We have never before seen a charismatic cult figure in American politics. John F. Kennedy could have been a cult leader, if so inclined. He had that certain something that allows a person to do that. And God knows Barack Obama could have done so. He also has that X-factor that allows a person to be successful in that role. But both of those men had too much character to pursue that course. Then along comes Donald Trump, whose entire life has been built upon creating a false image and then using that image to scam. And he’s only too happy to have a cult. A cult brings in money. A cult guarantees a certain number of bodies, all in service to the cult leader. And now Trump’s cult is supposed to help him take over America. Again.
Is the cult that big? Or, is there some other power at work that is going to bring home the Trump bacon in two weeks? Because to hear Trump tell it, all the world’s a MAGA stage and the rest of us are merely extras — the “enemy within” in fact. America is right-wing paradise, we are told. All the real people are wearing MAGA hats and the rest of us are un-persons, like George Orwell conceived of.
And unfortunately, with a polling system that has proven itself challenged since 2012, blew up in 2016, and has been limping along ever since — AND a media eco system that thrives on nailbiting horserace elections, there’s insufficient real information to counterbalance Trump’s unreality. And here’s what that looks like.
Yet conservatives scream about public schools indoctrinating their children.
— Dog House Show (@Dog_House_Show) October 22, 2024
Jim Jones had his secretary take off eye bandages, rise from a wheelchair and run to the stage once. She was ostensibly one of Jones’s flock, whom he had “healed.” But it turned out to be a total lie, part of his indoctrination and gaslighting. Here’s another example of Trump’s indoctrination and gaslighting. Trump has been shouting from the rooftops that Kamala Harris intends to do transgender operations on prisoners. That legislation is from his own administration and that fact is easily provable. Yet he spoonfeeds this unreality to the cult and they lap it right up and ask for more. (“Please, Sir, may I have some more?” You’ve heard that line somewhere, right?)
There’s nothing Trump won’t lie or project about
Also if hatred toward a tiny fraction of a % of people based on lies is what moves the needle for your base, then it’s time for a hard look in the mirror
— TrumpWillLookGreatinOrange #resist🇺🇸🦅 #FBR (@BDNTWLGIO) October 22, 2024
This is the Trump campaign, sheer gaslighting. Will America buy it? From the histrionic reports we get daily, supposedly this election is a coin toss. If that’s true, then America has moved even further off kilter than it is possible to imagine.
I well remember the cold water bath on November 8, 2016 and waking up the next morning to the horrific realization that I didn’t dream it and Trump had in fact won the election. And the second horrific realization I had was that the America that I had grown up in (and Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first president I remember) was not the same America as the one that I was presently living in. And that was a tough pill to swallow, one of the toughest that I’ve ever had to swallow, in fact. It’s akin to finding your husband in bed with your sister and realizing that what you thought was going on and what was in fact going on are two very different things.
But 2024 is not 2016. In 2016 we had a situation then where Hillary was unpopular, due to a 20-year-long smear campaign by right-wing media. Tragic but true. And Trump had the advantage of being a novelty. And America had been in Democratic hands for eight years and the political pendulum tends to swing back the other way after that period of time.
None of that is true this election cycle. Kamala Harris is not the victim of the same right-wing sabotage as Hillary Clinton. She’s a very different candidate from either Joe Biden or Hillary Clinton. The Democrats have not been in power for eight years. And Donald Trump is anything but a novelty at this point. He is yesterday’s news, he is last season’s reruns, he is a has been comic living out his dotage in lounges in the Catskills.
So while I don’t think this madman can prevail and get re-hired by the same people that fired him four years ago, it is still maddening to see the deranged excesses that he and his cult have descended to. And the world watches it, too. They see the two Americas and they’re as worried, if not more, than we are about which one will prevail.
seems like child abuse to me.
The Vice President is indeed the victim of right wing sabotage, same as Mr Walz. The only difference is that is isn’t the SAME sabotage, just a different, more insidious form.
You know, the world is indeed watching. Putin, N Korea, and China are all lined up to take over the world and buy the United States from orange menace, if he doesn’t give it to them. Look at what is going on with China sending weapons to Russia, one of these countries is sending weapons to Russia, and N Korea is flexing their muscles like never before. Either they are going to put him back into office like in 2016 or they have heard the Democratic Party dis President Biden as old, decrepit, and with dementia enough that they feel they can do anything they want while awaiting the election of their orange puppet. The Democratic Party should have done what they did TOTALLY behind closed doors. That includes the wealth “democratic supporter” superstars who piled it on President Biden. SHAME ON ALL OF THEM!!! President Biden is still a useful, healthy, strong leader who can do so much more. And they ignore the dementia that donny diaper is obviously displaying on a minute-by-minute basis. I woke up to gun shots when that man was put into office. If I hear that again, I won’t be able to handle it. I’m so f’ing tired of that man and his bs and the entire gqp backing him and project 2025. I appreciate the vent.
It kind of blows me away that these people don’t see how bizarre/ridiculous this is. SMH
Last night, Alex Wagner (MSNBC show) interviewed a small group of Black MAGAts in Philadelphia. It was really unnerving to hear them regurgitate Trump’s words and nothing else. Cults can grab anyone, I guess. It was the usual: “Under Trump there was no inflation.” “The stock market was higher than ever in history.” “I’m an immigrant who follows the law, but KaMAla’s immigrants are all dangerous criminals and must be mass-deported!” “I’m Haitian and the pet-eating Haitian stories are left-wing red herrings!” [Huh?] For me, the worst was a Black woman who seemed a little angry that “Harris has no education and no experience that you need to run a country!” I’ve never seen anything so pathetic in the pathetic MAGA cult!!