The Trump Death Cult

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 cleansi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of psychohistory 2021-04, Vol.48 (4), p.256-276
Main Author: Adams, Kenneth Alan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
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
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Summary: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 p
ISSN:0145-3378