Trump's cult of personality threatens to hasten the demise of the GOP

Trump's cult of personality threatens to hasten the demise of the GOP
Establishment Republicans' DNC epiphany may have come too late

By Chauncey DeVega
Senior Writer
Published August 22, 2024 5:45AM (EDT)


(Salon) Today’s Republican Party and the “conservative” movement belong to Donald Trump. They are an extension of his mind, character, emotions, personality, desires, and impulses. This means that Trump’s character failings, apparent emotional and psychological unwellness and challenged intellect are theirs as well.

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Donald Trump is an aspiring dictator who attempted a violent coup on Jan. 6—an attempt to end America’s multiracial democracy which has not stopped, and in many ways is accelerating. The Republican Party claims to have a monopoly on “patriotism” and “real American values” but is now complicit with and supports the MAGA movement's attempts to end democracy — which include support for political violence as a way of getting and keeping power.

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In the most basic and obvious example of how Donald Trump and the Republican Party are now basically one and the same thing, the party’s platform has almost literally been rewritten to be “whatever Donald Trump wants he gets.” In all, today’s Republican Party and "conservative" movement are a personality cult with Donald Trump as the cult leader. Political personality cults are one of the defining features of autocratic and authoritarian systems of government and society.

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Senior members of the Republican Party are pleading with Donald Trump to stay on message about the economy, Harris’s role in the Biden administration, and other issues that they believe can bring them victory on Election Day. Leading Republican pollsters and influentials such as Frank Luntz are warning that Donald Trump’s behavior and response to Vice President Harris’s energized campaign is a loser and “political suicide.” On NBC’s “Meet the Press” last Sunday, Senator Lindsey Graham, who is one of the corrupt ex-president’s supplicants, warned that “President Trump can win this election. His policies are good for America and if you have a policy debate for President, he wins. Donald Trump the provocateur, the showman, may not win this election.” .............................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2024/08/22/of-personality-threatens-to-hasten-the-demise-of-the/