Journal Article

The Trump Death Cult

Adams, Kenneth Alan

2021

Overview

White evangelical religion and its advocacy of patriarchy, combat parenting, corporal punishment, and chauvinism-and the resulting fear induced in children- are assessed, as are the results-a personality primed for the group-fantasy of Racist Nationalism and for restaging childhood trauma by cleansing the homeland of Evil Others at national borders-the Central Purification Ritual of Trumpism. A THREAT TO AMERICA New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow contends that the U.S. is 1 N fighting a \"soft civil war,\" and a former Democratic president and scores of liberals and conservatives fear that our democracy is in peril.1 The malefactors responsible are an unindicted co-conspirator, his co-conspirators and enablers, and Vladimir Putin's Russia.2 The country is facing the most daunting circumstances since the Civil War: the worst health emergency in over 100 years-with more than 400,000 coronavirus-related deaths projected by January;3 and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression-with more than 100,000 small businesses permanently closed,4 and millions of Americans filing for unemployment,5 fearing the loss of their homes,6 concerned about their next meal,7 and cities and states on the brink of financial ruin.8 In the midst of such turmoil, the country confronts a reckoning with White racism centuries in the making,9 and an ecosystem threatened by existential calamity.10 At the center of this national calamity is Donald J. Trump, a man described by his niece Mary L. Trump as \"the most dangerous man in the world;\"11 a president who, the Washington Post's Bob Woodward reports, deliberately misled the American people about the severity of the coronavirus,12 who, according to a bipartisan Senate report, colluded with Russia in the 2016 election13-and some believe may be a Russian agent14-and who twice solicited interference in the 2020 election.15 Can America contain the poison16 loosed by the cult of Trump? TRUMPISM AS A CULT, MESMERIZED BY A GROUP-TRANCE For all his malignancy,17 however, Trump himself is not the problem plaguing the country. Fueled by \"a near-existential fear\" of Democrats in power and \"resentments and grievances over being the object of the left's contempt,\" the base views the president \"not just as their defender,\" but as \"their avenging angel\" against the Evil Other, and hypnotically follows the dear leader,27 even when his policies hurt them the most.28 Editorial cartoonists often capture the nuances of political reality and present them in compelling images. In the 2016 election, 81 percent of White evangelicals voted for Trump,32 constituting \"one-third of GOP voters\"33-which translated into over 20 million of the nearly 63 million votes for Trump.34 Their backing is fueled by childhood trauma.3S Religious indoctrination, reliant on fear induction and corporal punishment, produces in evangelical children a reactive rage at their bad-child alter36-their Evil Other, which is restaged politically37 in attacks on women, immigrants, and racial and ethnic others. Or, she can identify with the wayward child, forego spanking, and form an alliance against the husband/father (and Heavenly Father), possibly intensifying Oedipal rivalry and perhaps putting her soul in jeopardy.

• Publisher: Association for Psychohistory, Inc
• Subject: Audiences / Borders / Childhood / Children / Christianity / Civil war / Coronaviruses / Corporal punishment / Cults / Deaths / Democracy / Economic crisis / Elections / Evangelicalism / Fathers / Fear & phobias / Good & evil / Immigrants / Indoctrination / Learning transfer / Nationalism / Patriarchy / Personality / Politics / Presidents / Racism / Religion / Rituals / Russian language / Sexism / Small business / Spirituality / Trauma / Trump, Donald J / Unemployment / Voters / War