This has nothing whatsoever to do with conservatism. If something looks like a cult, and acts like a cult, chances are good that its probably a cult.
After this exchange in another thread, I thought this whole 'cult' thing was worthy of its own discussion thread. The dictionary definition of cult is "a system of religious devotion directed towards a particular figure or object." I dunno about the rest of you, but that certainly sounds like today's Republican Party.
Since Trump started campaigning for POTUS in 2015, a number of the Republican Party's core beliefs (e.g. distrust of Russia, support for free trade, respect for our military men and women, love of our country, respect for the founding principles of our republic, etc., etc.) have been trashed. Trumpets have followed their guy with such single-minded devotion that Trump himself once boasted he could shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue and it wouldn't hurt his popularity.
Fortunately, Trump was run out of office but not without creating a huge stink and trashing a number of our country's time-honored traditions. It would be nice if we could put him in our rearview mirror. But its clear he's not ready to leave the world of politics behind -- he's got a 'campaign-style' rally scheduled for tonight for crying out loud. So while he's on the scene, there will always be a threat to our democracy because his followers appear much more concerned with him returning to power than they are about something like, you know, our Constitution.
You have to wonder when Republicans are going to wake up and finally admit to the Big Lie and become a responsible voice of conservatism again? Until that happens, its hard for them to argue that they don't fit the dictionary-definition of a cult.
