When one joins a cult and binds himself or herself to the charismatic leader, that new member is stuck “representing” the ideas of the cult leader. The cult leader may have some good ideas, but the bad ones might be reprehensible. Unfortunately, if you’re a member of the cult, you are tied to the goofy preaching of your Messiah.
How many people in Jonestown, Guyana thought, before downing the poisonous Kool Aid, “Oh, boy, I think I might have made a mistake!”
I wonder how many of the Republican Party faithful who have donned the Trump cult colors are wondering this week, “Uh, oh, I think we’re in trouble!”.
As the sovereign nation of Ukraine was invaded by its neighboring country of Russia, ex-United States’ President Donald Trump praised Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “genius”, while the United Nations was deploring the naked land grab and governments throughout the World were taking measures to sanction the warlike behavior of Russia.
G.O.P. Congressmen, Senators, and Governors who are up for re-election in 2022 (as well as other Republican Party hopefuls) and who have tied their campaigns to an endorsement from the ex-President, must be having nightmares this week.
How can any Republican candidate support Donald Trump’s lavish praise of a warmongering Russian President? Or his insistence that our current President, Joe Biden, is somehow responsible for a war in Europe? It would be awkward, to put it mildly.
Everyone knows that the Russian President was coddled by President Trump while he was in office. Everyone also knows that, without Russia’s behind-the-scenes involvement in the 2016 election, Trump would never have been elected in the first place. As President, Donald Trump hardly went a week without praising Vladimir Putin: the two had a very public bromance.
The Republican Party spent several years, and a lot of effort, trying to misdirect the two impeachments of President Donald Trump, both of which involved Russia. First, was the “assist” given by Russian social media hackers in the 2016 election, and the second was the collusion with Russian agents to smear the Ukrainian President, candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden in the 2020 election.
When the latter did not help Trump get elected, evidently President Putin decided that he would have to unseat the Ukrainian President with military force, which is what we’re observing this week.
I voted Republican for many years, but I don’t recognize the G.O.P. anymore. What is the Republican Party, anyway? What does it stand for? What happened to patriotism (Trump’s January 6th attempted coup!) and our role in N.A.T.O. (helping to protect Europe from aggression)??
Does the Republican Party even support democracy anymore, in our country or others?
The steady denunciation of the legitimacy of the 2020 Presidential election by a great number of prominent G.O.P. elected officials, despite no shred of evidence of illegality, undermines our Constitutional form of government which depends upon citizens voting for their representatives.
So, the “new” Republican Party (which is now a Trump cult) opposes democracy in the United States and, as of this week, in Europe, as well.
Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan would be appalled, for sure.
I know that I am.
It will be interesting, in the coming months as we approach the 2022 midterms, to see how G.O.P. spin doctors explain the Trump Cult ideology and, somehow, try to pin the blame for the downfall of democracy on the Democrats and Joe Biden.
Keep an eye on the Fox News propagandists like Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham for the “pivot”, justifying the Trump Cult nonsense and easing the Republican Party away from its traditional positions on foreign affairs, solidarity with Europe, and protection of democracy throughout the World.
It’s going to be a “doozy”.