MSNBC host Joy Reid says a poll released earlier this week which shows that majority of Republicans consider Donald Trump a better president than Abraham Lincoln is proof-positive that the modern-day GOP is nothing more than a cult of personality.
On her weekly show, “AM Joy,” Reid was joined by Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts, who had this to say about the poll results:
“Is there a brick wall I can bang my head against a few times? I think it speaks further to the delusionary aspect of the Republican party right now. This is not a party, this is a cult, and it has been a call for a very long time.
“And it wasn’t just this Abraham Lincoln quote, what was it a week or so ago, maybe not even that, that Rick Perry said the Trump was the chosen one? And he wasn’t even the first person to say that.”
Indeed, Perry did utter the “chosen one” line recently, echoing remarks Trump himself made in August when he praised himself, telling reporters, “I am the chosen one.”
Picking up on the comments from Pitts, Reid noted:
“There’s a lot of ways, if you look at like the public religion research institute numbers that it isn’t just a pejorative to say that it’s a cold, there’s a lot of evidence that is a racial and religious cult of personality in which his base is solidly among the white evangelicals that almost worship him and say that he’s the chosen one of God.”
Pitts then added:
“(Trump) is the promise that whatever else happens, white people who believe in this, I will protect you, I will shield you from demographic reality.”
When you consider that Trump has referred to immigrants as “animals” and called Mexicans “rapists,” it’s not difficult to draw a line from that sort of rhetoric to a larger ideology of white supremacy being practiced by this administration and the Republican Party. They’re terrified of the demographic changes taking place in this country and have decided to paint themselves as protectors of the United States circa 1950.
But the good news is that the GOP’s days are numbered as the electorate gets younger, more diverse, and more progressive. Maybe then Republicans will finally become irrelevant and powerless.
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