When the cult implodes...
Discover more from Pudd'nhead's complaints
Leader of the Pack
Well, I’ll be! The name-calling by our former president has gotten both personal and historic. I read his stump rant and discovered that he has me lumped in with a mixed bag of American archenemies. His psychosis seems to be at end-stage. How else can you explain a guy who has been indicted for stealing and retaining top-secret national documents and will soon be indicted for trying to overturn an election, because he lost by over 7 million votes, gets to call me names?
"These vicious Communists, Marxists, Fascists, and Radical Left Democrats have attacked my lawyers at a level never seen before, and yet I keep on winning, Any attorney that represents me is either a fool, or a Great American Patriot that History will love and cherish!"
— Donald Trump, Truth Social and various campaign venues
Just for clarification, I’m the Democrat. That last part is oddly both true and false. Attorneys who choose to represent him can be considered foolish for representing a known deadbeat but their patriotism suffers a bit due to their association with an alleged insurrectionist. Call it a contradiction in terms— a liar’s paradox.
The guy for whom the taunt “I’m rubber, you’re glue” has existential meaning, is spitballing an enemies list right out of the cold war McCarthy era. He wears his mental illness on a sleeve of grievances like a badge. The toxic narcissism he suffers is a balm to those numbed by their own discontent and enticed by his message of alleged slights. We have watched them cheer and riot as he pulls them into his cult of personality with a riff or a rant. They are blinded to the reality of a man in crisis whose public unraveling has pitted each of us against the other:
Grandiose views of self, devaluation of others, lack of empathy, gaslighting (distorting facts and insisting on blind obedience to one’s own view of reality) – all in service to the ego of the narcissist – pose clear and present dangers to relationships. A narcissist without conscience, restraints, checks or balances can easily become an authoritarian or sociopath, insisting that they are not beholden to laws or responsible to their relationships, organization, community or even country as a whole. All that matters is unbridled power and winning antagonistically against others.
— Psychology Today, “Narcissism: A Central Danger for the American Psyche,” by Ravi Chandra
As I have written here before, Trump seems to be in the throes of a severe narcissistic collapse. Those diagnosed with Narcissistic Psychiatric Disorder (NPD) may sometimes exhibit a “collapse” which looks very similar to what we see in Trump’s behavior since his election loss. January 6 and his actions— or lack of same— and his more overt reaction to the Special Prosecutor’s case may merge with those in New York and Georgia. The fake electors cases in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Arizona may hint at a major conspiracy indictment against him. Lawyers like John Eastman, Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell, and Rudy Giuliani are truly fools, and unlike Trump’s skewed perspective above, lack the fervor of a true patriot.
The Party Cult
But what of his Republican Party “regulars” like Marjorie Taylor Green, Kevin McCarthy, and Matt Gaetz as well as those who are at once running against him for the party’s presidential nomination while refusing to acknowledge his crimes— let’s call them the party “irregulars”? Is there a connection between his NPD now on red alert and their own behavior which seems, at least to this observer, to be marshaled against their better interests? To what extent are their actions on Trump’s behalf attributable to their own spinelessness, and what part is a reflection of his power over them? Are the Republicans in leadership positions merely infected by the narcissistic fever that the ex-president injected into the body politic?
The modern ecosystem of the Republican Party, as far back as the McCarthy era, is populated by groups that have already been associated with cult-like groups. Cults require members who are already susceptible to their message. Cultists fall in with charismatic leaders who affirm their fears, prejudices, and beliefs. The power behind these leaders often lies in their cult’s approximation to conventional frameworks. Polygamist and religious cults are prime examples. Racist cults like the modern KKK movement pretend to preserve values that translate “mainstream” as “white.” Trump’s political cult is similarly an approximation of the conservative movement that has evolved over the past 70 years. As much as we here may disdain conservative principles, conservatism is not inherently racist, fascist, or cultist— yet the conservative takeover of the party has been distilled vaporizing the moderating forces that once stood as a hedge against extremists. While a cult requires a charismatic leader, no cult can exist for long without followers. What Donald Trump has been able to do is appeal to the fears and beliefs of the most extreme members of the party to create a cult among those who are most susceptible.
The GOP’s hollowed-out core has coalesced around one man. Like most cults the buy-in begins with agreement on some superficial basis, followed by stages of compliance, then obedience. Republicans are currently stuck in stage 3. Cults are easy to fall into, the slippery slope is liberally lined in grievances but near impossible to exit. Think Mafia, the FLDS, or the Klan. We often speak of the day when the Trump fever will break and our friends and loved ones come home as they come to their senses. Don’t bet on it:
Conditioned by the cults’ condemnation of the beliefs and conduct of outsiders, ex-members tend to remain hypercritical of much of the ordinary behavior of humans. This makes reentry still harder. When parents, friends, or therapists try to convince them to be less rigid in their attitudes, they tend to see such as evidence of casual moral relativism.
— Cult Recovery 101, “Coming Out of the Cults,” by Margaret Thaler Singer, Ph.D.
Knowing Their Pain
The conditioning process the MAGA cult has developed is amplified by a hierarchy of second-level leadership positioned in GOP circles by enraptured followers. Like a religious cult, their priests and priestesses constantly proselytize in order to maintain their own privileged position within the group. Jim Jordan, Kevin McCarthy, and a suddenly born-again Elise Stefanik are examples of leaders whose status within the group depends on, at a minimum, retaining the core of followers. The echo chamber of leaders telling their bases what they want to hear while listening to respond to the grievances de jour currently animating them reveals their political Hobson’s choice.
Meanwhile, at the top of the pyramid Trump in total narcissistic collapse has reverted to self-preservation— a stage beyond the bombast huckster, the self-promoter who began with his rambling campaign announcement that left no tiny grievance wanting. Reread it, if you have time, just to savor the lyric. It is a screed about an amorphous “them” and what they have done to a defenseless “us.” As their defender, he would fix things because only he knew how. Always, in contrast, is the siren song with lilting lyrics he sings when speaking to the cult:
“I know your pain, I know your hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side. But you have to go home now, we have to have peace, we have to have law and order…
So, go home. We love you, you’re very special. You’ve seen what happens, you see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel. But go home, and go home in peace.”
Trump’s unsettling use of endearments is telling. They emphasize a relationship that is more personal than political— a closeness that is feigned. The words that sound so hollow to others resonate with his base. They are very much like the language used by hymnists in the loving relationships they propose between followers and their deities. Coming from Trump, the word “love,” beyond hollow, sounds cheap and oddly erotic:
A study by Smith and Zarate (2015) demonstrated how powerful charisma is in influencing decision making. They explored how the effects of religious priming and the charismatic leadership style influenced decision-making. In the study, they had participants assigned to a priming condition that included either having the participants write about the role of religion in society…
— Jonica V. Carlton Best, “Cults: A Psychological Perspective,” 2018 Thesis submission
Saving Themselves
The cultists exhibit a hyper sense of mission one that both describes and excuses their behaviors on behalf of the charismatic leader:
“They get you to believing that they alone know how to save the world,” recalled one member. “You think you are in the vanguard of history . . . You have been called out of the anonymous masses to assist the messiah . . . As the chosen, you are above the law . . . They have arrived at the humbling and exalting conclusion that they are more valuable to God, to history, and to the future than other people are.”
— Cult Recovery 101, “Coming Out of the Cults,” by Margaret Thaler Singer, Ph.D.
As the indictments mount and imperil Trump further, his personal descent into his psychosis, his followers will not be far behind. The warning here is to resist the temptation that suggests that when the fever breaks, normalcy returns, our friends recant, our family reunites. It may not be that simple. The cult that history will call “Trumpism” may have done irreparable harm.
Katrina Gimon’s Siren Song defines the relationship forged between the cult leader and his followers. Think of Donald Trump and the haunting final verse that is chilling in its implications:
My love
Hear my song
Come to meMy love
Heed my call
You are the only one
You are the lucky one
You are the only oneCome near
Hear my song
Come to me
You are mine
As for a sirens song, Trump’s is off-key for most but his base. But for those we know and love, questions remain.
Can they break his hold and save themselves? Are they his forever?