GOP cultism

Back in late 1954, social psychologist Leon Festinger asked – and was permitted – to observe a cultist group in Chicago known as the Seekers.

The Seekers were led by a person named Dorothy Martin who claims she had received messages from aliens (Just to be clear, not the undocumented persons we now call aliens and who are not to be confused with supposed creatures from another planetary system) whom she called the Guardians. The Guardians, from the planet Clarion, told her that our world would end by a flood on Dec. 21, 1954, and that her followers would be rescued a few days earlier by a flying saucer that the Guardians would provide.

 Festinger had a question: What happens to true believers when their convictions are confronted by reality?

You can probably see where I'm going with this. The cult of Trumpism clearly has infected and divided American politics, almost to the point where reasonable people fear for the survival of our Madisonian democracy. As we prepare for the general election in November, where the rapist Donald Trump is seeking a second term as President of the United States, his base and his cult continue to thrive on lies, misdirection and corruption.

I recently saw an example of this on a YouTube video where Trump supporters insist they will vote for Trump even though many concede that he is a rapist, a grifter, and a liar who accomplished next to nothing in his first term in office.

What kind of irresponsible voter is that, when you know the candidate is unqualified but still insist you will vote for him anyway? You become a cultist with a vote.

Back to the Seekers, who I think could be compared to today's modern MAGA movement (which to me sounds a whole lot like a bowel issue).

The Seekers gathered at Martin's house waiting for the appointed hour of their rescue. When the clock ticked down to midnight, and the flying saucer did not appear, Festinger says the group sat perfectly still for hours without saying a word.

Finally, early in the morning, Martin told the group she had gotten another Clarion call from the Guardians. Because the group was so faithful in their beliefs, she said, God had called off the destruction of the world.

Festinger put his study in a book titled When Prophecy Fails. In it, he found: "The more you invest in a set of beliefs ... the more resistant you will be to the evidence that suggests that you are mistaken. You don't give up. You double down."

Sound familiar?

I think it could be illuminating if Festinger's study in 1954 found purchase in today's GOP climate of political cultism.

•   •   •

As I write this blog on Sunday morning, Trump is just hours away from failing to meet the $454 million dollar bond deadline in his fraud case or else risk having his assets seized.

He claims he doesn't have the money available, although occasionally he also claims that he does. Liar.

Trump has skated away from trouble before (he's still not in jail, after all) and I think there's still an remote chance the money he needs might come in the final hour from an outside source, like Russia, China or Jared (Kushner, his son-in-law, who somehow came away from Saudi Arabia with $2 billion for real estate investments. The fact that Kushner has yet to do so speaks volumes).

Or maybe Trump will be rescued by a flying saucer from Clarion.