Donald Trump is the Republican Party, and a RINO is anyone who, by the fickle nature of fate, has the grave misfortune of not being Donald Trump.
His ardent followers believe losing is a virtue and that the entire mechanisms of our government must be suspended to enable his return to power.
Other Leaders in Absolute Power
When you think of a cult of personality, you tend to think of North Korea, with its over-the-top and hagiographic claims of the leader’s near omnipotence, omniscience, or 1984-style omnipresence.
Depending on your regional expertise, you might think of Turkmenistan’s Niyazov, more commonly known as Turkmenbashi, who built a gold statue of himself that always turns to face the sun and who renamed the months after his family members.
Sese Seko, of former Zaire, required that only his name be spoken aloud and that all other officials could be referred to only by their titles.
Equatorial Guinea’s Macias Nguema claimed actual divinity and ordered the mass execution of anyone who wore glasses because he suspected them of being dissident intellectuals.
Cults of personality can also be of the more South American garden variety known as personalismo, built upon the personal charisma of the leader and the subordination of the mechanisms of government to his whims and needs. His followers believe he is uniquely capable of ruling through a combination of virtue, skill, and entitlement. It is the inextricability of politics with the person, the man being in personal union with the office.
Facing Donald Trump
Former President Donald Trump clearly fits into this mold. His propaganda apparatus proclaims him our “retribution” as if he were Batman and we were helpless citizens of Gotham City. Trump may belittle, attack, and threaten anyone he sees fit but you may not riposte because to do so shows disloyalty to the man.
As one pro-Trump columnist put it, Trump’s enemies are the enemies of civilization and the normal rules of politics do not apply to him because the stakes are so high.
When he fails, the system, even our sacred Constitution, must be suspended to enable his return to power. Even our nation could be dissolved in his service.
Everyone who needs something from him comes “with tears in their eyes,” and his endorsement – which in his telling has the power of a blessing – single-handedly turns things around. People cannot help but cry in his presence. He did more for Christianity than anyone (yes, that’s a real quote).
Bears Repeating for Rivals
For the cult, Donald Trump is the Republican Party and a RINO is anyone who, by the fickle nature of fate has the grave misfortune of not being Donald Trump.
This is how Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, former Attorney General William Barr, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and other successful architects of conservative victories became “weak loser RINOs” with the occasional “globalist” pejorative thrown in for good measure.
The first inkling of disagreement casts you out of Trump’s favor into a Land of Nod. The ultimate sin for any Republican is winning without Trump’s permission.
Paradoxically, part of Trump’s personalismo brand is that he lost the 2020 election.
In Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey, the hero must reach a nadir where he faces a personal abyss that can include (often metaphorical) death and rebirth that leads to revelation and eventual triumph. Whether he knows it or not, Trump is casting his reelection narratives along Campbell’s classic wheel of fate.
In his telling, Trump was so uniquely virtuous that the entire mechanism of politics worked to defeat him and ultimately steal his reelection from him. Faith in this narrative is the currency of Trump’s favor and the catechism of his personalismo cult.
Trump’s Vicious Cycle
This has led to an odd development that threatens to destroy the party’s electability. For the Ever-Trump base, which by all available poll data still controls the direction of primaries, winning an election means you are insufficiently MAGA. Read that sentence again.
The chain of logic goes like this:
The system is corrupt and rigged by the establishment, the “uni-party,” and “permanent Washington.” This corrupt system will not allow “Real Republicans” to win. Therefore, if you win it is because the system allowed it. If the system allowed it, you were not a threat to them. If you lose it is because you were dangerous and the Establishment cheated against you. Therefore, running and losing is the sign of purity and the losers must be given the opportunity to do so again.
Donald Trump Creates His Own Witch Test
You may think I am exaggerating, but how else do you explain the continued loyalty to Donald Trump himself? Donald Trump lost not only his own reelection, but his influence cost Republicans control of the Senate and almost the House.
He provided material aid to the Democrats in Georgia by helping them flip two U.S. Senate seats in 2021. He told Republicans to stay home because there was no point in even voting (see “the system is rigged” above). During the governor’s race in 2022, Trump said it was preferable for the Democrat to win the governorship of Georgia. In the Senate race for Herschel Walker, his hand-picked candidate, went down in flames against the Democrat he helped elect the first time around.
His followers are pulling the same act. When Kari Lake lost the governorship of Arizona, she immediately claimed her own party worked to undercut her and the outcome was fraudulent. She is currently leading the GOP primary for U.S. Senate.
Doug Mastriano lost the Pennsylvania governor’s race by 14 points and is now seriously considering a Senate run. The most successful Republicans in the last round of elections have earned the ire of the Ever-Trump base because their victories challenge Trump’s articles of faith.
I am a Republican. I have been my whole life. I worked for a Republican member of Congress and was a political appointee in the last half of the Trump Administration. I have spent my professional life in the service of the United States. I took an oath to support, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States and not to a man.
But what do I know? I am just some weak loser RINO globalist.
Anthony W. Holmes is a Contributing Editor at 19fortyfive and was special advisor for North Korea in the U.S. Office of the Secretary of Defense from 2017-2021. The views are purely his own.
From 19FortyFive
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