“The Republican Party Has Now Made It Official: They Are a Cult”

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I didn't watch the Republican convention . . . but I did see bits of it on the news.

The main thing that struck me was that the Republican party has now made it official: they are a cult. They have decided not to have a platform at all. There will be no stated principles, no proposed policies, no agreed upon values. Their only guiding light for their party will be the whims of their master.

Even those few Republicans some may have considered reasonable, like Tim Scott and Nikki Haley, got down on their knees before Trumpism. Not because they are true believers, but because they themselves want to run for president someday and they have made the calculation that in order to make this a reality, they must kiss Trump's ass in the present.

The rest of what was presented was a parallel universe of lies, fearmongering, nepostism, and hate.

What kind of people buy this crap?

– Crystal
“A Cult”
Perspective
August 25, 2020

Related Off-site Links and Updates:
The RNC is American Authoritarianism, Unmasked – Umair Haque (Eudaimonia and Co, August 25, 2020).
Republicans Pushed at Least 30 Misleading Claims During Day One of RNC, Says Report – Tom Sykes (The Daily Beast, August 25, 2020).
Final Night of the Republican Convention: Trump Accepts His Party’s Nomination in a Speech Filled With Familiar Falsehoods – FactCheck.org (August 28, 2020).
The Trumps are Gaslighting a Collapsing America – Umair Haque (Eudaimonia and Co, August 26, 2020).
Historian Rick Perlstein on the RNC and Trump’s Dangerous Propaganda Driving People to Violence – Democracy Now! (August 28, 2020).
Trump Has a Long Way to Go to Convince Americans He’s the Right Candidate to End Racial Unrest – Ben Mathis-Lilley (Slate, August 28, 2020).
Team Trump Whines About “Cancel Culture” — But They're the Ones Who Want to Crush Free Speech – Amanda Marcotte (Salon, August 28, 2020).
Law and Order? VP Mike Pence Ignores Police Violence and Stokes Division on Third Night of RNC – Democracy Now! (August 27, 2020).
How The Electorate Has Changed Since 2016 – Domenico Montanaro (NPR News, August 25, 2020).
Who Are President Trump’s Supporters? – NPR News (August 25, 2020).
Biden vs Trump: Who Is Leading the 2020 U.S. Election Polls? – Financial Times (regularly updated).

UPDATES: Trump’s Republican National Convention Was a Spectacle Fit for a Would-Be King – Masha Gessen (The New Yorker, August 28, 2020).
Two Weeks of Conventions, Dozens of Speeches, So Many Videos. What Just Happened? – Jim Newell (Slate, August 29, 2020).
“RNC Blues”: Trump’s in a Slump While Biden’s Favorability Continues to Rise – Mackenzie Zlatos (Front Page Live, August 31, 2020).
If Trump Tries to Hijack the Election, We Must Be Ready to Resist – Marjorie Cohn (TruthOut, August 31, 2020).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• “We Have an Emergency On Our Hands”: Marianne Williamson On the “Freefall” of American Democracy
• The “Freefall” Continues
• Fascism Is Upon Us
• Trump's Playbook
• Progressive Perspectives on the Rise of Donald Trump
• Progressive Perspectives on the Election of Donald Trump as President of the United States
• On International Human Rights Day, Saying “No” to Donald Trump and His Fascist Agenda
• Trump's America: Normalized White Supremacy and a Rising Tide of Racist Violence
• Global Condemnation for Trump's Latest Ignorant and Racist Comments
• Quotes of Note Regarding the Impeachment of President Trump
• Quotes of Note Regarding the Senate’s Impeachment Trial of President Trump
• Progressive Perspectives on Corruption in U.S. Politics
• Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor: Quote of the Day – June 9, 2020
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – June 2, 2020
• Jennifer Rubin: Quote of the Day – October 17, 2018
• Michael Sean Winters: “The Entire Republican Establishment Has Caved to Trumpism”

Image 1: Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images.
Image 2: Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, Kimberly Guilfoyle and Donald Trump speaking at the 2020 RNC. (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)