The Trump Cult: What Binds Them Together
As we sort through the events of the last few months, pundits of all stripes have opined but not hit the mark on the real reason American citizens stay enthralled with the ex-president and his message. Recently at CPAC (The Conservative Political Action Conference), Trump delivered his 2016 speech again, throwing in bits of his 2020 rhetoric about being cheated at the voting booth.
One tiny addition to his hour and a half CPAC speech not heard before in this context: Send all donations to his personal accounts (Save America/WinRed), not to the Republican campaign fund. Trump raised $78 million working with the Republican National Committee (RNC) after losing the election. This shared fund gave 75% directly to Trump. After the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol, the RNC halted its fund-raising efforts.
According to rumors on Capitol Hill, tens of millions of dollars came into Trump’s coffers in that same timeframe using the Save America website. His con on this campaign was raising funds to help hold the Georgia senate seats and pursue challenges to the election results. There is no evidence that he spent any of this money for either purpose.
Watching live coverage as thousands of our countrymen and even a few women assault our icon of democracy on January 6th was a heart wrenching experience. Waking up from our fantasy world of the past to the violence of the present takes readjusting our expectations.
There are several books recently published by people close to Trump attempting to explain how an experienced con man and sociopath became president. Held in great esteem, the Office of the President is an emblem for democracy. Trying to examine how someone could deliberately trash it is difficult.
The one author that has intimate knowledge of the man that is Donald J. Trump is Mary Trump, the niece of Donald. She has seen him in action many times and is involved with the whole family drama.
The voice of Mary Trump, a psychologist, still reverberates in my head, “Trump gives permission to his followers to be their worst selves.” It certainly rings true to me.
These fellow Americans easily conned by a sociopath such as Trump have no defense system in place. They have no training in critical thinking. Their school system so underfunded, only the 3 Rs managed barely to survive. Since the 1960s, education degraded to the bottom of the budget line now displays the results in living color. Suddenly it seems the world is requiring skills to live a quality life. How depressing that awareness must be.
Tired of always being politically correct, tired of caring about the nation as a whole, and exhausted by pretending to include others as a way of improving your own life. To be blunt, a faction of this country’s population is tired of pretending to be civilized. When they look around and see how living in this rich country appears to be third-world status, how can what the leaders tell you be true.
Congress looks on the population as a stepping-stone to power and wealth. The people don’t matter. When powerful people are so arrogant that they say this to your face, something is wrong here. Boom, your savior, promoted as a billionaire from the elite class, tells you in so many words, stand up and fight. What a release!
Ignorance makes anyone a target for the con artist. Greed also plays a factor. How many movies have we seen that reinforce that game. Yet, when it happens to you…
Note: CPAC is an annual political conference attended by conservative activists and elected officials from across the United States and beyond; hosted by the American Conservative Union.
