It was a bit odd....and I guess that it had to do with who I was....but it seems that after my conversion.....this back sometime in 1982....I went almost immediately into Christian apologetics....defending the veracity of the Bible and Christian doctrine. I was already a reader and researcher....and apologetics fit naturally. I emphasized in my studies what were known then as....Christian cults....sects that claimed to be Christian but denied the essential doctrines thereof.....Mormonism and the Jehovah Witnesses and sects such as that. I even ran a newspaper ad in the personal section....trying to contact anyone studying with the Watchtower. So I feel that I know a little bit about cults.
Fast forward to early 2017. I had voted for Trump....(although he certainly wasn't anywhere near a first choice)....and celebrated his win. That euphoria of beating Hillary was short-lived. In March or April I began to wonder just who this man was. I really knew little about him....and he was making strange....(Luther Strange for one)....decisions. So I began to research. It is just over one hundred books right now....books for him and against him and supposedly by him....books on every area of his life. I think that this might qualify for PHD-type research folks.
The long and the short of it is....I know what a cult leader is.....and I know who Donald Trump is....and that is what this MAGA movement is. It has all the marks of a cult....it certainly has the charismatic leader....even though he is charismatic only with his own people. The people tend to worship him. It has its own holy scriptures....in this case only the news that supports Trump is deemed legitimate news....and no other news....the fake news....should even be read or listened to.
FOX primetime was destroyed by this movement as it came to the point that the host had to be 100% pro-Trump. No one in the Republican Party even had a chance for the nomination.Talk Radio was destroyed by MAGA. It's almost worthless today....and I say this as one who listened every day for decades.....it changed! Rush....Mark and Sean....one by one....all fell under the sway of this charismatic leader.
The cult has to have complete control over its subjects....just consider Liz Cheney for example....attacked as a traitor....treason! The cult says that only it has the truth. It employs methods similar to brainwashing....mind-altering tactics. You could see this....if you dare....in the Russia Hoax. If one hears a repeated term or phrase....such as Russia Hoax....on television and radio....every hour....and reads it in texts....morning and noon and evening....years on end....there will come a time when it is just automatically accepted as truth!
Rush said the following on the Hannity show....this back in January 2009....(Folks....I didn't spend an hour trying to find this....I just Googled....'Rush....Obama....and cult'....because I knew that Rush had on a number of occasions likened Barack Obama to a cult leader)...."When I see the media and the entire establishment on the left lay down and become cult-like and not examine who he is, what he's done, and not really examine what he says, but just praise him because of how he says it, my antenna goes up."
Addendum: It was somewhere in mid-80s....two Jehovah Witnesses had come to the door....and we talked until they grew tired of having the truth put before them. As they were leaving I offered them a book. Raymond Franz was a member of the governing body of the Watchtower. This was one of their top people folks. He saw the error....left the witnesses....and wrote a book titled Crises Of Conscience. I offered that book to the two people leaving. The man's hands went up in the air...."Apostate!" I felt the same response many times when I would mention John Bolton's book....The Room Where It Happened. Quite a few of the men and women who served in Trump's administration....and saw him in action every day....are today nothing but apostates.
