SimpleDon
Veteran Member
I don't think that Trump is the head of the cult if indeed it rises to the standard to be a cult. The Republicans nominated and elected a victim of the near cult to the presidency.
It was so easy in the beginning. Conservatives depend on lies to justify their belief that the status quo and the traditions that they hold so dear aren't responsible for most of our social problems when obviously they are. This need for a constant stream of lies and conspiracy theories resulted in their being suspectable to propaganda and it also means that they were ignored by everyone else in the political areas. I mean how many different ways can you say "no" without it becoming monotonous and predictable? The Republicans just had to provide the lies and appear to take the conspiracy theories seriously and they could cobble together a coalition of conservatives to vote to advance the Republicans' long-held business interests.
For a while, it worked brilliantly. Coupled with their new-found ability for gerrymandering, learned largely from the converted Southern Democrats aided by new computer technology, they won elections and came to dominate the Presidency, Congress and the state governments. But there were two flaws in their success.
Conservatives were at first content to have someone appear to listen to them. But finally, they wanted something done. The evidence of this first flaw was the appearance of the Tea Parties. They wanted to do the impossible, to govern the nation as if the lies and the conspiracy theories were true.
The second flaw was that the indoctrinated conservatives grew up and started to be elected to office. People who seriously believed in the lies and conspiracy theories. People who believed that mainstream media was liberal and was lying when they reported facts that contradicted conservative beliefs. People who believed that government was the problem. People who believed that the economy could self-regulate. People who believed that the nation would be better off if society was run by and for the benefit of profit-making businesses rather than being run by the government for the benefit of the society as a whole. People like Donald Trump.
That these flaws would eventually show up was inevitable. The flaws were baked into the plan from the beginning. What delayed the appearance of the flaws was the help of the Democrats who moved to the right believing that there was a huge number of moderate Republicans there for the taking. What the Democrats didn't realize was that not only could the lies coalesce the right they can create conservatives out of moderates through fear. The Democrats not only pushed the Republicans further right into reactionary politics but they also validated some of the lies by moving to the right, for example, the Washington Consensus, we can't afford entitlements, welfare queens, etc.
It was so easy in the beginning. Conservatives depend on lies to justify their belief that the status quo and the traditions that they hold so dear aren't responsible for most of our social problems when obviously they are. This need for a constant stream of lies and conspiracy theories resulted in their being suspectable to propaganda and it also means that they were ignored by everyone else in the political areas. I mean how many different ways can you say "no" without it becoming monotonous and predictable? The Republicans just had to provide the lies and appear to take the conspiracy theories seriously and they could cobble together a coalition of conservatives to vote to advance the Republicans' long-held business interests.
For a while, it worked brilliantly. Coupled with their new-found ability for gerrymandering, learned largely from the converted Southern Democrats aided by new computer technology, they won elections and came to dominate the Presidency, Congress and the state governments. But there were two flaws in their success.
Conservatives were at first content to have someone appear to listen to them. But finally, they wanted something done. The evidence of this first flaw was the appearance of the Tea Parties. They wanted to do the impossible, to govern the nation as if the lies and the conspiracy theories were true.
The second flaw was that the indoctrinated conservatives grew up and started to be elected to office. People who seriously believed in the lies and conspiracy theories. People who believed that mainstream media was liberal and was lying when they reported facts that contradicted conservative beliefs. People who believed that government was the problem. People who believed that the economy could self-regulate. People who believed that the nation would be better off if society was run by and for the benefit of profit-making businesses rather than being run by the government for the benefit of the society as a whole. People like Donald Trump.
That these flaws would eventually show up was inevitable. The flaws were baked into the plan from the beginning. What delayed the appearance of the flaws was the help of the Democrats who moved to the right believing that there was a huge number of moderate Republicans there for the taking. What the Democrats didn't realize was that not only could the lies coalesce the right they can create conservatives out of moderates through fear. The Democrats not only pushed the Republicans further right into reactionary politics but they also validated some of the lies by moving to the right, for example, the Washington Consensus, we can't afford entitlements, welfare queens, etc.
