In Defense of the So-Called Cult Following of President Donald J. Trump
by Gerri Gibney on 01/08/21
Recently we’ve heard cries that the people who follow Trump are simply cultist, nationalistic, right wing, religious, deplorable, red-neck, Bible thumping, irredeemable, non-thinking yahoos who really are mean, despicable, unkind, un-American, ill-educated louts who revere and worship the ground Trump walks on, and in so doing, believe Trump can do no wrong, after all he is the consummate demi-god who has beguiled more than half the population with his charlatan personality to follow him.
I would vehemently declare this cult-theory group wrong.
The hue and cry we hear; Trump calls people names, that’s unkind, it’s not Presidential has been going on for quite some time, including Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, with the result Adams did not attend the Jefferson inauguration, and not speaking for twelve years.
A more egregious example of name-calling is Barack Obama in referring to working-class voters in old industrial towns decimated by job losses, saying: "They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
Or the Hillary Clinton remarks; “You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right?” Clinton said. “The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic—you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up.”
Here we have a former President, and a would-be President calling millions of American citizens names without any substantiation. They even went so far as to claim the high ground of morality, and in Ms. Clinton’s view, to say Americans were irredeemable.
If you listen closely to President Trump’s remarks when he does call someone a name, it is generally when that someone has said something derogatory about him. Also, Trump always follows up with something such as he’s a nice guy, he’s O.K., or some remark indicating he is not attacking the character of the person, but is characterizing his opponent’s perceived weakness.
Joe Biden during the campaign called Trump the first elected racist US President. Biden doesn’t know Trump, and he certainly doesn’t know history.
However, Trump supporters are called cultists because we excuse what others see as boorish and un-presidential, and we see as the truth. Vitriol has been in many political campaigns, and we’ve already heard Mr. Biden before his inauguration railing against racist Trump supporters.
What are we really looking at when we see a MAGA citizen? We see a fiercely patriotic citizen who wants what every other American wants; justice, freedom, liberty, to be able to use their God given talents to participate in this Republic without hindrance from their government. A safe place to live, a job, an income, an education, you know, the American dream.
By the time Donald Trump came along, the ideals of our Founders were not given much credence, we were told America is not such a great country, we weren’t exceptional, we were told we weren’t tolerant or accepting of others, we were racist, we were selfish, some even said we were beyond redemption. We needed to be punished and accept guilt because of our skin color. We had to accept our jobs were gone in our great factories, and would never come back, this was the new norm. We were told and taught we were intolerant, and that the Bible was wrong, and had to endorse and promote sin, or the Federal government would punish us. The government set morality, not our churches, not the parents in the home, and the churches were silent. We celebrated and gave money for out of wedlock births, to perpetuate an underclass of people in order to keep them subservient to the state. We endorsed infanticide in the name of woman’s choice.
Donald Trump is not the one responsible for what some think is a cult centered on him. Hopefully, he will be the first of many who champion our great nation, who are patriots. If there is any cult, it is the cult of AMERICA!
We know good from evil, we know we can never live up to our ideals, and we know most of all that God has shone His light on us, and will continue to do so as we remain steadfast. We pray for His wisdom, guidance, and strength as He continues to bless us, we, the American people.
Amen.
Gerri Gibney
January 8, 2021