and not only squeezing blood out of the lower classes like never before - but making it easier for the unscrupulous to do it. Fortunately, such Alpha male worship is usually short lived, and it won't be long before the pack attacks and devours him too.
5
First of all the old Republican party wasn’t so grand
And while I detest Trump it is worth recognizing that outside of California Trump received the majority of the votes nationally
And considering the crazy stuff that comes out of his cabinet and mouth everyday it is remarkable how high his poll numbers are.
Given all his mess, his racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and his constant lying one would expect him to have very low polls.
For him to have such high numbers in the face of all this it could be argued that he may be the most beloved occupant of the White House in history.
1
I can't predict what's going to happen. All I can say is that this is the scariest period of American history I've ever lived through. Just as Eugene Ionesco predicted in "Rhinoceros," I know plenty of otherwise rational, intelligent, friendly people who have jumped on the Trump bandwagon.
4
Would that Trump's success were the result of his canniness and charisma. It is't. His success is the result of the relentless bashing by the mainstream media, especially the New York Times which, since his election seems to have little better to do than revile him a dozen different ways on each and every front page. The American public understands the meaning of bullying, and has come to sympathize with a president who is clearly the target of the greatest organized bullying campaign in history. And in this case the bullying has also meant a loss of basic respect for the institution of the US presidency which, until Trump, was a a given, but no longer. The American voter sees this for what it is, a personal , unbridled, seething storm of hate. This alone can galvanize a Republican success in the midterm and the re-election of Donald Trump in 2020. Keep up the good work.
The Republicans and their leadership in Congress fear that an anti Trump stance will jeopardize their lucrative arrangements with their various lobbyists. They certainly don't want any harm to come to Trump, the goose that's laying all their golden eggs. Those Republicans elected to the House or Senate now use their office for their own self gain. That their constituents seem not to mind being ignored and stiffed just emboldens those in power even more. Their is no GOP anymore, just a party growing more corrupt every day and seemingly content with just enjoying the ride while our nation crumbles.
3
In many Western movies, the story is usually about a small community who is being beset and oppressed by outside forces (greedy ranchers, bandits etc). Into that town rides in a mysterious stranger, a man with a shady past, a man of violence, a man with few scruples. In their desperation, the community turns to him to defend them and do battle with their enemies. The man has no need for the money or the aggravation and yet he is also looking for some sort of redemption. He shows them how to wage war against their oppressors and in the end rides away into the sunset. That is Trump...he is the Pale Rider.
The Editorial Board writes as if Republican Cult-Worship is new. How many decades after Ronald Reagan are we still hearing his name bandied about? Republicans still use Reagan's "Supply-Side-Trickle-Down economics-by-malice" model to punish the most vulnerable.The only difference between Reagan and Trump is style:
Reagan's malice was a bit more discreet and he had better handlers whereas today's GOP/Trump sophistry is mean, vulgar and raw.
10
Except a shared mission to wreck America, the Republican establishment and the Democratic establishment are opposites. The Republicans want to win regardless of any principle, and the Democrats want to feel good "standing up" for their "principles" while losing.
Enough Republican-leaning voters have become so fed up with the hapless Democrats that most are willing to resort to Trump, and so the scrupulously unscrupulous Republican establishment backs him. The Democratic establishment, in their hair-tearing timidity, responds by increasingly becoming a pure anti-Trump echo chamber, letting their principles and visions wither even as idealistic objectives, never mind as part of any coherent or effective long term practical strategy.
And so the downward spiral continues: until America finally wakes up from its denial, sees this two-party nightmare for what it really is, and begins to confront it.
2
The Republicans will grovel at the feet of the authoritarian leader they have, not the authoritarian leader they wish they had. Any strongman will do and that leads us to Trump.
People outside the bubble may see Trump as an ignorant buffoon, a small time grifter, or even a gifted manipulator of people and media, but the Republicans see a leader, a boss. Trump is cruel, he's verbally abusive and he's a bully and those are qualities that Republicans admire. They need an abusive daddy figure to fear and to worship.
3
When it comes to lie-and-smear politics, Trump makes the rest of the GOP look like amateurs, but they have been practicing and honing their own version for a long time. They also have shown little respect for the democratic process, culminating in Sen. Mitch McConnell's blockade of President Obama's last Supreme Court nomination.
The difference between Trumpism and what Republicanism has become in the era of Atwater, Gingrich, Cheney et al is one of degree. Trump is the avatar of their authoritarianism and nihilism for whom they have been warming the throne for a very long time.
What we must do as citizens who care about the future of American democracy is vote against every Republican on the ballot, from governors and senators down to county clerks. Only then will there be any hope of holding Trump and his complicit, corrupt GOP enablers to account.
7
Trump's grip on his party may be overpowering, but I think everybody tends to overlook how his base controls him. Remember when he once made reasonable sounding noises about DACA and gun control, and even tried to make nice with Chuck and Nancy? The mob wouldn't have it, and Trump felt the chill wind of their disapproval. Losing the adulation that he craves probably terrifies him even more than the Mueller investigation, for without his base he realizes he is nothing. He is a man without any real moral or political convictions and lives solely for his personal ambitions. Of course, he has ruined the GOP, but who cares about that? The bigger question is will he ruin American democracy, too.
3
John Boehner, is correct in saying that "There is no Republican Party," "There's a Trump party," but he's wrong in saying that "The Republican Party" is "kind of taking a nap somewhere," it isn't, it is taking "The Big Sleep."
Nixon's Southern Strategy ripped the country apart, but Ronald Reagan is to blame for laying the ground for "The Cult of Trump", and for the terrible things happening to America now. Reagan vilified and demonized the very idea of good government, stating "Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem," and "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help." Reagan and his proxies never stopped. Since our entire government rests upon our Constitution, they were also delegitimizing the Constitution and the rule of law. They created a perfect environment for the rise of a despot. A half century later a narcissist called Trump crawled out of that vat of Republican cynicism and is now trying to burn it all to the ground and replace it with authoritarianism. He obliterated the Republican establishment which foolishly believed it could control the maelstrom of distrust, bitterness, misanthropy, bigotry, and hatred it unleashed. Unsurprisingly, Republican voters, conditioned by the Republican establishment to hate all institutions, wound up hating the Republican establishment as much as any other institution, and so they gladly helped Trump kill the Republican Party.
16
There is something so disingenuous about the NYT Editorial Board worrying about the state of the Republican party. And such a two-dimensional analysis of the average party members - it reminds me of the limited view the Clinton campaign and the Obama administration had of rural and blue collar whites. Trump enjoys broad party support in part because the economy is doing well and in part because of the excesses of the press and democrats in demonizing not only him but anyone who voted for him.
The most interesting polls in recent months is not how the GOP feels about Trump, but independents reactions. The same group that largely seemed to fall in with the "resistance" in the first year has slid back toward Trump and the GOP precisely because the primal scream from outlets like the NYT does not seem to match up at all with the reality of their everyday lives. That is why the generic congressional ballot advantage the democrats held 6 months ago has all but evaporated.
1
If there is any silver lining in Trumpism, it is that the Republican majority never believed all of that garbage about free markets; the conservative talking points notwithstanding. Trumpism has revealed the Republican Party for what it always was, at least since Reagan: a cult of personality utterly devoid of any intellectual underpinning.
The first thing that you learn in Econ 101 is that there is nothing; absolutely nothing, free. No free markets; no free lunch. Somebody always pays.
And so we need to get past the cult style brainwashing that free markets are always good, and government is always bad. We are at a point where market concentration (e.g. monopolies/monopsonies) and crony capitalism are now perceived to be, if anything, much more pernicious than the perceived evils of big government.
Not that the president * himself understands any of this. Forget about college freshman economics (Econ 101). With Trump, we are back to eighth grade history, and the War of 1812. Ugh.
1
This is pretty feisty fare for a New York Times editorial. Usually bland platitudes outnumber sarcastic jabs by a fairly wide margin. Not this time. Mind you, I'm not complaining. Just a bit surprised.
Trump is bringing out both the best and worst in us. Beyond belaboring official Republican cowardice and hypocrisy we should take time to note that Trump has forced his opponents to clarify their priorities and opened the door to debating more adventurous policy options than one typically encounters when Wall Street and the Clintons get together to discuss the world's problems. It's still a work in progress, but progress there is.
The only thing keeping Trump afloat is the continuation of the strong economy he inherited from his predecessor. Americans normally love unconditionally a president who can bask in the glow of an economic boom. We will see if this holds true in November. It would say something positive about the emerging level of public engagement if a solid majority can see past the mirage of prosperity and discern the rot festering beneath.
11
Historically, we know cults of personality have been disastrous, destroying nations, causing genocide, doing nothing good. As a center-leftist former moderate Republican, I am beginning to see a way out. It won't be easy.
First, the Democrats can't go extreme left. That is guaranteed to lose. Nor can they become Republican-lite. That will turn off all on the left and many on the fence.
Second, they cannot seek to compromise with or engage the "deplorables". They are proudly ignorant or dismissive of facts, education,embrace or tolerate racism and misogyny and homophobia, and profess a faux Christianity that would make Jesus weep.
For me, a very unlikely coalition could take over the country. It wouldn't assign identity politics a proper place seeking to to retain and grow its minority voters and maintain its commitments to environmentalism, science, facts, equal justice, legal immigration the social safety net, and an end to misguided wars. But it would also try to include upper middle class suburbanites damaged severely by the GOP's tax "cuts", attacks on the environment, education, and infrastructure neglect.
It would oppose illegal immigration and the sanctuary city concept. The major beneficiaries of illegal immigration are often corporate supporters of the Orange Horror because it gives them cheap labor. But its main theme would be to soak the rich. Hard. Hit them with high taxes, let the chips fall where they may. We could indeed become citizens united.
2
Certain types of illnesses are endemic in humans and certain people are more likely to suffer from any given illness, this is true in both the physical and mental domains. History has shown this repeatedly because some of the mental illnesses play out in the political domain. There is no mystery here, just calmly think for a moment about the statement Trump made that he could murder someone in public and his base would not turn away from him. This is a clear and accurate description of mental illness on the part of the base. Fortunately those who suffer from this illness are a distinct minority, and, if their saner fellow citizens recognize the danger, the mentally healthy part of the population will reclaim the US government.
2
Why? Why are they so afraid of him, or for that matter, so afraid of losing power by being voted out of office, that they are willing to surrender what power they have, along with decency and the good of the country, to someone so noxious and pathetic? Why couldn't Roby continue standing up to Trump after the Electoral College gave this country into his hands? A shop of plastic Halloween skeletons has more spines in it than does our Congress.
9
Alabama is full of political turn coats like Bobby Bright and Richard Shelby. I know, because I go wa-aay back with them when they were Democrats. Fortunately the Alabama Democratic Party there are plenty of highly qualified office seekers who refuse to compromise their values and join the Alabama Republican Party. They are serious contenders who are sticking to their roots and supporters like glue. The Trump era will be short lived and the damage he is causing will be repaired. Meanwhile, Alabama Democrats are keeping our eye on the ball and recruiting and working to elect people like Doug Jones to the U.S. Senate, Walt Maddox to the office of governor, Joseph Siegelman to the office of attorney general. These candidates and office holders are not light weights and are more than capable of vanquishing the Alabama Republican Party on election day. People scoffed at my suggestion that Doug Jones could win when I posted it on this website prior to the election. I predict that Joseph Siegelman will win the job as attorney general because the Republicans can't produce a viable candidate, and I predict that Walt Maddox will give Kay Ivey a run for her money and may pull off an upset for the governor's office. So, we are having a really good time here in Alabama kicking Trumpkins around and holding well-earned victory parties. If anyone is looking to help, come on down. We will always welcome people who believe that people are more important than political parties.
9
Isn't it funny how Bobby Bright is a party-switching former Democrat who probably does not support Trump quite as hard as he claims? He is purposely painting a caricature for the base who takes him seriously - kind of treating them as fools. Really sad, the state of mind of these voters.
4
Hopefully, when they do wake up they will find that a blue wave has overcome them and realize it's too late to grow a spine.
The peoples vote is the most positive action to reset the course of the country and save our republic from those who choose to destroy from within.
2
There are two ways of looking at the artwork accompanying this editorial.
First, it was intended to portray a hypnotic watch mesmerizing its victims.
Second, it could be a pendulum that swings back-and-forth.
I favor the latter because, eventually, a downturn in the business cycle will come or an international crisis will occur, and at least some in his base will realize that the snake oil they've been taking has lost its placebo effect.
2
Imagine you conduct a poll of Portuguese and Swiss citizens and ask this question: What's more important to you, port wine or watches? You would expect one country to skew heavily toward port and the other toward watches. Why? Because they're different countries whose citizens have very different priorities.
The favorability rating of Trump skews so dramatically different in "Red" and "Blue" America because--and there's no getting around it--the nation has become two different countries with vastly different value systems.
With the rise of the Cult of Trump, the Times is absolutely right to imply that the endurance of an inclusive American democracy is no longer a certainty. The Republicans of Red America don't seem to think it's worth preserving. It is becoming clearer by the day that Blue America must break away while we're still able to defend the values we hold so dear.
5
You may find this trend unsettling however, I find it very encouraging. In my opinion, Mr. Trump, with all his faults, has Venn this countries greatest president of the past 100 years. I could not be happier with what he has accomplished thus far. Thank you Mr. Obama for giving us Mr. Trump, we wouldn’t have him without you.
2
Trump voters, in addition to the impact of globalization on their personal fortunes, should also be more angry about automation. In manufacturing, one if far more likely to be replaced by automation than job relocation.
1
If this is the cult of
*Tax breaks
*Record reduction in trade deficit
*multi- year GDP Growth
*Record stock market highs
Count me in! Many of us are doing VERY well under this administration, and in the end, that's all that really matters and all I want from a president.
1
That’s not all that really matters.
1
Really? As my granny used to say: "A shroud has no pockets"... Many did very well under Hitler too, and under Putin. The tax breaks will come back to bite you and the current infrastructure in the USA resembles that of a third world country more than a modern Western country. But I guess you in your gated community can afford to close your eyes for that. Dog eat dog and everybody in it for themselves after all...
1
Meanwhile, Democrats are out talking about stuff that matters - education funding, taxes and the fact that people, not corporations fund local and state governments (tax cutting has wrecked state budgets), infrastructure, housing and healthcare - to name a few. In all my campaigning, Trump has never crossed my lips nor will he. I'm not running against Trump, I'm running to help the people in my district.
8
Trump has managed to take the true believers from the Christian center and right and convert their focus on Jesus to a focus on Trump. A truly brilliant strategy that Reagan also attempted, but, was not as successful. People already trained to "believe" whatever the unstable white guy, dabbling with the women in the congregation, at the front of the church is telling them on Sunday, have now re-oriented their love and devotion from Jesus to Trump. And, Trump is not just Sunday morning message. He is all day long, every day. Those folks were desperate for a messiah, and, they found one. Its amazing really. Honestly, I don't know if it was Trump's strategy, or if he stumbled on it, but, it is brilliant, and, now, he is fully conscious of the strategy and approach.
13