In the early 2000s, when then-President George W. Bush was lying to promote the misguided and disastrous invasion and occupation of Iraq (a decision that ultimately led to the deaths of thousands of young Americans and greatly diminished our influence in both Iraq and Afghanistan), I really disliked Bush.
I really hated him and his fact-faulty cronies Cheney, Rice, Rumsfield, Gonzales, thought they were largely driven by money and willing to sacrifice American soldiers for political and financial gain, and really couldn’t understand how so many Americans could support them even after their lies and follies were publicly exposed.
But I didn’t think those followers belonged to a cult.
I didn’t think Reagan supporters were in a cult. I didn’t think H.W. Bush supporters were in a cult. No one claimed Clinton supporters were in a cult. And of all the horrible and insulting things that have been said about the Obamas and those who supported President Obama, no one has ever claimed they were in a cult.
Because it wasn’t.
But so do many of those who support Donald John Trump, who has been convicted 34 times.
The signs are easy to spot: the name on the flag outside their house, the obsessive obsession with Photoshopping Trump’s face onto other people’s muscular bodies, the total disregard for lies, cheating, fraud, and just generally being a horrible human being, and the total trust in Trump for all of American institutions, no matter what he does or says.
Heck, just last week this guy stated with a straight face that he never said anything about Hillary Clinton like, “Lock her up.” He’s said it hundreds of times. In public. At rallies. On camera. In interviews.
MAGA didn’t budge, and barely anyone paid any attention.
Because nothing matters in that world. Think of what MAGA and so many cowardly Republican politicians have sacrificed in the name of supporting this con man.
When Trump lost the 2020 election, and by a large margin, his supporters were willing to assert, and in fact still believe, that the American electoral system is a complete sham: it was rigged. Trump had been duped.
People stormed the capital and smeared human waste on walls in protest.
But there was no fraud. Investigation after investigation, including one conducted by the Republican Party, has found zero evidence of election fraud. Zero evidence of massive voter fraud, or even minimal voter fraud.
Ah, but that’s not all that happened. No, a few dim-witted members of Congress who supported Trump agreed to join in a plot to undermine the results of the election. They registered fake electors and lobbied U.S. Representatives and Senators to subvert the Electoral College process in order to keep Trump in office, even though he lost.
It’s something that has never happened in the history of this country. Nobody has ever thought about it.
But they did it for this clown, because they belong to a cult.
And it doesn’t end there.
Four years later, despite the benefit of hindsight, and probably because it’s impossible to wean people from a cult, these America-hating deplorables are trying to renominate him for President.
Do you understand? They know that the “rigged election” story is bullshit. They know that he sent people to the Capitol because he’s a whining loser who has never lost or done anything else in his life. They also know full well that he actually attempted a coup.
But that cult…
But it’s not over yet.
Because now those same people are trying to convince you that the American justice system was unfair to a rich white man for the first time in history. The justice system was rigged. It was a sham trial. It was a false accusation. Joe Biden, “sleepy” between dementias, rigged the entire justice system so he could arrest this man who was a defendant in over 4,000 lawsuits before he even ran for office.
Yes, because it’s hard to believe that a man who ran a fraudulent university, was fined $2 million for misappropriating charitable funds, including money from a children’s cancer charity, was fined $450 million for fraud, was forced to pay $1.6 million for tax evasion, and agreed to pay $100 million to settle a housing discrimination lawsuit, would use illegal accounting tricks to hide a one-night stand with a porn star.
With Trump, there is always someone to blame. He is always the one being wronged. He is always the victim of imaginary persecution. He is always an innocent man who was really trying to do good.
The fraud, the lies, the sexual assault, the affair with a porn star, the deception, the deplorable behavior, the mind-bogglingly stupid rhetoric, all of it is that Trump was mistreated, misunderstood and underestimated. That is what the MAGA believe, and there is only one reason why they believe it, knowing everything we know.
They belong to a cult.
