Where The Pundits "Miss The Boat". Trumpism is not a Political Movement, but a Religious Cult
The following is a commentary posted last week on the Salon article linked below, written by Alan Blotcky. He repeats the mistake of well meaning analysts in misdiagnosing the disease of Trumpism, which is why he is fatalistic about it, though certainly on the right side of history.
"Alan Blotcky of Salon excoriates Trumpism and its allies in eloquent and insightful fashion. He poses a way out of insanity and devolution for the GOP and the country, which is an impeachment vote to convict, while admitting it won't happen. There is only one thing wrong with this article. He lets the GOP "base" off the hook, saying "surely the majority of Republicans in America don't believe in Jewish space lasers and other insane paranoid conspiracies", or words to this effect. I'm reminded of the line in "Airplane" the movie, when actor Leslie Nielsen says, " and don't call me Shirley"!
A big problem as I see it is that too many commentators insist on projecting their own rationales and preconceived notions of what they think are political issues and crises onto what is in fact a deepening religious war in the US. They are blocked, and mentally don't want to go there.
There is a reluctance to face the fact that most of what constitutes "Trumpism" among the GOP base is driven by the most extreme form of religious fundamentalism in American History.
It has hit like a Tsunami of all of the worst features of Jonathan Edwards "Great Awakening", radical Calvinist Predestinationism, Millenarianism, the nihilism of "End Times" theology which condemns all but a few "chosen" ones to burn for all eternity in a lake of fire.
They are a movement of modern day Flagellants, prosperity gospel Mammon worshippers, who believe in "deus ex machina" raining money and success on those members of God's "elect", if they give enough money and time to the right Pastors of God's favorite churches.
They preach a deepening hatred of cultures and religions, ethnic groups and nations which are considered "heathen" and un-American. They are people who have been brainwashed by preachers to believe that slavery was an essential and necessary early form of capitalism, and find their proof of that in scripture read from the pulpits of hypocrites, lying that those who want to teach about the crimes of slavery are unpatriotic and anti-Christian.
We see the spread of movements of "pro-life" Christians who believe that only the unborn are innocent, and that it's fine to expand the death penalty in the name of their Old Testament God of wrath, retribution, and anger. And sadly, we see movements of Ultra-Orthodox Jews who vote for a fascist, march side by side with Nazis on January 6th, and spread covid in the name of Rabbis who claim to know what "tradition" is, and what is good for Israel. And in a culture grown increasingly absurd, we watch football players on TV who think they are doing God's work when they score a touchdown or make an interception, and pray in the end zone.
How did we get here? This pseudo-religious gobbledygook has been here all along, but has never in our history controlled half of our voters. One place to start is to examine our own beliefs, and see how easily we have been played, or went along. Also, look at the destructive moral and cultural impact on America of 9-11, and our response to that event in its aftermath. And look at the effect of our modern day "plague", and the degree of irrationality that has erupted as a consequence, reminiscent of the 14th Century Black Death and the collapse of European civilzation.
The state of America's religious life is the toxic mix which drives the fascist movement of Donald Trump and the GOP. They have reached new levels of militant political action under the influence of the QAnon cult, with financial support and organization provided by ALEC, (American Legislative Exchange Council) which has led the way in legislating the fundamentalist fascist agenda at the state level with funding from right- wing billionaires like the Mercers.
There is not much likelihood of defeating Trumpism with issue oriented political action alone. The degree to which most people want to avoid this fact is not a mystery. Its ingrained in us that people's beliefs and faith can never be challenged or questioned, unless it leads people to commit mass suicide, fly into skyscrapers, or blow up Federal buildings. In my view, it's that trait of toleration of insanity which blinds us to the essential causes of our National crisis.
What is the solution, is it jailing ministers, burning bibles, shutting down churches, mosques, and synagogues, repealing the First Amendment? Of course not. And who decides what theologies fall into the category of insane, the government? No, none of that.
Martin Luther King, himself an imperfect man of God, knew how to fight religious based bigotry and insanity. He knew how to enable our national conscience to confront the evil in ourselves which allowed racism to predominate 100 years after our Civil War. Why not answer our own questions by revisiting the life of the person whose leadership was the most successful in overturning the structures of evil in our relative lifetimes? That is a good starting point. And use the righteousness and truth of MLK's life's work, and literally shove it down the throats of the millions of religious phonies who support Trumpism.
So, you want to defeat Trumpism? Confront and defeat the "Trumpian within" those others, and yes, ourselves, which is the source of its actual power. Go back to the writings and history of those religious leaders who organized resistance to oligarchies, through education, science, great works of Art, and even the martyrdom of those courageous people who spoke Truth to Power, such as St. Thomas More and pastor Dietrich Bonhoffer. We can judo the spread of religious fundamentalism by reviving the actual positive currents within the history of religion, and wield that as a weapon. And do it through politics, and teaching. There are no shortcuts, and it will take a long time to undo the damage.
We cannot continue to allow the US to descend into religious or political fundamentalism. We need to revive an era of scientific achievement, and a "Renaissance" in the Arts. (As a reference point, recall what FDR accomplished with his WPA program to revitalize American arts, literature, music and culture) Those things will uplift, strengthen and compliment the prosperity and progress that we need, start the healing of our national sickness, and enable many of our people to recover their humanity as they are slowly brought back to a state of reason, in my humble opinion. It has worked before, and it can again.
That's what the author Blotcky misses by a million miles.
