Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) book, "The Art of Power," was released Tuesday and the California Democrat has been speaking to the press about what is in the pages, while also dropping noteworthy comments she's been hearing from Republican colleagues.Speaking to MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell on Wed...
It's not the Trump cult, it's the Heritage Foundation cult, of which Trump is the current leader.
If you're a "Republican" who isn't all-in on christofascism, give up and change parties because the Republican Party is no longer for you and never, ever, ever will be again.
Christianity hasn't really be in the forefront since Trump gained popularity. Sure, they throw their conservative Christian base a bone once in a while, but nobody in power believes Trump follows Christianity, or promotes their ideals. Even their biggest win, Roe v Wade, has been quietly shuffled to the side, because they don't want to push a big Christian win while alienating other parts of their base.
Fascism, on the other hand... well, that's always been the goal:
“I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” — Grover Norquist, 2001
Have you looked at Project 2025, like, at all? It's a fundamentalist's (sinful) wet dream, in terms of how extremely sexually-repressive it is. I mean, sure, they're trying to keep it on the down-low, but make no mistake: they are fucking delivering for the bigoted prude demographic.
Christian National (or Christofascism, whichever term you prefer) has very little to do with Christianity as a religion. Best I can tell, it's a means to an end. It will borrow ideas, justifications, and recruit followers from Christianity, but in the US, this seems to be the main mythology the Trump cult is basing itself around (and it seems that most fascist movements have a "mythology" of fake facts they are grounded in).
So while "Christianity" isn't upfront most of the time, certain issues and ideas - probably most everything from the right's "culture war" are basically Christian national ideas, and by osmosis, a ton of Christians seem to be absorbing these positions by default.
The people most swayed by Christian Nationalism appear to be non-religious (or non church affiliated) conservatives. It's all just familiar enough and an amalgamation of ideas they've already been conditioned (by various media consumption) to believe.
But for a lot of more active Christians, I've seen a spectrum of attitudes. The number of them that adore Trump seems lower than the previous group, but a lot of them will vote for him because 1) he's the Republican candidate and Democrats are icky 2) they may be a 1 or 2 issue voter, 3) because an authority figure they trust is telling them to.
I've been trying to figure out the link between Trump and why portions of the religious right is completely obsessed with him, and a lot of it is still a mystery to me.
Also, I recently watched this and found it really informative:
If Trump loses his career is over. He turned sycophant in order to get the VP pick; turning on every single thing he said about Trump before that.
No one likes a sycophant. And if he then tries to return to his old positions, he'll be ripped apart by both people who see right through it and by whatever remains of MAGA.
This is a one-shot for Vance. If they lose, he's going down with Trump.
Nonsense. They unite behind Trump because he has the highest win percent. They defend Trump for the same reason Democrats defend Biden. They don't like the guy they just want red to win.
Pelosi could you just keep your mouth shut for a bit. Dems are on a roll for once and we don't need you ruining it. Go back to puppeting Feinstein or something. Please just stay out of the news until we actually win the election.
Trump has kids. Even after he dies, I don't think we'll be rid of them. Ivanka will run, possibly Don jr later on. Even Barron is trying to get into politics. They seem like useless idiots but so is their dad and he won, so I'm looking over the next 20 years and I can't imagine a political landscape without the trumps anymore.
I doubt MAGA will care about his kids too much after Donald is gone. Donald is unique in his presentation and his kids don't have that same style. They will only be relevant if Trump wins and can put them into power before he dies. I can see Don Jr still being around as a talking head or candidate, but I doubt he'll ever be viable.
Anything is possible, but I doubt it. He is already speaking half gibberish, he's so far gone mentally. In four years, even if tried he'd be the "RFK jr", crazy old guy getting news because of his name.
I've been saying this for years. The US isn't special, and Trump was foretold the first time after seeing the rise in populism, particularly self-defeating, across Europe.
Populism has essentially wiped out standard Conservativism in politics, and while many ride the wave due to party affiliation, many also feel that the party they've supported for decades has been hijacked by grifters.
Thankfully, it usually ends one way, with semi-credible opposition in victory, and the now-populist party in tatters after the rats leave the ship. Trump will likely make a lot of noise, but ultimately he won't fight the popular vote because self-preservation will kick in and he'll look to find himself somewhere to avoid lawsuits and charges for his actions. The best part is that populists never look towards succession. When Trump leaves he won't back anyone to succeed him - if anything, anyone that tries will either be compared poorly to him, or Trump will criticise them for even trying to compete.
The best thing the GOP can do is operate away from MAGA and build itself up around a solid non-MAGA candidate. In theory, if a Harris presidency were to be successful and Walz were to decide to run, that could be 16 years without competition.